See vehicle description below....use 87 octane regularly, as per the owners manual, however have pinging while pulling up moderate hills in the 2500-2900 RPM range, under heavy foot and high RPM there is no pinging. I ran my last tank of fuel to almost empty and filled with 89 octane, ran the same hills and RPM's around my house today and noticed NO pinging. Whats the deal? Do i need to run 89 for my truck to run correctly? Is there a way to fix this or so i have to pay an extra 2-3 dollars per fill up now? And if i do have to use 89 octane, should i just buy a chip and make it run better? Thanks as always!--medic

 

please help?

 

light pinging is to be expected.

 

pinging to be expected? WTF i didnt sheell out $29,000 to hear my truck ping going up a small hill? not doubting your knowledge but are you SURE a 2000 vehicle should ping? doesnt sound like quality to me.....

 

Anyone else care to try to help me on this?

 

4.6's are pretty much notorious for pinging. Especially the one's with the FOU1 computer code. The topic of pinging has been discussed at length on this board and others and I don't think anybody has come up with a real fix. I know a couple of guys have had chips custom burned to fix their pinging problems. Before you do that though I would make sure you run some good fuel system cleaner through it and make sure your MAF is clean. Dig back through some of the old posts and I'm sure you can get a lot more information.

Scrib

 

No solution,

but I'm dealing with the same thing on a 99 XLT with the 4.6. I've just gone to 89 octane to stop the pinging.

 

thanks for the info. scrib, i run a bottle of fuel injector cleaner once a month, i am very meticlulous about the care of my truck, so EVERYTHING is done when it should be..oil changes etc..., the 89 octane has seemed to stopped the ping, i am only worried it is a temporary fix. Another concern is that the pinging is a sign of more and potentially more serious problems to surface such as the "piston slap thing". How do i check my MAF? Is there something i need to clean? i am somewhat handy and i am sure i can do this if you explain it to me...i guess i will continue to use 89 octane and hope the pinging will cease for good, thanks again!

 

T-rex, what year is your ride and how long have you had the pinging problem. i see that you use 89 octane as well, how long has this solved your problem, i am concerned the problem will resurface once the truck has "adjusted" to 89 octane or am i just dumb?

 

I doubt it will just go away. Something has to be causing it. I noticed you have a K&N filter. I know if some of the oil from the filter gets on the filaments in your MAF it can cause pinging and other problems. Take your filter out and clean the filaments with a qtip and some windex. This has fixed the problem for others, but not me. Again, there are some pretty good posts w/ pictures on here about cleaning the MAF. You just have to dig back through the archives for them.

Scrib

 

Also, I started using 89 octane when my truck started to ping and it only helped a little bit. If anything it has gotten worse over the last year since I've been using 89. I'd hate to hear what it sounded like if I went back to 87.

Scrib

 

I know the manual recomends 87 octane, but I have never ran it.
In all of my stock vehicals I run 89 octane. I had the same pinging prob. w/ my ranger, I swithed to 89 and it ran fine for 30,000 miles when I traded it in.
The same for my 99 F-150 w/ a 5.4L, It pinged w/ a load once in a while but not once with 89.
I have a chip now, still no pinging.

Lots of gas is crappy, Dont buy it from anyone but good name brand co. It's worth the extra 2 cents

 

thanks to all for your help! loks like ill be sticking with the 89 octane for now, who knows maybe ill get better mileage from it? i think there is a superchip in my future when my warranty runs out also. i only wish the 89 was 2 cents more he he, its almost a nickle more! breaking the bank here! ha ha just kdding, once again thanks to all who contributed!

 

I'll vouch for the 4.6 with code FOU1 pinging! Mine is a 98, and was pinging under acceleration. So, I added a Superchip, am running 91 octane fuel (which is the same price as regular around here, don't ask me why) and no problems!

 

Jl: Bad *** truck! Im moving to Canada! 91 octane same as 97 and for the GREAT wheelin'! those are some sweet pics in your gallery! Sure thats a '98 with that nice paint? Keep it clean and shiny side up! Thanks for the reply!