This Turkey day I loaded up my family into my Durango and took them about 70 miles to my sis-in-laws place. My Step sons are large and all in all I had seven people in there (a few thounsand pounds for sure), when I got into a stuation that I needed some power I smashed on the gas and the vehicle responded fairly well, darting into the places I needed to go but I did notice a popping in power... Kind of like a mini-back firing.... Is this a normal thing or should I be concerned... I have a K&N Cold air intake on it and it always sounds throaty but when stepping into it, it kind of sounded like an indy car when it is braking....

 

Based on what you described my guess is it's detonation or what is referred to as "pinging". It sounds like a can of marbles being shaken. It's the fuel mixture burning again after the intitial spark. Typically occurs when your engine is under load in wide open throttle. Could be several reasons why it happened and you should know that prolonged pinging can damage your engine. A little bit once and awhile will not hurt a thing. The fact is it's very common in the 5.2l/5.9L engines and very UNCOMMON in the 4.7L. Best bet is to monitor it because it just could be a one time event (bad tank of gas) or a sign of worse things to come. If it becomes worse try using a higher octane gasoline first and monitor your engine oil usage. If you start burning oil like a quart every 500 to 1,000 miles send me an e-mail and post back here.

Here's a much better explanation - http://www.streetrodstuff.com/Articl...ne/Detonation/

 

If your Durango is a R/T version like mine, make sure that gas you are getting have a minimum octane of 91. R/T's REQUIRES premium fuel. I seen some users ignoring that and fueling up with regular and trouble brews around the corner for their R/T. I always tried to stay with 93 octane which is very command in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Also check your throttle position sensor. After replacing mine because of cruise control surges, it also improved my acceleration response.

 

to cure the pinging i've read and done the following

IAT mod
3923 autolite plugs

 

Thanks for responses...

I always put in the highest grade fuel in every car I drive, so I knew that was not the problem... It was not a knocking or ping, it was a hesitation... a sputter...

I took it to the dealer, it is under warranty, the problem, at least the first problem was something to do with a vacuum line. They said that the hesitation was caused by that.

I got it back and now the engine sounds great, no hesitation of anykind but the front end sounds HORRENDOUS... when in Nuetral all is fine, but put it in drive and it sounds like a nut is bouncing around in the front differential... I took it back and they acted shocked, I showed them what was going on and they said that they did change out all of the front end bushings, put a new controller arm on and changed out the tie rod ends but had not actually done anything to the trans or diff... I have always had a sound in the front end when making a sharp turn, but now if I am at idle speed and I turn my wheel all the way to the right the car comes to an abrupt stop... If I ease the wheel back to the straight position it will slowly start to roll again (after about 1/4 turn of the steering wheel). If I leave it turned and give it some gas the car will lurch forward with a loud metal clunking sound or with a squealing of the right front tire chirping as if it is not turning, like the front end is locked up or something...

Still in the shop, they say that can't find anything wrong with the front end and are supposed to call me on it today...