pinging

arkansas mystic · Jun 1, 2004

my 96 cobra makes a pinging noise under hard acceleration at about 4000 rpms. I only run premium gas. once i tried running octane booster and it seemed to stop. is there any way to get rid of this without haveing to use octane booster every tank of gas? and what causes it?

Dark Knight GT · Jun 1, 2004

I think everyone needs to be aware that some of the gas companies have had a production of some bad gasoline lately. I think thats whats causing this "pinging" situation thats going around.

twogts4us · Jun 1, 2004

Dark Knight GT said:
I think everyone needs to be aware that some of the gas companies have had a production of some bad gasoline lately. I think thats whats causing this "pinging" situation thats going around.

Any info to back this up? I'm not flaming ya or nothing, but I haven't heard this...other than the problem that Shell and texaco had with elevated levels of sulfer...

bdcardinal · Jun 2, 2004

or else being a 96 the motor is 8 years old and might have some carbon buildup on the tops of the pistons. it raises the compression ratio a bit, but more importantly the carbon gets hot a lot quicker and can cause the pinging.

Go HoTO! · Jun 2, 2004

I don't believe the gas quality crap. The government is on top of octane testing like you can't imagine. Most gas is the same...comes from the same place.

What is octane? In simplist terms is means "resistance to knock". Higher octane fuel is more resistent to pre-ignition (aka knock or pinging) than lower octane gas. Low octane ignites sooner and burns faster. This is why higher compression motors must run higher octane fuel.

The factors that cause pinging/knock are:

1 - Higher ambient temperatures
2 - High or extremely high loads (ie. high rpms, towing, going uphill...or all of the above)
3 - Octane fuel which is too low for the engine design
4 - Failure of knock sensors to function
5 - Timing which is advanced too much for the fuel.
6 - Dirty cyclinder heads

I would guess that the culprit is #6 for you most likely. How many miles on the car? High mileage cars can build up deposits which actually reduces the volume in the compression chamber which results in an increase in temp and pressure thus causing knock. The solution is to clean the heads or to increase octane of the fuel.

Did you add a chip/programmer recently? If so, this could certainly be the problem as the timing might be too much advanced. I can only assume that you did not do this. Most guys savy enough to add a chip would generally understand the relationship between octane, timing advance, and pinging.

I hope this helps.

KaPPaBaLL · Jun 2, 2004

arkansas mystic said:
my 96 cobra makes a pinging noise under hard acceleration at about 4000 rpms. I only run premium gas. once i tried running octane booster and it seemed to stop. is there any way to get rid of this without haveing to use octane booster every tank of gas? and what causes it?

what have you done lately with the car?? any small details?

Dark Knight GT · Jun 2, 2004

twogts4us said:
Any info to back this up? I'm not flaming ya or nothing, but I haven't heard this...other than the problem that Shell and texaco had with elevated levels of sulfer...

Thats sort of what I was talking about. I heard a few Exxon stations were suffering from this as well but I can't say for sure. I'm not saying "all cases" of pinging are being caused by this but its just strange that all of the sudden after this "tainted gas" was reported, people are having fuel and ignition problems.

wms004 · Jun 2, 2004

arkansas mystic said:
my 96 cobra makes a pinging noise under hard acceleration at about 4000 rpms. I only run premium gas. once i tried running octane booster and it seemed to stop. is there any way to get rid of this without haveing to use octane booster every tank of gas? and what causes it?

Get a dyno tune. It fixed my pinging and detonation.

Red mustang Gt 46 · Jun 2, 2004

Has your 96' had the cooling upgrade? If not, engine temp could be the culprit...

arkansas mystic · Jun 2, 2004

no, i havent added a chip. the car has 80,000 miles and only mild bolt on mods (mass air meter, underdrive pullies, flows). just bought the car in january and as far as i know it hasnt had the cooling upgrade. what does this consist of, also, the temp guage doest work. i replaced the sendor taht screws into the front of the block and it still doesnt work. any suggestions?

wms004 · Jun 2, 2004

arkansas mystic said:
no, i havent added a chip. the car has 80,000 miles and only mild bolt on mods (mass air meter, underdrive pullies, flows). just bought the car in january and as far as i know it hasnt had the cooling upgrade. what does this consist of, also, the temp guage doest work. i replaced the sendor taht screws into the front of the block and it still doesnt work. any suggestions?

your new mass air meter is probably leaning it out. Get a dyno tune.

twogts4us · Jun 2, 2004

Go HoTO! said:
I don't believe the gas quality crap. The government is on top of octane testing like you can't imagine. Most gas is the same...comes from the same place.

What is octane? In simplist terms is means "resistance to knock". Higher octane fuel is more resistent to pre-ignition (aka knock or pinging) than lower octane gas. Low octane ignites sooner and burns faster. This is why higher compression motors must run higher octane fuel.

Seems every couple of days we have to explain the octane thing again...
Great info, as usual, Go HoTO!!!

Go HoTO! · Jun 2, 2004

BINGO! It's the MAF! You need a dyno tune OR remove the MAF and put the stocker back on (as long as you added the MAF. The guy before you could have had a dyno tune I suppose).

I will send you $5.00 if this does not solve the problem.

PS - Thanks twogts4us

Go HoTO! · Jun 2, 2004

Just to be sure, though, did you add the MAF yourself and not do a dyno tune? Is so, put the stock MAF back on. If that does not fix it, $5.00 for you!

COBRA90GT · Jun 2, 2004

When was the last time you examined the spark plugs? It's possible that you might need to change them (fuel filter is a good idea too).

You probably want to get an aftermarket water temp gauge anyways (and oil pressure too). Those factory gauges are crap, nothing more than "dummy gauges." Are the IMRCs giving you any problems (some 96-98s need R&R'ing of the IMRCs due to carbon build-up)?

arkansas mystic · Jun 2, 2004

the mass air was on it when i got it. and whats IMRC?

slvrstang98 · Jun 2, 2004

mine 98 just recently started to ping also. a friend of mine said it was something like a spark plug pinging and that he would have to throw some sort of computer that ford uses on it to see what exactly the problem was. i just downgraded from 93 to 87 octane within the last month and i also have a mass air meter and flows. sounds like we having similar problems.

Go HoTO! · Jun 2, 2004

It could still be the MAF! Colder weather with a lean condition will help prevent knock, but when the warmer weather hit, this might have been what caused it. Since you don't know if it was tuned, get it on a dyno and have the A/F read. That will tell you.

Also, you could pay the diagnostic fee at a dealer and have them look at it. They can tell if it is running lean by looking at the fuel trims.

pinging

arkansas mystic

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