OMG 3.slow horrible ping

[Danger_Dave]

Bout a year and a half ago i bought a clean mint 97 3.0 supercab 117k original owner. 5 speed. It was clean kept and everythings in working order, it just was never maintained.

Now it has 170k and pings so bad, it cant handle the slightest incline in 5th gear, and in 4th pegged at 60mph it will ping just a little. In 4th from 40mph to 55 forget it. sounds like a bunch of nails rattling in a coffee can.

So far what ive done: cel p0420 code kept coming on so i replaced all 3 o2 sensors. Changed fuel filter, alternator, battery, spark plugs, wires,
He had a k&n in it, i put a brand new stock one in there, cleaned the maf sensor, Tested pcv valve. replaced IAT sensor , cleaned/ tested IAC valve, it has improved some, but still terrible.

Tested ect sensor, tested tps sensor, tested thermostat. Only other thing i can think of is the cam synchronizer. It used to squeal so bad. It no longer squeals. Probly because theres nothing left of the bushing. Could that sucker be flopping around at high rpm and causing me all my problems? Will replacing it be the magic pill? I cant afford the money to replace it if its not going to stop the ping.
The only other thing i could think of is going with an xcal tuner and having it dyno tuned, and thats way more than i should have to spend just to have a vehicle that drives properly.

 

[BlueOval2003]

I'm no expert but from what ive read the cam synch going bad is usually accompanied by a squeal but its not that hard to pull it out and inspect it. If it hasn't been changed on that motor ever its probably that time anyways. Only other thing I have for you is try running it on high test gasoline and see if that doesn't help with your pinging. Good luck.

 

[laser411]

if its what mine sounded like then its a bad lifter, I just rebuilt my 3.0 and cleaned out all the lifters and the pinging went away for a bit but came back (and on opposite side of engine(I swapped the lifters to the opposites))