Well, my 318 is still pinging and wondering if there's a last resort before I just burn it to the ground. I've done absolutely everything that's supposed to cure it.
02 Dealership deathflash, cap, rotor, plugs, wires, still ping
04 Professional injector cleaner, tune up with Champion truckplugs 4071, no ping for 4000 miles
05 Starts pinging, professional injector cleaner, no effect
06 Using oil, still pinging, Hughes kit plus 180 stat installed professionally, tune-up with Autolites 3923, still pinging
07 Hypertech 87 install, excessive ping, using 89 lessens ping, Mopar CCC and Seafoam, no effect
Recently-- Still using oil, still pinging, switched to Mopar pcv, seemed to help a little in oil loss. Very slight ping on 87, hardly any on 89.
Today-- Still using oil and now pinging bad on 89.

There's no puddles in the intake. No oil leaks. I'm at a complete loss and starting to think bad thoughts (ie, dumping it.) Mileage is only 92k and it runs excellent with about 13 city mpg. Anything else I can do?

 

this might not be accurate but isnt there a knock sensor or some thing like that? I think I have read about that on here some place. Oil loss could be bad valve seals.

 

Intake manifold gasket! Could be sucking air which can make it ping. Oil loss, valve stem seals between #5 and #7 look for cracks in the head there as well that is the week spot. If it runs good don't trash it the bottom end is probablly great, now it's time to stroke it.

 

You didn't say what year it was but being a 318 I don't think it has a knock sensor or an EGR valve. There's two out. And I assume we are talking about spark knock or detonation..... and are you sure that's it? Can you post the sound? Ping is as good a word as any, but detonation doesn't at all sound like a ping.

I didn't look up the plugs you specified but you may want to try using a Champion plug2 steps colder than stock. You can look up the number on Champion's website or call them for the number. A colder plug moves more heat away from the tip/electrode and lowers cylinder temps. A hotter plug raises cylinder temps.... all else being equal of course.

Does it knock "ping" all the time or just under a heavy load? What about if you take it out of OD (if just under a load)?
Do you have oversized tires increasing your gear ratio?
Will it go away with 93 octane? What brand of fuel do you run?
Have you looked at O2 sensors? That'll do it in a minute.
Does the tailpipe put outsteady exhaust or does it pulse? (restricted exhaust/cat, you can get it checked)
any check engine light? immediately? or just after the knock starts?

Just trying to help. Ya' gotta go at it logically first. Otherwise it just cost money.

 

How much oil are you using? I would do a compression check and see what that tells you. Oil getting into the cylinders and the resulting carbon deposits are probably causing the pinging. I know you said you already tried Seafoam, but, until you get the underlying problem figure out and solved,you can try this:
Get 2 or 3 more bottles of Seafoam and a long thin funnel. Pull your plugs and hand crank 45* past #1tdc or halfway between the tdc harmonic balancer slot and the second slot. Use the funnel to fill the cylinders with the Seafoam through the plug holes until the are full up to the holes. Let it sit overnite. Start it the next morning (keep cranking it until it starts). Give it several really good revs.Tell all of the neighbors that come running into your yard that everything is alright, and that you are just cleaning the carbon out of your combustion chambers in an attempt to save the enviroment and slow the melting of the polar ice caps. Then, take it for a drive and romp it good for a few miles.

 

Hahaha! That's a good story to tell the neighbors, Mopowar! I just had it in the shop yesterday for a pressure test and the plenum is not leaking. The mechanic highly encouraged me to use the stock plugs (champions) instead of Autolites. Actually, I had bought the Platinums by mistake. Maybe the Platinums aren't good in the 318? I think I'll go back to Truck plugs and see how it does. The ping could have been just bad gasoline too. And it does have a new O2 sensor before the cat. The oil usage is really hard to gauge because of in town driving. I'm taking it on a road trip in a couple weeks and will change oil then monitor it exactly for an accurate measurement.

 

I never used that story but I did have some neighbors (2) come over, and one other standing out in her front yard peering over. Last cam I put in; First day I had the cam in,valvetrain back together, timing cover/water pumpon, the radiator/condenser/tranny cooler assembly buttoned up and decided to call it a day. The idea struck me when I was drinking a beer staring at the motor to pour seafoam down the intake ports in the heads. I used three bottles. Next morning it took about an hour and a half to button everything else up, and then I cranked it. It sputtered at first. After that, you could not see half of my house and yard. I couldn't believe the amount of smoke. I could hear my wife yelling, but I could not see her.I had used the stuff before, and it smoked like hell, but nothing close to this.

 

I'll bet the Platinums are causing a problem. I tried running Platinum plugs in another vehicle of mine once, and it ran like crap. Swapped them back out for standard steel tips, and it ran like a champ. However, I ran platinum plugs in my old 1993 Escort, and that thing ran like a top with 400 miles per tank of gas, even with the A/C running.

 

nice detailed post. good job.
this is a question. can a worn timing chain throw out the timing enough to cause ping ?
the reason that i asked is that i had a bad ping problem. so i replaced water pump, timing chain, plenum, tune-up all at once and and pinging went away. i don't know which one of the changes fixed the ping, but i had a LOT of slack in the old chain at 120k.

 

Maybe a timing chain could cause this. But remember, mine's been pinging since I bought it. The dealership just tried to cover it up with a flash. So unless the chain was not installed properly or something wasn't engineered just right, it shouldn't be causing it that early. Maybe now with 92k on the ticker, but not right away.