When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
i have a 98 f150 with a 4.6, under load it pings, but not always. it seems to start after warm up but only under heavy load. sometimes its not as bad as others. it really pings when i tow the car to the track. the truck has 140,000 miles. i have not owned the truck from new. there is a sticker under the hood that says the pcm has been replced. i need some direction on where to start, could it have the wrong plugs or is it an egr problem. ive been told the the egr line gets clogged on this year truck.
I have 213k miles on my 97 4.6 4x4 and it pings if I run 87 octane but if I run 93 it runs perfect. Until I have some real time to spend workin on it and figuring it out I have just been running 93 ( for the last 45k miles now)
I just joined your informative group. I hope I can be of help and receive assistance from you guys and gals. I am about to sign for a new '07 ranger 4x4 Eddie Bauer Sport Track LTD with the 4.6 engine. Which octane is best and are there any simple ways to extract more power/torque from the engine aside from synthetic oil? thanks, steve
All you need is 87 octane. This is what the PCM is tuned for.
A programmer/Tuner such as a Diablosport Predator or similiar, will give you the most bang for your buck.
you could try higher octane gas, spray the mass air flow sensor with a cleaner.
the pinging is caused by a prefiring of the pistons. so when your pistons come up to close the firing chamber, another fire forces it to go down much quicklier then it should. hard to explain, but you get the drift. so look for the problem in around the parts of the engine that feed it its power, such as air, spark, and fuel.
Matt is there any relation to the pcm code and a cure? Is it something electronic can it be re flashed or something? My 97 pings horribly on 87 but none @ all w/ 93.
I'm still a bit confused.. Some say the 2007 sport track ltd w/4.6 engine's performance cannot be improved with higher octane gas.. others say forget 87 octane and use 93.. I haven't noticed any pinging (6500 miles). But I would love to easily extract more grunt out of this strong V8,, any ideas would be appreciated
The computer is programmed to control the timing based on 87 octane. My truck has 214k miles on it and pings because there is carbon build up in the engine altering the fuel & air ratio. If I run 93 it does not ping.
If you put 93 in your truck you will be waisting money b/c it will not give any performance and over time will most likely cause pinging because your engine is not running 100% efficiently with higher octane when it thinks it has 87.
If you want more power you must buy a power programmer reprogram the computer to use 93 octane and then you can have about 20 more hp and torque depending on which one you buy.
A custom tune will fix it but also remove some of the positive charecteristics.The link i had basically said that the FOU1 code was the nastruck tune.Designed for a lighter single cab truck.In Scabs the detonation is worse because of the extra wieght.
This was the most aggressive factory tune and is found many 98s that where prduced sequence with the nastruck.
The spark curves are main difference from other factory f 150 programs giving it both an advantage and the likely hood of detonation on anything less than 89 octane.
Google " ford FOU1 computer code" and you should find some more info
cheers
Last edited by matt_97xl; Oct 3, 2007 at 10:10 PM.
Thanks Mat for your info. My 4.6 is new and I was considering adding synthesized oil (Mobile 1 or others).. can it really prevent the engine from 'setting up'? ... also.. do you or any others in the forum think a quick shot of nitrous could damage the engine ?