Detonation problem persists
and I thought it would be gone when I got back to the Midwest and fueled up with the local 93 octane, 10% ethanol gas. Not so.
I’ve noticed that I’ve got pinging more often now, but most often under these conditions:
All together = Highway, Mild incline, high engine load, throttle opening to increase speed.
This was not the case before the 4000 mile vacation trip. I thought that maybe I had carbon in the engine, so I did the Seafoam soak. It did blow a lot of smoke, and was pinging LOUD when I was driving it out of the subdivision, so I know I blew a lot of carbon out.
But obviously, that’s not the whole problem. I need suggestions for why a car with only 28,000 miles will develop a ping problem!
For those interested, here is an AutoTap log showing the detonation and other pertinent details.
Last edited by fnbrowning; Oct 4, 2007 at 08:28 PM. Reason: New additions
Downshift!
So rather than a huge log from a lot driving I made it happen where I knew it would.
Believe me, the pinging is there at other throttle positions.
I never had any ping before now whether I lugged it or not - so this is new.
Remember, that thread I linked to in the first post. This started on vacation.
On poor Western gas, it was nearly a death rattle I had to moderate with octane boost to get me out of the mountains.
But now, after flushing the tank and returning to driving 'round my usual highways, I'm noticing a lot more pinging. Something's changed, something's wrong. . . .
Are you burning oil?
Have you done a compression check?
What do your plugs look like?
etc.
quit lugging the engine... You can permanently damage an engine by doing that once or twice.
On Saturday the 29th, the service listed below was accomplished. The vehicle was then refueled with Shell 93 octane.
Includes compression check data on cylinders listed below:
1 - 8 - 7 - 2 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3
153 150 150 152 151 150 153 153
Valve covers removed and pushrods checked. Also MAF removed and cleaned with Electro-Wash, a universal electronics cleaner.
8ea AC Delco Iridium plugs, gapped @ .40 Part #41-985
Wix Fuel filter Wix 33311
Wix Air filter Wix 46144
Included is the latest AutoTap data. Last time I was "accused" of lugging the engine.
This time I kept the rpm's higher to avoid "lugging" the engine. 
When I sent my tuner the data, shown in my post directly above, here is what he proposed.
Please give me your opinion of his suggested changes
His words in quotes:


Last edited by fnbrowning; Oct 4, 2007 at 08:37 PM. Reason: Clarified what my tuner said
ATAP to see cylinder mode misfires? You'd like to know if this is
a one-bad-injector problem, vs a general fueling or general airflow
short-metering problem.
What is your Dynamic Cylinder Air mass value at WOT? That is
a pretty good indicator of airflow reasonableness.
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