so a few days ago I mentioned in a post that I tried setting the timing on my 92 302 but it seemed to ping no matter where I put it to. I used a light and unplugged the spout connector and set it to 10 BTDC ad once I plugged the spout in again it adjusted to about 16BTDC and now it just pings a tiny bit under hard acceleration. I'm wondering what I did wrong here, I'm ready to pull my hair out!

 

You set the timing correctly--the BASE timing. Timing advance is controlled by the computer, and once you have the SPOUT connector plugged back in, the timing should jump around a bit as the engine idles, and it will be different from the base timing.

As for ping under hard acceleration, well, the 302 has a known issue: the PCV dumps the oily vapors into the #8 cylinder, which can foul up the combustion chamber and cause slightly higher compression in that cylinder, which leads to pinging, spark knock, and piston damage... Hopefully you're not to the damage part, but I'd use some Sea Foam in a large vacuum hose (brake booster hose works well--pour in about a half a can with the engine warmed up and idling, pour slow so it doesn't die, then shut it off and let it sit for a half hour, then run it again for about 15 minutes) and re-route the PCV hose to the vacuum manifold that's in the center of the upper intake plenum.

Jason

 

^^^^ Agreed.

Ford actually rerouted the PCV hose to the center since there were so many piston cylinder failure on the #8 cylinder.

 

i'll try the sea-foam but how come i didn't notice pinging before i adjusted timing?

 

i think my PCV hose is already re-routed, its unplugged from the brake booster and capped.

 

The PCV hose does not go to the brake booster. It was originally attached to the intake manifold at the passenger side rear of the upper intake. Ford issued a Service Bulletin to re-route the PCV hose to the vacuum tree located near the middle of the upper intake. In turn the brake booster hose was then attached to the vacuum fitting where the PCV hose was (passenger side rear of the upper intake).

 

well i gave the seafoam a go and its still pinging abit!

 

Fuel up with some higher octane fuel for a tank or two, then go back to 87 and see if the ping is still there. Some times it just takes a while for the carbon to clean itself out.

 

It may not be pinging, it may be piston slap.

 

i believe it is pinging because i did not here the noise before i messed with the timing. i'll maybe put some premium fuel in and add a little more sea foam in too, i'll give you an update when if i figure anything out.

 

i filled up with premium today, and drove around abit, and the pinging still exists, i'm not sure where to go from here.

 

You can pull one spark plug wire off at a time and if the pinging quits the piston with the wire off is the piston with piston slap.
Pining should not quit with a wire off.

 

Any codes present?
How old is the O2 sensor?
Pull your plugs.. if they are all white the engine is running lean and you either have a vacuum or smog system problem or the O2 needs to be replaced. If only 1 or 2 plugs are white then those injectors are clogged and need to be cleaned or replaced.

 

i checked codes a couple weeks ago when my truck seemed sluggish and had an egr sensor code and speed sensor code but i don't own a scanner so haven't been able to check since. i just replaced the o2 sensor and pretty sure the plugs look good.

 

could this be another plug wire 7 + 8 issue?
where they crosstalk if run parallel? throwing off the timing on one or the other cylinder?