[quote=QwkTrip;6316981]Have you had the cylinder heads off? Might be interesting to see if there are any irregularities in surfaces that are making hot spots and causing the pining. It's an expensive thing to do but maybe you can talk the dealer into it on their dime.

Before I tried the cusom tuning route, I got the dealer to check the spark plugs from a tsb that I found on this site. The dealer went through hell triying to get the plugs out of the head, some broke or were siezed etc... The service manager showed me a couple of the plugs that had the electrode missing or had broken or melted off. They replaced the plugs with a heat range colder per the tsb. For a little while the ping was gone, but then came back. I was shown a F150 in the service bay with the heads off, they were loaded with carbon. I was told that there may be carbon deposits on my heads and the fine fuel particles get tied up in the carbon and cause the cylinder or all of them to run lean or rich depending on the specific cylinder. Fords solution for this was to run 2 bottles of techron through the truck. Well for about 8 months I tried every combo of fuel brand and octane as well as numerous bottles of techron. The pinging would come and go.

It is impossible to get my dealer to do anything else. I just picked the truck up after leaving it there for a week. I told them to drive the truck as a personal truck and I did not care if they took it cross country whatever, just listen for the pinging, it will do it. So after a week I get " there is no pinging, it didn't do it for us". "We cant do anything else unless we hear it ping". Two days later I am driving up the highway it pinged like a s.o.b.:-banghead They say bring it back when its pinging, yea I can just stop my day and drive back to the Ford dealer anytime. The only place I am going to end up driving it is is off a bridge. Brand loyalty may be a gimick but I feel like I have done my part and Ford really does't give a ---- to do their part. I really thought that Ford made the best all around work truck, but the with all the b.s. I really dont want to go back for more with a 37k diesel.

Man that sucks. Sounds like you got a lemon.

Swing by my area and I take you for a ride in my truck and show you what modulars are supposed to run like.:-jammin

Try another dealer, tell them your story. Something sounds very fishy - again, I wonder if the cam timing is wrong.

The problem is the DEALER is not "Ford" per se. Call the customer service 1-800 number and see if they can come up with anything - maybe a dealer recommendation.

And, I can relate, but you do have to get the dealer to hear the pinging before they will do anything.

The pinging exhaust pipes were a major pain in the butt for me. I looked up the TSB and had my local dealership (not even my selling dealer) replace them with new parts under my 3/36 warranty. Pinging and popping went away. I know there are issues the the torgue shift regarding plowing on the 05 and early 06 models. The spark nock is a pain with the 5.4 if you go for a long trip towing or run seafoam in the intake it may knock the carbon out of the engine.

I feel for you all three brands have their issues. Heck even toyota with the weak tailgates and transmission issues with the new tundras. I do not know what to tell you. Mercedes Unimog works great plowing.

Oiled air filters and MAF sensors don't mix well. A dirty MAF will cause all kinds of drivability problems.

3V 5.4s have had many problems with cam phasers and spark plugs. Search the F150 forum and you will see.

05-07 Super Duty gas trucks have "pinging" exhaust due to the welded on heat shields. It's just the way they are and doesn't have any effect on how they function. 08s have a redesigned exhaust system.

The 3V V10 does not have VVT, so it have no cam phasers. Just one of the reasons to choose a V-10 over a 5.4. I don't know if V10s are going to have the same spark plug issues as the V8s though.

The 5.4l 3V is also more likely to have ping than the 3V V10. The 3V 5.4l has a rather high 9.8:1 CR where as the 3V V10 has a 9.2:1 CR. The 2V 5.4l and 6.8l have a 9.0:1 CR. The 3V 5.4l just barely runs right on 87.

As for the K&N filter I've been running them for years with no trouble, however I clean my MAF religiously. I just find it hard to believe a dirty MAF would cause the ping in this situation because the ping seems somewhat intermitent.

Every vehicle I've been around with factory exhaust and cats has always made a lot of noise. Factory exhaust systems (Mufflers converters and etc) get really hot especially with the restrictive mufflers. The only stock piece of exhaust on my truck is a 16" piece of 3" tube, the rest is aftermarket with no heat shields. I get no "ping" in the exhaust like the stock system did.

The 5.4l and 6.8l use the same plugs through the years so the V10 would have the same plug issues. Change them often.

As far as the dealers go, there are basiclly three that I can deal with. One heard the poston slap at the beginning and stated that it was not right but didn't want to get involved and told me to bring it back where I bought it. Two, the place I bought it probrably screwed it up in the first place. Three, the place I got one of my diesel 350's is such a large volume dealer they would never hear the ping or really care if its pinging anyways, been through their service with my 6.0 that I bought there. And four, the one dealer that I have been working with, they have been acommodating and have attempted to rectify the problem to a point. They do a lot of volume with trucks. The fourth has fixed other problems but I am at a dead end cause they don't hear anything.

Funny thing is, the ping is very noticeable when it does it, everyone who rides in my truck has heard it from time to time so I know its not just me. I just think they don't want to persue it.

The exhaust has been fixed, the thing would ping so loud all the time whenever temps outside were above 60 deg. A new y pipe with the cats from ford did do the trick.

Finally, I have done new motorcraft fuel filters and my mass air flow has been cleaned 4 times in the 36,000 miles and it was always clean. Yesterday I cleaned the maf and I put a paper fram air filter back in. My dealer also told me that I should not run anything but 87 octane as it would just confuse the computer. My regular warranty will run out in 200 miles, maybe it will blow up by then. My last resort (the air filter) and I will see what happens- Thanks to all of you guys for the help

I honestly think roughly 1/2 of the problems that owners complain about on this forum are caused by bad service departments.

I am sorry to hear about your issues. I have an 02 f250 with the 5.4 and have had good luck with it considering its close to 100k. The only issue I have had was about year ago when the block temp sensor went out and about 3k ago the #6 plug was spit out and have the coil kit done to it. I agree with crabhab and try the seafoam in the truck. All you have to do it three things so you will need two cans of seafoam, oil and a oil filter for the oil change and and a wide open area because the truck will smoke once one of the steps are done. Step one, pour one can into your gas tank. Step two, pour half into your oil. Step three, remove the vacume line of the brake booster, while the truck is running slowly pour the ther half of the seafoam into vacume line. Once you have poured the seafom in, shut the truck off, put the vac line back on and wait about 5-10 minutes allowing the seafoam to work on the upper part of the motor. Then start the truck. Now mine took a little bit to start smoking but once it did, OMG did it. I was driving it when it did and I cound not see the back side of the truck. My exhaust exits infront of the passenger rear tire and it covered it with white smoke. I will tell you I have gotten about 2-3 MPG more in the city and 4-6 on the high way. My knocking is gone and the idle is smoother. So I hope this helps.