help a pinging 4.6

[JustinH]

As some of you may know, alot of the 4.6 truck motors (ford) have trouble with pinging. They are said to run on 87 octane, but i get spark knock with 87.

The truck is a 98 and has 50k miles on it.

It is totally tuned up, all sensors are new or cleaned.

What might help the problem? The motor has had full synthetic oil since day one and looks brand new inside.

Should I try fuel power or autorx?

Thanks,
Justin

 

[uconn1150]

Both! What brand of "synthetic"...meaning real "syn" or "fake"--groupIII?

Since you have less than 100k, 1 bottle of A-RX will suffice.

FP will probably help as well!

 

[Ron Jeremy]

My 4.6 pinged like crazy until I cleaned the K&N oil off of the MAF sensor with a Q-Tip dipped in Windex. Problem solved for (me anyway). My K&N filter is history.

 

[C4Dave]

Ford recommends driving the vehicle at about 3000 rpms (turn OD off) for about 15-20 minutes to clear out carbon. I've done this several times in my Explorer, and it always works for me.

 

[97tbird]

quote:

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Originally posted by C4Dave:
Ford recommends driving the vehicle at about 3000 rpms (turn OD off) for about 15-20 minutes to clear out carbon. I've done this several times in my Explorer, and it always works for me.

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C4Dave,

where does Ford recommend that? in the owner's manual?
wonder if I should try this trick in my 4.6L T-bird...(pings on 87, not on 93)

 

[C4Dave]

quote:

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Originally posted by 97tbird:
C4Dave,

where does Ford recommend that? in the owner's manual?

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I learned about it on the Ford Explorer forum. I think it was a TSB. But since I read it on the internet, it must be true.

Seriously though, I done this several times and it always worked. My wife drives the Explorer on short trips, and it never gets worked hard enough to keep the carbon burned off.

 

[darkdan]

Clean your MAF. Use only ELECTRICAL CONTACT CLEANER! Don't use windex, alcohol, wd40, brake cleaner, etc etc etc. You'll need some tamper proof torx bits (auto stores have them). Size T-20. Also never never never touch the wires with anything unless you can see a chunk of something that won't come off with spray. Those wires are very delicate. If a spider lands on you and you freak out, wind picks up, your old football injury acts up, or something and you jerk it's a very expensive mistake.

Also check your EGR and IAC.

FP will help for sure!

Otherwise seafoam it.

 

[Michael SR]

a '98? that might have been one of the years where ford told dealers to pull the SPOUT plug on cars that detonated. i never did figure out why some of them detonated and others not. my guess is either some manufacturing defect such that the sensed crank angle was incorrect (therefore too much timing advance), or (based on some of the modulars i've torn apart) the piston to deck height variance caused some to have a lot more compression than others.

or any other number of possibilities, of course. but you could try pulling the spout, then just note if there's an obvious loss of power and fuel economy. if there is, your problem lies elsewhere. if not, then you have your fix.

i never checked the TSBs myself, so ymmv. this was something i got word of mouth from some ford dealership mechanics. (so take it fwiw!)

-michael

 

[TallPaul]

quote:

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Originally posted by C4Dave:
Ford recommends driving the vehicle at about 3000 rpms (turn OD off) for about 15-20 minutes to clear out carbon. I've done this several times in my Explorer, and it always works for me.

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Thanks for the tip. I will be doing it to my wife's Aerostar tomorrow. That thing gets mostly short trips and has a bad knock. I have 90 octane in it now and still sometimes knocks.

PS: I don't care where (or even if) Ford recommends it because it is definitely worth a try and fun too!

PSS: Hey, maybe that's what happened to my motorhome which also had a knock and was running 90 octane, but on the way throught Pennsylvania last month I had several multi-mile grades on I-80 where I was running it at 3300 rpm constant for the entire grade (had to go the 65-mph speed limit, right?

). These runs were so intense it knocked the oil pressure down 5 psi each time. After that I put 87 octane in and was not noticing the knock.

