01 Mustang Gt Rebuilt Engine Knock

The EGR angle is intriguing. It does sound a lot like detonation but the circumstances (light load) seem odd. One thing that might contribute to light-throttle detonation is no EGR, especially if the tune expects it.

Exhaust gas is inert and when it's introduced into the combustion chamber it tends to cool the peak combustion temps (ultimate goal is to reduce the temps so the oxides of nitrogen -- NOx -- don't form) which can also help reduce the engine's tendency to see detonation.

Perhaps you can try reconnecting the EGR and the vent and vac solenoids (etc) to see if the situation improves. If this isn't feasible, maybe look into the tune and reducing the throttle tip-in spark advance.

+1 on what Trinity_GT said. EGR is inert. The symptom of excessive EGR flow is poor idle and lack of power.

hunterd99 said:

I was starting to think either my timing is out of place or my timing tensioners aren't doing their jobs

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HOW did you time the motor?

When you released the clips on the timing tensioners, how tight was the chain? How much did the plunger move?

Do you have pictures of the timing chain marks when the job was finished?

It would have help to have taken the pictures with the crank trigger wheel removed.

I just recently completed a timing set replacement on a 2005 3V 5.4 F-150. During the job when I was installing the the right hand timing chain, the left hand timing chain slipped by one tooth. The problem was found during the double check and corrected.

I can tell you from absolute first hand experience that it was NOT possible to "look" at the cam and tell that the cam was off by one tooth. When looked at from a distance the O'Clock position of the cam appeared the same to me. What I'm trying to say is that the O'Clock position is fine for a gross error check or an initial starting position but it's not good enough for the end product.

The ONLY thing that matters is if the marked chain links match up with the dots.

I don't see a marked link or a different color link on the pictures. Did you fold the chains in half and mark the mid-points or does the set have different color links already on it? If so, it's possible to turn the motor over by hand and sooner or later the marked link will line up with the cam dot. Then it's a simple matter to see which tooth is engaged on the crank.

An option is to count the links in both directions from the cam dot. An engine that is correctly time will have the same number of teeth to the crank 6 O'Clock position.