What does pinging sound like on an engine?

 

Place some marbles in a coffee can and shake it, it mimics the sound almost perfectly.

 

At the top end of 4th gear I can hear something it's pretty quiet so im not sure if its a big deal.

 

What grade gas u burning? All 5 of my FORDs ping on regular. So in my 79 and 74 i run premium No probs at all

 

You are only going to get pinging with a load on the engine. Such as climbing a hill or hard acceleration. If you are hearing the noise when crusing then its not pinging. Retard the engine a couple of degrees if you are not sure. If it is pinging it will either go away or decrease with the engine retarded.

 

im cheep so dont like running prem gas but still like power. so checked cranking comp it was only 165 so not hy comp enegin bought a singel line vac advance it had a 10 on the arm so only gave 20 deg of advance at cruzz stock gave 24 now no ping at cruzz and still have power when i stomp on it.( with the cheep gas)

 

It happens at cruise at like 55-60, not hard acceleration but with any acceleration at all once im already going 55. I would like to run premium but I cannot afford it. I can hardly afford to drive this truck as it is but what do I say older fords are fun trucks to drive. Could I be harming my engine?

 

Pinging is not good. You could burn a hole in a piston if it is severe enough. You best bet would be to check the timing. It may be advanced a little too much. If the timing is ok then the dizzy could need recurving. The easiest way to check for that is to plug the vacuum line to the vacuum advance and drive it and see if it still pings. If it doesn't then the vacuum maybe pulling it to far advanced. (this is assuming that you have checked the static timing and it is Ok)

 

that was exatly what was going on with mine . tried adjusting intl timing back a little and it lost power when i accel but no ping at cruzz or light accell i messed with the timing alot back and forth . long story short got a singel vac off a 77 400 ltd it only gives 20* of added timing at full vac the duel can gives 24* so i kept the mec advanc in the dizz for acell power and got a little less extra timing for cruzz and fuel with the vac. just a thought. (I found a timing for power and efficancy 101 artical on the web but cant remeber the name it was a lot of help)

 

Pinging can indeed happen at cruise - it depends on many factors. Whatever it takes to make the engine work under a load.

Overly-advanced timing (be it too high base, or too steep advance curve) can lead to pinging, but overly-high combustion chamber temperatures are another reason an engine can ping (and in fact, both can lead back to one-another). Too lean of a fuel mixture can cause this. If this engine had EGR, but a previous owner ripped it out to "clean up" all the "smog junk," then this will make things worse. A stock engine, properly tuned up with all the original equipment in place will not ping. It's when parts fail, or people who don't know what they're doing try to "fix" what isn't broken that issues like this occur. Pinging often goes hand-in-hand with dieseling too, for the same reasons.

As previously mentioned, pinging is BAD.

 

this is so true. my po had recurved the dizzy it had the lightest springs in it and was set in the 18L slot so at 6 inital and 36 mec and 24 vac it had agrand total of 66 advence all in at 2200 rpms it would drive with just a hint of ping at 55 or a slite incline in the road and putting supper in a pig just is just not right. the 390 in my pu is a 66 so no EGR or "smog junk" ther is alink on this site that has good info (vac advance tuning questions by jjurva)