has anyone tried this yet? did it help?

my Truck is a 98' w/ the FOU1 and it loves to ping when the air temp is below 50 and the engine is warm.

 

white elephant,
Given the closed loop design, and the number of sensors, I would suspect a sensor problem: Not a plug problem.

Is your truck throwing codes? Do you have a reader? Know a friend with one? Worst case, pay an ethical mechanic. Even if the MIL lamp is not on, there may be codes describing the problem & potential fix.

Not sure if the 4.6's historical problems....My 5.4 was pinging real bad, towing the boat back from the lake & throwing codes. Turned out the MAF sensor was contaminated with K&N oil. Mechanic cleaned it up & been running fine (~20k ago), sans the K&N.

Hope this helps.

Tony

 

As I recall, the FOU1 code is particularly troublesome in regards to pinging. If there was a time when it didn't ping, I'd try to get the engine back to that condition.

I often wondered, why Ford couldn't just flash the computer with a different program?

 

they do reprogram the pcm. there are updates all of the time. its just that most trucks dont make it back to the dealer. and there are other things that can be done by a ford guy. i would find a tech you can trust and be his friend. good luck.

 

Tony,
my truck is not throwing codes and never has. the MAF has ben cleaned... twice.

All,
the truck has been reflashed w/ no luck. i've had it to 2 very reputable dealers. no luck. carbon cleaned several times, no luck. DPFE cleaned twice, no luck.

i'm wondering if FOU1 stands for Ford Owes U 1 for being stuck w/ this set-up! think they'll anty-up?

 

I completely agree... Try calling Mike with Superchips and tell him your problem... I'll bet he can fix it with a new chip.. I'm pretty sure our problem is computer related..

 

White Elephant - the pinging I had still hasn't come back with my CustomChip, no matter how poor the gas I run.

The colder plugs would likely help, but it would probably just be a band-aid fix. As STX/98 said, it is computer related and the only real way to fix it is with a chip.

Good luck.

 

white elephant

I has a similar problem with my 99 4x4 with a 4.6 in it. It never threw a code, it just drove bad and pinged just a lttle bit. The dealer tried and tried to find the problem, but could never figure it out. Finally they changed the Mass Air just to see what would happen, and it fixed it.

So who knows maybee you just have a bad Mass Air. They can be bad and not throw a code.

 

that would be great if i could try it, but i'm not going to pay a couple hundred beans for a maybe.

Ted,
did you notice any harm in gas mileage? i take it you still burn regular fuel? did you also get the modded shift points? i hate the shifting on this truck. i only have 50k miles on it (mostly highway) and the tranny feels like it slips sometimes when i get on it.

no offense to the chip guys, i know you guys kow your stuff, but i can't bring myself to pay $250-$300 for a little tweak on the fuel delivery to get this thing to stop pinging. i'd give it a try myself, but i don't have the time to screw w/ it.

what a PIA!

 

White Elephant – I felt the same way you did about spening the money to correct the pinging. But the noise was driving me crazy and since I tried everything under the sun (except changing to a colder set of plugs) to correct the problem, I finally broke down and spent the $300 bucks. To this day, I’m still glad I spent the money.

My chip was burned for 87 octane and the shifting was altered to match the shift kit. My mileage has improved and what I wasn’t expecting from an 87 octane burn was the increase in power. I’ve never dyno’d my truck, but with the chip in, I can spin the tires farther/longer than I could without the chip. That maybe worth only a few HP, but I will take it since the primary purpose of the chip was to get rid of the pinging.

 

Just thought I'd throw in I contacted the guy Ted got his chip from about a month ago - he told me that if the chip did not correct my issue with pinging that he would refund my money for the chip. I'm definately planning on giving it a try this winter...

 

I've been doing research into why my engine is knocking and overheating (BAD!) and I came across this article:

http://link.sandiego.com/scripts/whe...idc?passin=297

It gets pretty technical, but has some info of relevance to this thread and others.

Enjoy!