I have been looking at pings and I seem to be confused about what is what. Spark knock pinging seems to happen on a lot of the ford trucks. But some confusion concerns the difference between piston slap, pings, and chain rattle.

Piston slap seems to have been a problem in the ford Ranger 4.0 OHV (Over head valve) motors up until about 2002. It occurs in about 1 in 1500 motors and ford says it harmless, if annoying. It usually occurs at start up and may or may not quit after warm up, it may sound like a “tick” to “It sounds like a diesel”. Some are louder then others.

Chain Rattle was a problem in the early SOHC (single overhead cam) 4.0 motors. It showed up first in the explorer and followed over to the ranger when this motor was installed there, starting in 2001-2002, I believe. Ford says to test for it by putting it in second gear and keep the motor between 2000 and 3000 rpm. It will only make the noise between these rpm ranges. It is caused by some chains driving the OHC’s and Ford seems to have taken several different positions on it, fixing some, extending the warranty on some to 100,000 miles, and not fixing some. Check with you dealer.

Pinging, spark knock, detonation is the sound you get when the engine is under load and starts pre-detonating. Ford says “Do not be concerned if you engine sometimes knocks lightly. However if it knocks heavily under most driving conditions while you are using recommended octane rating, see your dealer or a qualified service technician to prevent any engine damage.” In the old days it was commonly fixed by retarding the engine timming a bit. Now under cpu control, it has to go to the dealer to be re-programmed to retard the timing. There are other causes of course and they also need to looked at first.

Now my questions, does this look about right as far pinging noises go ?
Has anyone actually fixed their pinging (not piston slap, or chain rattle) and if so how?
Dave

 

Do you have any TSBs for any of these? I am pretty sure my truck may be doing one of them. My 2001 has 95K with 4.0SOHC so if its the covered under 100K warranty (if the dealer is in a good mood) that would be important to me.

I have also heard of noise due to an exaust flange gasket.

 

Make sure your fuel filter is okay and maybe try a different MAF. I was able to rid my 2.5L of pinging by replacing the MAF w/ a $100 NAPA MAF... not sure about your 4.0L.... I also replaced my DPFE sensor wich were said to go bad. I don't think it effected the pinging any though. It was $100 at the dealer.... makes sure your plugs and wires are in good shape.

 

I am suspecious of MAF, not quite sure how to check it. Autozone/Napa don't have it, say its only available for $$ at Ford for 2000 and newer. I replaced my DFPE and got rid of an EGR code 401.

 

You can try cleaning the MAF, see the link in the tech info thread.

Go to alldata.com, get the TSB # your interested in and I'll see if I have it.

 

Pinging gets talked about a lot in the 3.0L Forum, so I included a section (IV)on it in the 3.0L Technical Info & Tips Thread. You might pick up a few more ideas on the subject by reading through the related links.

 

Well lets toss in "marble noise" too.

My 99 4.0L suffers from it now & then.

There is a TSB out on it.

Mine sound like ball bearings or pool ***** in a sack clacking together.

Mine is caused by CCDI Combustion Chamber Deposit Interference, not enough clearance in the "squash zone", such that the deposits on the piston crown contact those on the head, at the pistons apex on it's up stroke, until things warm up & expand enough to give clearance.
Warmed up it's as quiet as a church mouse.

My fix was to mechanically decarb the engine, while having the heads off for new head gaskets (the TSB MP-3 chemical decarb didn't last for me) then switch fuel brands between the best two performing gasolines, every 3K miles or at each oil change, as it takes about that long for one fuels detergents to clean up the others deposits.

So once I got her decarbed & she was quiet, switching fuel brands, say twice a year, has been the preventative maintenance for my 4.0L push rod knocker, for the last 18 months.

The two best performing fuels for me, have been regular Chevron & Texaco, in that order.

This swapping fuels, say twice a year, will likely help those with deposit based "spark knock" too. IMHO

 

How did you come to this conclusion?

Are saying the reduced deposits and new headgaskets provide for more clearance now when the engine is cold?

 

my '92, 3.0, 5 spd, 115k miles had very bad pinging in high gear on any slight grade, expecially in summer, for the last few years. Changed the O2 sensors and "voila", while the pinging did not stop, it was greatly diminished.

 

Well Rockledge, The dealer had done the MP-3 TSB decarb proceedure & it was quiet, but that only lasted a few weeks & the cold "marble noise" was back.

I was having water "sipping" problems a month after they replaced the OEM engine which had bad wrist pins, & that new engine got new head gaskets, then new heads & gaskets, then after 3 years a new design head gasket, that last one fixed the water sipping.

So while they had the heads off for those last set of new head gaskets, they did a mechanical decarb on the pistons & heads & that fixed the CCDI for about 15 months. She was quiet as a church mouse after a cold start.

It came back last summer after I used 3 tanks of new formula, Shell regular fuel.

I read on the net & confirmed what I read, with a petro engineer, who's job it is to mix the tank farm additive package for a major oil company, to switch brands twice a year or every oil change in order to minimisze engine deposits.

He said it takes about 5 tanks or 1000 miles of driving, for one fuels detergents to remove the others deposits. This I also read on the net from a petro engineer.

I had dang little in the way of deposits on anything, as the dealer's service manager & I went for a look see after it was torn down.

Intake & exhaust valves were clean. A little on the piston crowns & a little on the heads.

Apparently this engine's assembly tolerance buildup is such that it's not tolerant of much in the way of combustion chamber deposits.

So it's been quiet 3 times, once when this new engine was installed, once for a brief time after the dealer did the TSB decarb with PM-3 & once after they did the mechanical decarb, while installing the new design head gasket to fix the water sipping.

The mechanical decarb & switching fuels every 6 months has worked the best for me.