Hi I'm new to the forum so let me introduce myself. My name is Dale I am 32 Married with three beautiful girls......I live in a small town in Pennsylvania. Other than that there is not much to tell. Well on to my question.....I recently bought a 98 dodge 1500 with a 318, and I noticed that I get a timing knock when the engine is under load after it gets warmed up. I replaced the rotor and cap....it helped a little......my question is can you set the timing or is it set by the computer in the truck and if so is there any way to change it. I am currently running 87 octane gas in it due to the prices and I haven't tried a higher octane to see if it goes away. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi and welcome to DF. The timing is not adjustable, what you need to do is a search for plenum gasket here. Replace it.

 

I read about the gasket and everyone said that they also used oil but mine doesn't use oil.......and someone said you could open the butterflies on your intake with the engine off and see if you have oil laying in the intake.....if so your gasket is bad.....I just read that today and it dark so I haven't tried it yet.......and I'm not sure the information that I read was true or not.

 

mine pinged but didn't use oil.
higher octane gas will usually stop or at least reduce the ping.
do a search for about a million posts.
the best repair is a hughes aluminum plate. with gaskets and bolts it about $150.
APS has a similar product but some have experienced shipping delays.
welcome to df.

 

thanks for the info everyone

 

hey dale,

I didn't have much oil in mine either, Replaced it and my pinging stopped...

if that helps any...


I used the hughes aluminum plate and metal gasket kit... I would say its worth it so you dont have to worry about it anymore