Well, I had a slight ping after doing the hughes plenum kit. Thought it was due to a defective new 02 sensor, but the ping came back. Ran techron through the tank, thought the ping went away, but it resumed. It was a slight ping (had to have the radio off and listen really well) and it seemed to only do it intermittently, would not always do it. Would only do it at mid rpm's (about 3k), and then once you got over 3k, it would ping no mas. So friday, I got out at the quick stop to purchase some frosty ones. I got back in the truck and it would not start. I assumed it was the battery, since its been on there nigh 5 yrs (napa gold, pretty good batteries). After jumping it off and driving the 30 miles home, there the ping was again. Got it home and started to remove the battery cables and the pos cable was loose. The post was eroded and the terminal would not get tight on it. I put some of those lead shims on the posts, tightened the cables, and the truck is back running. And I've been flogging it from time to time trying to make it ping and it hasn't once, at least not yet. Is it feasible that a loose battery connection could cause an intermittent ping? I'm hoping so, ready to just drive for awhile and only have to worry about my transmission like the good old days.

 

During the tune-up I did this past weekend, I noticed that the cable end was badly eroded - it almost looks like swiss cheese. I couldn't get it to tighten much at all- I could pull it off by hand even with the nut cranked down tight. So I mashed it out of round and put it back on until I can put a new end on the cable this weekend.

Between that and the Summit tune-up kit (plugs, wires, cap, and rotor) it runs waaaaay better. That got rid of a bit of mis-fire. Even if I hadn't done the tune-up, I think tightening up the cable end would have helped that issue.