My daily beater 96GT has 145k miles on it. Since I bought it a few months ago, it pings/spark knocks like hell under moderate to full throttle between 2500 and 4K rpm under load no matter the fuel grade. It doesn’t do it in neutral. Car had a couple of lean codes as well as an evap purge no flow code. I’ve hunted for vacuum leaks and can’t find any (even used carb cleaner to look).
I just did Autolite copper plugs at .054 gap (no oil on any of the plugs…not in terrible shape either), Duralast plug wires (also, not bad shape. Replaced because one came apart during plug swap), an NTK passenger upstream o2 sensor, Duralast coolant temp sensor (the one by the thermostat because PO broke it and tried to epoxy it back together), cleaned the MAF, and unhooked my battery for 5 or so minutes while I cleaned up. Fired the car up, let it get up to temp, bled any air out of the system I could get, gently rode around the neighborhood to be sure I got the coolant system right, then took to the high way. Casual driving the car feels a bit peppier. Under light throttle in 2nd, It feels as though the car noses over past 2k. Did a couple or 2-3 pulls and it still pings/spark knocks. I just dumped a 20oz bottle of fuel system cleaner in the tank in hopes of just light back and forth driving to/from work will work some stuff loose. I plan on pulling the injectors and cleaning them as best as I can as well as replacing the fuel filter.
What am I missing here/what’s next to go after? Car is stock aside from a cold air intake that just jettisoned its cone filter during my test drive post repairs.
I just did Autolite copper plugs at .054 gap (no oil on any of the plugs…not in terrible shape either), Duralast plug wires (also, not bad shape. Replaced because one came apart during plug swap), an NTK passenger upstream o2 sensor, Duralast coolant temp sensor (the one by the thermostat because PO broke it and tried to epoxy it back together), cleaned the MAF, and unhooked my battery for 5 or so minutes while I cleaned up. Fired the car up, let it get up to temp, bled any air out of the system I could get, gently rode around the neighborhood to be sure I got the coolant system right, then took to the high way. Casual driving the car feels a bit peppier. Under light throttle in 2nd, It feels as though the car noses over past 2k. Did a couple or 2-3 pulls and it still pings/spark knocks. I just dumped a 20oz bottle of fuel system cleaner in the tank in hopes of just light back and forth driving to/from work will work some stuff loose. I plan on pulling the injectors and cleaning them as best as I can as well as replacing the fuel filter.
What am I missing here/what’s next to go after? Car is stock aside from a cold air intake that just jettisoned its cone filter during my test drive post repairs.