I have a 1998 Ford F150 with a 4.6 V8. It runs good most of the time. It does ping whe I am towing a boat especially whe I am accelersating or going up hills. It has 86000 miles on it. Does anyone know if the Jet power control module actually would help? Thanks for the info.

 

I don't know if the Jet power control module would help but you could try going up a grade on the gas your using. If you normally use 87 octane go up to 89 octane. It usually helps with pinging. Or you could get an octane booster additive. Hope that helps,Carl

 

I also get the pinging when I tow our camper with our 97 Lariat 4.6 V8. I also found that increasing the octane of the gas stops the pinging. Is there a cheaper way to stop it?

 

There may be an idiosynchrocy about these engines that I am not aware of, but I do understand they way that fuel injection/ignition control works.

It would worry me if I ever heard pinging from an electronic fuel injected engine for more than a half second or so. Here's why: There is a knock sensor, sometimes more than one on multi bank engines. It is basically a microphone and when it "hears" pinging the computer sees the signal and retards the timing to eliminate it.

So, there are one of two general problems occurring if you hear continuous pinging; it is either experiencing a hyper lean condition for which it retards the spark as far as possible leaving the pinging, OR, the knock sensor system is not working. Either way this can be catastrophically detrimental.

Maybe someone more intimately familiar with the specific breed can shed some light on this subject. Is there a Ford Tech out there somewhere that knows of a particular weakness or achilles heel with these engines?

Every time you here a ping it is as if a BIG hammer was slamming into a concentrated point on the piston top. Normal combustion applies more force to the piston top, but the pressure is pretty evenly distributed across the piston top. Pinging is all that pressure hammered onto the piston top at one instance in time rather than over roughly 90 degrees of crankshaft rotation. It is an engine killer.

Good luck,
Doc

 

EGR ports plugged with carbon will cause or increase engine pinging or knocking. The ports may require cleaning.

 

A dirty MAF sensor can also cause pinging.

 

yes, there are any number of things that will cause it. The serious problem here though is that your knock sensor and ignition control cannot deal with it.

This is the second time I've see reference to cleaning of the MAF. Do Fords not have a burn off system? Other EFI systems that I have dealt with have a heavy relay that the computer kicks after shut off that heats up the MAF wire(s) to a gazillion something degrees to self clean the MAF. Do Fords not have this?

I have been away from Fords for some time. Maybe I'm in for a surprise here.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me on this.

Have a great day,
Doc

 

No Ford doesn't have a burn off system. That would be too easy
I can't find info anywhere on how much the knock sensor system can retard the timing. I do know though that it won't always retard it enough to cure a bad ping.

 

I have a 2001f 150 series super crew with a 4.6lefi v8 engine with less than 50,000 miles and i have had to replace two plug coils and 3 dofe sensors. Can anyone tell me what going on here. I only use this truck for transportation, no work?? help buck

 

I tried cleaning the MAF sensor to stop the pinging. I noticed after I cleaned it that the top filament was a shiny silver, but the bottom filament stayed black, as if it were dirty. Is this normal? Is it possible that the bottom filament burned up? I occasionally get a CEL on, but it goes off after a few days. Everytime I take it to get the code read, the CEL goes off. Anyway, is it possible that I need a new MAF sensor?

 

Racerguy,

Thanks for the education. I'm surprised (and disappointed) that there is no burnoff.

Everyone,

SOoo... sense there are situations where the knock sensor can't retard the timing enough to eliminate knocking, "There's your sign!" If you here knocking there is something wrong and it's time to find out what, and correct it without delay. Remember an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Knocking can destroy an engine. Don't let yours be next.

Good luck,
Doc
ASE Master

 

Hi bsitterson and welcome to the forum

It's not all that uncommon for COPs (Coil On Plug) to go bad. It can be caused by water getting on them for a long period of time etc. It can also be just one of those things that happens.
I assume you mean you've replace 3 DPFE sensors? Ford has updated the sensors to new ones that should last longer. Plugged EGR ports in the intake manifold , bad EGR valve etc can also cause the same problems as a bad DPFE.

 

shultzy sometimes the filaments do look different.
After the check engine light is on there will be a trouble code stored in the PCM's memory. Autozone and places like that don't seem to have the ability to retrieve those but any good shop with a good scanner can.

 

Racerguy, Thank you so much. I have a 98 f250 that I have put about 16 thousand dollars into, everything is new but I could never figure out the extreme engine pinging and sure enough you hit it right on the head, bad MAF sensor, I put a new one In today after reading your comment on this thread and it no longer pings what so ever! And it even had more power less hesitation. After seven years of running premium fuel with little help to pinging. It was just a bad maf

 

You're welcome. Good to hear you got it fixed.