 

[lyle]

Have your dealer lookup TSB 001203A and see if you are eligible to have your engine PCM re-programmed with the latest calibration levels. I have a '98 Expy with the 5.4L and this cleared up a pre-ignition problem under load which did not go away even after replacing the EGR Valve and DPFE Sensor, and also cleaning the MAF Sensor. Since the re-programming, not even a hint of ping.

A little FP doesn't hurt, though, as my 5.4L seems to idle a little smoother since I started using it.

 

[MNgopher]

Just as one other thought, if you generally only use 1 brand of gas, give another a shot.

My '97 and '99 F150's with 4.6's both ping on only one brand of 87 octane in this area - Amoco/BP. My old cavalier responded the same way.

It may be a moot point if all gas in your area is from one source, regardless of brand (not the case in this market, with three major supply sources).

 

[phordguy]

I have a 96 mustang GT with the manual trans and it always pinged a little. I used 87 for the first few tanks and then switched to 89, then 93 for 100k miles. I am back to 87 on fuel power. My modular pings noticeably the most on tip on and also when the plugs are in need of change. I compensate by using fuel power on every tank. I also cleaned the maf wires with contact cleaner and switched back and forth from k&n 9" filter and the C&L 80 mm maf to the stock filter/maf, k&n filter that fits the stock housing, and stock maf, etc. Cleared out the computer numbers of times, tried all different combinations but new plugs (stock), fuel power and the stock filter make the pinging all but gone on my car. Anything else and it sounds like marbles are rattling around in there somewhere. I also auto-rx'd the car but I'm only on the clean phase, it made it and the FP make it idle noticably smoother and I also have had Mobil 1 5w30 trisyn since 300 miles, 121k on the odometer now... Its power now is as good or better than it was when it was new. I wish I could say the same for the transmission.

 

[JustinH]

thanks, now i'll really order some fuel power

I absolutely refuse to put 93 octane in this truck. Its my daily driver and gets about 13mpg. It has a 25 gallon tank i beleive, and 93 octane at 2.40 a gallon really isn't what i want to spend.

50 bucks well spent, ihmo.

JH

 

[C4Dave]

quote:

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Originally posted by JustinH:
Everything on the truck is new, I will put a call into my tuner (superchipscustom) and see what they can do with it.

Justin

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I didn't realize you had a custom chip in it. Custom chips almost always require 93 octane. Have you tried your stock chip?

 

[JustinH]

Good thread with alot of good ideas. Thanks all.

Heres some more information.

The truck is a 98 4.6, and its running 0w30 German Castrol Oil with a motorcraft filter. I plan on going 10k on the oil without any troubles.

"Spout" is a term that ford used on vehicles that had a distributor, the term is "octane pin" on the terms with electonic ignition systems. Yes my truck does have a "octane pin" and I'm going to pull it out to pull some timing out of the truck. Thanks for that tip, i forgot about that thing.

The mass air sensor is clean. I clean it with contact cleaner, and I don't use an oily filter. I use a standard wix paper filter.

Everything on the truck is new, I will put a call into my tuner (superchipscustom) and see what they can do with it.

I'll order some FuelPower and LubeControl this week and put the truck on a strict regimine of those two chemicals.

If that doesn't fix it, then i'm going from a stock heatrange copper plug to one or two heatranges colder.

Justin

 

[TheTanSedan]

I run LC/FP in anything, all the time.

I'd also try an LC piston soak at sparkplug/oil/oil filter change time. See old post of Molakule (#59) from early on in "ADDITIVES" forum for instruction.

Then, and only then, would I run A-Rx through with fresh diesel/gas 10W-30 for prescribed miles.

LC is great at "eating" carbon.

 

[JustinH]

quote:

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Originally posted by C4Dave:

quote:

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Originally posted by JustinH:
Everything on the truck is new, I will put a call into my tuner (superchipscustom) and see what they can do with it.

Justin

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I didn't realize you had a custom chip in it. Custom chips almost always require 93 octane. Have you tried your stock chip?

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Yep you are right, but I talk to my tuner and tell him exactly what I want. My custom tune is for 87 octane, and it is mostly there to firm up the transmission shifts and adjust the torque converter lockup schedule.

JH