Several weeks ago my truck started pinging again and I wrote it off on filling up at a cheap gas station. After a few tanks of better quality gas, it was still pinging. I started to wonder if something happened to my chip, so I removed it and I could hardly drive the truck because it pinged so bad.

So I started checking the usual – EGR valve, DPFE sensor, MAF, etc. When all those things checked out, I decided to pull the TB elbow to make sure the EGR ports weren’t clogged. As soon as I removed the TB, I could smell motor oil. Once I pulled the elbow off, there was oil dripping out of the nipple that connects the elbow to the PCV valve.

I was surprised that I had that much oil getting past the PCV valve since I replaced the valve just 2k miles ago. The first thing I noticed when I removed the PCV valve was how far the metal disk dropped down inside the valve. That didn’t seem right and I went and got another valve and sure enough, that Motorcraft valve failed. The bad valve was letting a lot of oil into the intake which either diluted the fuel charge or created a lot of deposits inside the combustion chambers. I did a quick search and Lightning owners have a similar problem with oil inside their intake due to their superchargers.

Once I removed the oil from the intake and put some miles on the truck (along with a few WOT runs to help clean things up), the pinging is gone.

Here is wha the good and bad valves look like.

 

Hi Ted

Never seen one do that...but it sure happened, eh!

Tks. for posting w/pics.

Good luck...OT

 

I havent had this problem yet, could I just be lucky?

 

Thanks Ted'98 for a great article.

But i have a few questions....how does one check out all the above mentioned things: EGR, DPFE, MAF, TB

What am i looking for? How do i rectify potential problems when i recognize them? I understand this could get pretty lenghty, any help is appreciated, here is my problem:

PING! Mostly at 2,200 RPM pulling up a hill. Sometimes on WOT runs, but mostly going up hills at 1900-2200 RPM, stepping down the gas sometimes makes the ping stop, others it worsens the problem, i hope this info. helps.

medic

 

i've been a long time member of the pingers club too, but fortunately i think i might be on my way out!!

how? ... by doing what Ted recommended some time ago and that was running SeaFoam engine decarboner through my 98' 4.6 s/c 4x4 ORP. this winter i have had very little pinging. it almost is unnoticable. i'm thinking that if i run SeaFoam through 1 more time, i might never have to deal w/ pinging on winter gas again.

i've had my egr out and it is spotless and i have cleaned the DPFE sensor too to no avail. so how could there be carbon in the combustion chamber to cause pinging? this is my best guess. a lot of guys owning these trucks (including the previous owner of mine) babied the truck too much. i'm rather certain that he rarely had the truck over 3500 rpm. if he did this since the truck was new there is a god posibility that the rings never seated well causing the truck to burn some oil. the carbon fouling from this occured long ago and had never been clean out till i attempted it.

my only other guess is that the winter gas around here is now different.

 

Add me to the "pinging" list!! My 1998 F-150XLT xtra cab with 4.6L has been pinging since about the 2nd year. It only happens when I tow & usually only uphill or when I step on it good. 95% of its driving time is solo & it never does it when solo.

It doesn't seem to matter what gas I put in it, it just pings whenever I tow. At first, I thought it was 'cuz I towed my old man's 3,000lb boat, but I quickly learned that it does it even with my 1,000lb jetski/trailer setup. Detach the trailer & she's fine.

Anything I should worry about? I don't know that I want to go looking for all these sensors & cleaning/scraping etc. etc..?????

Thanks!

 

After reading every message I could find regarding pinging at this site, I did four things and my 4.6 quit pinging:

1. Replaced the PCV $3.75
2. Cleaned the MAF Can of Brakleen
3. Replace the A.I.T. (I think this is what it is called - the little thing that looks like a Christmas tree light in my Air Raid intake.)
$18.88 at NAPA.
4. Two cans of Techron in the gas from Target. $20

Also, when I replaced the A.I.T. and cleaned the MAF, I unhooked the negative side of my battery to reboot the computer.

This site was invaluable for the guidance I received.