What does "Pinging" mean?

[85_Ranger4x4]

Glad for you! Doesn't really help my 94 no CPS

Loose Ford 4.0L Intake Bolts - The Ranger Station

There have been reports of loose intake bolts on some of the 90’s 4.0L’s. Check – Check for loose lower intake manifold bolts. Pull your #5 plug and check it out. If you see the fuzzy head or have some … Continued

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[Denisefwd93]

Yes very aware of all that, but not tearing into it just yet.

 

[Snoranger]

Glad for you! Doesn't really help my 94 no CPS

That wouldn't really help many people at all. Very few people have done a SOHC swap using an EEC-IV computer.

Don't call out all 4.0s just because yours has a problem... it's not a 2.9l.

You could pull the octane adjust shorting bar as a temporary repair. That would (opposite of advance, because if I type retard it gets censored) your base timing by 3 degrees. I don't remember if the Ranger 4.0l had it, but the Explorer did until '95. Not really a fix, it's more of a bandaid.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I'm with snoranger... I've owned several ohv 4.0L's... never any pre-ignition or detonation.

Denise... have you tried the seafoam treatment to give the combustion chambers a good cleaning?

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

Microsquirt / megasquirt fixes all ECU issues forever.

2.9 and megasquirt, doubly so.

 

[Bgunner]

Glad for you! Doesn't really help my 94 no CPS

Depending on the engine, gasoline with ethanol in it will have a tendency to ping more than strait gasoline. As an example: My 94 3.0L w/150,xxx miles will ping on 87-91 octane gas with ethanol mixed in, where as if I jump the state line and hit the first gas station, and if I use 91 non-ethanol gas it doesn't ping, at all, climbing the mountains. Many of the rangers were produced with strait gas in mind so the ethanol mix has made some funky things happen, like pink spark plug tips as an example of strange things.

Do you possibly have a station near by that has the good stuff? If so give it a try you never know it may cure your spark knock like it does for mine.

 

[Denisefwd93]

Guys, Please don't take my comments persona! What's the problem, I'm not using enough smileys and emoticons? ????? My 93 4.0 pinged also,. No ping when humid, pings on 87 Octane, pings when hot 85-95 ambient, cleaned the MAF (will again) air intake hot air (duct missing) no ping on 90+ octane, I haven't checked to see what spark plugs are in there, I'm pretty sure they are not motorcraft. Haven't done seafoam, probably will just before I have the fuel filter changed.

 

[Snoranger]

Guys, Please don't take my comments persona! What's the problem, I'm not using enough smileys and emoticons? ?????

If this is directed at me... my comment was mostly to get a reaction from Petroleumjunkie412 and judging by the little angry face under my post, it worked!

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

If this is directed at me... my comment was mostly to get a reaction from Petroleumjunkie412 and judging by the little angry face under my post, it worked!

??

 

[Snoranger]

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Just a heads up:
When you come do donuts on my lawn, do them in the backyard. There isn't enough room to do them in the front yard... you'll either bounce off a few trees or wind up in the pond.

 

[Ranger850]

Guys, Please don't take my comments persona! What's the problem, I'm not using enough smileys and emoticons? ????? My 93 4.0 pinged also,. No ping when humid, pings on 87 Octane, pings when hot 85-95 ambient, cleaned the MAF (will again) air intake hot air (duct missing) no ping on 90+ octane, I haven't checked to see what spark plugs are in there, I'm pretty sure they are not motorcraft. Haven't done seafoam, probably will just before I have the fuel filter changed.

this might be my fault @Denisefwd93, this thread was supposed to be an explanation of what Pinging is, ( for me) as opposed to your thread about the issue you're having. Around here we called it "labor knock". on this forum, is the first time I've heard it called "ping".

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

Just a heads up:
When you come do donuts on my lawn, do them in the backyard. There isn't enough room to do them in the front yard... you'll either bounce off a few trees or wind up in the pond.

Challenge accepted. This here is a 2.9 Cologne Ranger. It runs on danger and it's own sense of self-satisfaction, and rolls exhaust that reeks of glory. ?

 

[cbxer55]

Anyway, I never thought ping and knock were entirely the same. My reading on the subject years ago, mostly Kevin Cameron in one of the motorcycle rags was that ping is the fuel/air mix burning before the plug ignites it. Lets say a sharp edge on a piston crown is glowing, and the fuel doesn't have enough octane, (low flash point), the mix will ignite early due to this glowing ember. And that knock is uncontrolled burning. When the plug ignites the mix, the flame front is supposed to spread out from the point of ignition in a controlled manner. If it doesn't, that's knock. I've never considered them one and the same. But, increased octane will fix both.

Ping or pre-ignition, the mix burns before the piston gets near TDC, and the shock front hammers the piston to oblivion while it's still on it's way to the top. Knock happens after the plug ignited the mix, and the flame front didn't travel through the combustion chamber in a controlled manner. Poor chamber design, poor piston top design, carbon deposits screwing around with the chamber design.

My Ranger has always had the marbles in a tin can sound, never knock. Years aog, I did have a Pontiac Firebird Formula 400 that had knock, and I don't mean rod knock. Ignition knock. Didn't sound like marbles in a tin can. It was an old fashioned points and distributor car. ANd refreshing all that plus new plugs and using high test stopped it flat in it's tracks.

 

[Ranger850]

isn't " fuel/air mix burning before the spark ignites" uncontrolled burning?

 

[cbxer55]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_knocking

Knocking should not be confused with pre-ignition—they are two separate events. However, pre-ignition is usually followed by knocking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-ignition

Pre-ignition (or preignition) in a spark-ignition engine is a technically different phenomenon from engine knocking, and describes the event wherein the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder ignites before the spark plug fires.

Exactly as I described it.