OK, I HAVE A 97' WITH THE 4.6. (I KNOW I SHOULD OF GOTTEN THE 5.4 BUT HEY...) ANYWAY I'M GETTING A SPARKPLUG KNOCK. I HAVE CHANGED THE PLUGS, WIRES, CHANGED GAS, ADDED F/I CLEANER EVERY OTHER FILL UP AND YET I'M STILL GETTING THIS. ITS NOT ALL THE TIME BUT ITS GETTING REALLY ANNOYING.

SUGGESTIONS?........................

 

check the thread by TR_Triton on page 11 (engine ping fix for my 4.6L V8). I'm going to have my dealer try it.

 

I had the same problem and I took the MAF sensor off and cleaned it and now there is no knock, if so just very little.. Very simple fix and costs ya absolutely nothing. I was pretty amazed

 

bmc25 -
I have copied the information from my previous post about the information that r&rflareside mentioned....
Maybe this will help your 4.6L engine knocking (pinging).

I am not sure who the individual was that posted this information, but it worked for my Pinging problem.

I used carburetor cleaner to clean the sensor instead of WD40.

Here is the information-

"The history of my problem is that my truck would ping either under load or whenever I went over 1/2 throttle. I cleaned the EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) valve and passageways, installed new plugs and wires and ran several bottles of cleaner through the system without any help. I also have ECU code FOU1.
I hooked up my voltmeter to the EVR solenoid to watch when the ECU was calling for the EGR valve to open. The EGR valve is designed to induce significantly cooler 1200° F exhaust gas into the combustion chamber that is at least 2500° F. This allows the engine to run on lower octane gasoline with less chance of spark knock.
Sure enough, whenever I put the engine under load (even going up a moderate hill) or went over 1/2 throttle, the voltage signal to the EVR would shutdown and therefore the vacuum to the EGR would be cut off.
So I cleaned the DPFE sensor and hooked everything back up and went for several test-drives. Now the EVR valve continues to receive a voltage signal except at WOT and idle and the pinging is gone!
If your engine is still pinging after many different attempts to fix the problem, you might want to give this a try, it didn't take much time and didn't cost anything.

Since the location of the DPFE sensor may be different from your '97 to my '98, probably the easiest way to find it is to locate the tube that runs from the exhaust manifold to the EGR valve. That tube has two T-fittings that have rubber hoses connected to them. The other end of those rubber hoses are connected to the DPFE sensor (a little bigger than a deck of cards and it has a 3 wire harness connnected to it).

I was desperate and the only thing I had handy was WD-40. I removed the sensor, turned it upside down and sprayed WD-40 into the two tubes/orifices that the hoses were connected to. I let it sit for a while and then emptied the WD-40 out and let it dry before re-installing."

Hope this information might help someone else like it did me.

 

Thanks for some ideas of fixing the "pinging". I have a '97 F-250 LD SC XLT 4.6, auto, 3.73 gears, 92,000 miles have been having the pinging as well. I did a complete tune up, plugs, wires, PCV, and still pinging. Check Engine light keeps comming on, both banks too lean, kept bringing it to the shop, can not find anything wrong.
Mine pings just as described, ½ throttle, or under load, normal driving runs fine. It has been driving me nuts, I was just about ready to replace the anti knock sensor thinking this was my problem. Now I will save my self some time and try cleaning the DPFE.
Thanks for the help.

 

f250ld-
I was about to give up on fixing the pinging on my truck until I read about cleaning the DPFE sensor on the site. I took my truck back to the FORD dealership 5 times to fix it and I finally gave up when the warranty expired last summer.

This is an excellent site for information!!

 

Any updates???? Has this worked for anyone else???? I have the same exact symptoms....98' F250LD 4x4 4.6L auto 3.73 gears....