my truck has had light pinging ever since i got it over a year ago. it only does it when the air temp is cold. when the air temp is warm the same tank of gas doesn't cause pinging. a week ago i filled up w/ regular as usual. after driving a few miles i noticed the truck didn't ping at all. it also had more power. i thought that maybe it was the warm weather, but it wasn't that warm. i also noticed that my milage went up dramaticly 15 to 18. i thought that maybe i just got a good tank of gas. i went to a different station(different brand) and filled up again. even w/ the bitter cold weather, great milage and power. what gives???????!!!! from what i can remember they don't change fuels around here for at least another month or 2. has anyone else noticed this w/ there 98 4.6? has the disease that has plagued the white elephant final gone? have the demons really left or did i finally just happen to get what i payed for at the pump?

your case sounds kind of irregular because pinging is caused by preignition, which usually occurs @ high temps.

It sounds like you had a fuel system problem. I'd imagine that your car computer logged some "too lean" conditions in the error log.

Ikinda have to back white elephant up on this one. Mine seems to ping it's worse when it is cold outside. It usually only pings when I go 3/4 to WOT and RPM's reach around 3500-4000. I recently put in some 87 because of recent price increase (had been running 89 due to this problem) and today I noticed it pinged a little on the 2-3 shift at 3-3300 RPM and that was it. Then a another interesting thing was that on the same hill it usually always pings on. Even when floored it did not ping, RPM's would not climb over 3 and truck did not downshift but it was picking up speed. I think something is diffently wrong with my tranny and maybe the engine. I guess I need to pay Ford to look at it all but it would cost a fortune.

Here's a list if what I think needs to be done to my truck
tranny flush and filter change- over $100
spark plugs- about $150-180
cooling system flush- $90
injection system service- $?
So that's over 300, and before any other problems they may find

your tranny problem may be typical. mine does this occasionally too. often i have to keep my foot on the floor for a good 2 seconds before it decides to shift. i think when the tranny "learns" that it is being babied, it is less likely to shift. when i was doing a lot of towing and regularly giving it a lot of throttle, it would shift w/o a problem. if you are over due for a flush, definitely get it done.

here in northern ohio, we've been getting some serious rain storms lately. i wonder if the high humidity may have helped clean out the engine. sounds crazy, but so does a truck that is supposed to ping. i dunno. i just know that i'll live w/ it till i can get a diesel 4.5.

Check out some of the transmission posts in the transmission forums for instructions on tranny filter change/flush.

From what everyone has posted, the colder temperatures definately seem to cause the 4.6 FOU1's to ping worse. Mine doesn't ping all summer until it starts to get cold around November... If you've got the FOU1 code, I'd try a chip as a few on here have mentioned...

whoah whoah whoah, if this is a common problem, it needs to be reported to the guy's @ Ford.

Sounds like the cold weather calibration needs some tweaking.

Has anyone called their dealership about a free software upgrade?

Free software upgrade, where, when... I take one. One dealer told me it couldn't just read the computer to get the calibration code, he could reprogram to a new code and then give me the new code for a price. To me that was BS and all I needed to hear from him on that.
I am in dire need of the tranny flush and planned to do it as ASAP, but the weather needs to clear and I am trying to learn as much as possible before I start. I kinda want to install a shift kit and would rather only drop the pan once. My truck's PCM has been reprogrammend in the past by the previous owner and the notice of modification sticker is faded beyond reading. The first dealer I talked to said he couldn't just check the calibration, he could/would reprogram for a little over $100, just laughed and walked out. My plan of action to solve the pinging is

clean MAF
clean IAC (shouln't have a bearing of engine performance, should't it?)
change plugs
have PCM flashed
fuel injection service (might buy the kit and do it myself)
change speedo gear to match tires

Another fact I should note is today it was between 50-55* I just put in about 1/2 tank of Marathon 87, and pinging is worse than even when it was 20* running 89. I think my truck has some kind of timing problem or fuel delivery problem. I suspect the engine is not timing the sprak right when I am at higher RPM's. Question is, is it something bad, something dirty, pcm not programmed right and what that something is.

Your truck may be equipped with an "octane adjust" plug. If it is, it should be located right behind the battery, taped into the PCM harness. It is a grey plug about 1/2 inch square, into a connector with two grey wires to it.

If not, the you have to reflash the PCM for the lower octane.

Corpsie is l-town michigan on planet perfect world? honestly, i'm just trying to inject a little humor, but we've talked to dealers and ford till we've been blue ovaled in the face. for whatever reason the most current flash for the cpu doesn't do jack.

for those out there that think it's an octane probelem, i'd have to disagree. the truck runs fine on the same tank of gas when it's warm out. the truck is running too lean when the air temp is cold. if i towed in the winter, i'd be all over a chip to take care of my problem, but since i don't, i just wait till summer for my truck to run right. thanks ford! i single finger salute you.

LOL Report it to Ford??? Hell most of us have all but threatened to shoot the service manager! There's no question about it that it's a common problem. I'd go as far as to say the majority of us with a 98 4.6 with the FOU1 program have a problem with pinging to some degree, primarilly in colder tempertatures.... From what has been reported on here, the softwares upgrade does about as much good as reporting it to Ford. To the best of my knowlede, the only person on here that has fixed there problem permanently did it with a chip. Mike with Superchips has commented a few times about the problems with the FOU1 program - It was designed for the Nascar Edition in 1998 that was a lighter vehicle.

I almost have to agree that it's not an octane problem. While running higher than 87 does improve it, in my case it does not eliminate it. I was thinking it must be in the programming but as stated above a reflash hasn't really helped most folks. All I know is something is not right wether it be in the fuel curve or the timing curve. I think I might start keeping a log for say two weeks and write down date, RPM when pinging and temp. That way I can get a good grasp at what point and temp it really does it. I know from the seat of the pants it's right around 50* and around 3500-4000 RPM on mine. I want to drive my truck and have fun but hugging the dash and laying in the floorboard to indentify problems is getting old and sore.

I'm from the land of the RCONN.

If you don't what that is, I'm not telling.

how many of you guys w/ the pinging are running stock intakes? i had done the FIPK deal when i 1st got the truck over a year ago. i then sold it a month later bc i thought it was worthless FOR MY TRUCK(i always have to emphasize that or someone gets pissed). i went to the "air box" mod which for me consisted of using a pvc pipe in place of the velocity stack snorkle. it put me back to stock low end performance and better mid and top, but i still had pinging. just for the heck of it, i went back to the stock set up w/ a new quality paper filter. a month later my power is back, mileage is up and the pinging is almost completely gone. i'll leave the results open to debate bc i honestly don't know why it's running better.

If you are talking about recently, perhaps the temperature starting to go up has something to do with it.