i have a 99 ram 1500 ram with the 5.9 360 and it pings it dose t the most going up hill and i thought it might of been the gas so i been putting higher oct gas but it still dose it it dose not doo it all all the time and no one knows wat is and it is driving me crazy i thought it might of had a intake manifold leek but i checked it and it was fine caN anyone help?

 

with stock pcm programming my 01 was fine. i applied the hypertech 87 octane program to it, (which advances the timing), and it starting pinging bad. fortunately for me, by running premium gas (91-92-93 octane), the pinging stopped. i eventually replaced the plenum gasket with the hughes kit, and also replaced the timing chain. that fixed it, but i don't know which one, or both, that it was.

if you want to try and avoid anything major, stay with the higest octane premium gas, and consider autolite 3923 spark plugs, which are one heat range cooler. you might also try a 180 degree thermostat. anything that brings down the cylinder temperature will reduce the ping. you might also reset the pcm to its default values, as those settings tend to be a tad richer. maybe/maybe not but a new pre-cat o2 sensor might create a tad richer condition.

read the last couple weeks posts about plenum gasket. its likely to be your problem, as it creates a leaner, hotter cylinder conditon when its sucking air.

good info here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_knock

 

i use the better grade gas it seemed to do it after i put the high flow cat on it with flow master mufler and the intake thats when i really notiesed it and ever sinc then its really bad like people in the truck all ways thinking it going to blow up like you can hear it over the radio

 

i waS going to have the computer flashed and went to dodge tohave it done and they said not to do it becausethey said i wont like the power dif after its done and once its done its done

 

you say mak the motor run cooler but it even dose it in the dead of winter it seems temp dose not make a dif

 

 

they lied to you
it CAN be removed and returned to orignal values
should not have a serious loss of power at all... if any
i'll have to look it up some and see which flash they told you about and its effects.

reset computer and see how it runs.
sounds like an o2 sensor or plenum problem

 

yeah i found NO flashes available for you for any engine performance issues, only things are the Plenum and Spark plug wire routing - causing pinging and cross ignition

 

you mentioned you replaced the intake.
what intake is it.. stock or other ?
any possibility that its leaking ?
have you got a check engine light or stored codes (ign switch on - off - on - off -on).

pinging is bad for the engine, as its firing too soon and fighting itself and it generally runs like crap when its pinging.

one of the stories floating around is that the original pcm programming had a slightly advance timing curve for more power, but had a tendency to ping. rather than fix the problem, dodge modified the pcm programming to retard the timing, eliminate the ping, and lose power. thus - the death flash. since the new programming superseeds the old, and only the latest version is available from the dealer, then if your pcm had the original programming, and its over-written, then its gone forever and can't be restored. that might be what you dealer was talking about. some say there is a death flash, others say there is not. doesn't really matter. it sounds like you have a different problem.

 

Dont get the flash done, it is refered to as the death flash... fix the problem, when you checked the intake plenum gasket did you yank the TB and look at all 4 corners for oil pooling?

welcome to df