I agree the Champion plugs are the only way to go in these trucks. My buddy at the dealer used to say the same thing. He said Autolites seemed to foul out in a month or two in these trucks which is what I experienced too.

However, he said in the post above yours that he was running Champion plugs so I doubt thats the issue unless he has one fouled. Are you running premium gas? Maybe I missed this but what temp T-stat are you running? I'm wondering if it's not from the programmer. Do you have a known good pleneum gasket?

 

The truck plugs are already cooler then the stock Champions.
I think the aggressive timing of the SCT is to blame.
You can try different brands of gas but as this engine doesn't use a knock sensor I think you will probably have to back off the timing curve in your custom SCT flash.

 

You're running 87 octane with a performance tune? I'd skip the octane booster, and just run the highest octane gas I could get. See if that cures it.

 

No, I'm currently running 93 octane on the performance tune, champion truck plugs #4436 and getting ping.

The truck plugs have a longer snout than the autolite 3923's. I'll try them (3923's) and see if the shorter snout and cooler temp gets it to stop. If not, it'll be time to contact Sean, as I'm not going to put octane booster in it every tank.

Now, does anybody have a good suggestion for spark gap while running an MSD 6A box?

 

The gap is .40 stock, and I think with msd your supposed to open it up .05? so .45 gap. I'd shoot PA a pm and see what he gap's at since I know he has first hand info.

 

I would leave the gap stock. You will be getting multiple sparks and that's good enough.
The bigger the gap the harder it is on all the ignition components and the multiple sparks are already going to accelerate wear.

 

I do still get ping with Truck plugs but not all the time. Of course, I can make it ping with anything, not hard to do. Used to ping with the deathflash before the PPIII. But I digress. . . . .

Does anybody know the difference between the two Champion Truck plugs 4436 and 4071? I have never heard of 4436 until recently and if it's a cooler plug, I might try it. Many years ago, the only number recommended was the 4071. Or if it's not cooler, is there even a cooler plug than the 4071?

 

The 4436's have an elongated tip just like the stock plugs on the '98+ years. The 4071's are the recommended plug for the pre '98 trucks.

I have read that the longer tip could hit the piston as it compresses, but i have no first hand knowledge of this.

HankL (anybody heard from him lately?) wrote a lengthy plug and wire article about the longer "snout acting as a slight ignition advance, so I would imagine using the 4071's in a '98+ vehicle could "retard" the igntion timing every so slighty.

I did replace the Truck Plugs with the 9323's and the pinging was gone. It is important to note that it is also 20* cooler today, that means fuel and air temps were cooler to start. I wonder if relocating the IAT might help my situation should it return on a hotter day?

 

+1
I wouldn't evenmess with the plugs. While they work to minimize detonation,they may causeperformance issues. I would just send Sean an email and have him pull a little part throttle timing. Just tell him the rpms and load conditions and he can fix it easily.

 

Been awhile since I've been on here. These are the exact conditions when pinging occurs in my truck. From what I've seen I have no plenum leak, I've changed the plugs to Autolites, and used Seafoam/MCCC, but the only thing that has effectively gotten rid of the pinging was using a higher octane fuel.