I havea 2001 F250 crew cab sb V10. I love the motor, I bought it with 200k miles on it and have just done tune ups, runs great. Recently towed a 8500lb trailer and climbing a grade, it pulled very strong but pings a lot. I notice a little ping when passing quickly on country roads but this was a lot more. Any ideas or fixes. I don't want to burn up the motor it has been very smooth and reliable.

 

Mix in some mid-grade fuel when towing.

 

You can try higher octane gas but with that many miles on it if you never had the injectors or intake cleaned you might want to consider getting a motor vac done or at the very least get the injectors cleaned. There may be some carbon build up and getting a motor vac done will help clean it out.

 

I have had the injectors cleaned, no motor vac yet. I am trying higher grade gas but it is harder to tell without the towing. I just did not know if this was normal. I have a brother in law that had the 5.4 with the same problem, still runs fine but knocks/pings under load. Let me know if anything else seems like a good try. I was wondering about an air intake system, I put a high flow muffler and took out the choke points on the Y pipe a while back.

 

Also, keep in mind these engines have knock sensors on them. It should detect detonation and adjust the timing accordingly. You should only have to use 87 octane period. If you are getting pinging something is wrong.

I am having a case of pinging right now. My V10 has 73K on it. So far I have chaged the fuel filter, added isopropyl alcohol (helped a little), had the knock senor checked, and my last step is to the dealer to have the PCM reflashed. One thing that works is filling up with 93 octane. I should not have to run premium fuel. So I search for the solution.

I have the full Banks powerpack. I have had it on of 50+K miles. Never a problem with "ping" until know. I did notice the "ping" gets worse as the weather gets colder.

 

Totally odd, it should be just the opposite, a colder intake charge would prevent pinging.

I wonder if a winter fuel blend isn't contributing to the problem?

As for the pinging, is it possible that you have some sort of vacuum leak?

 

My low mileage 2000 V10 had "the pings", and the dealer reflashed it in '03. No pings since. They had newer software that really helped.