Try some different gas.

 

Just put in 89 octane instead of the usual 87. The pinging went away, but I noticed no other power or mpg differences

 

Octane won't give you more power, and you likely wouldn't notice fuel mileage changes either. It is more knock resistant, so, if your engine actually had a knock sensor, you could run more timing. But, dodge, for whatever reason, elected NOT to do so, so timing is pretty much set by tables in the PCM programming. No adaptive ability at all. (unlike systems from the friggin' 80's that had them....... WTF??)

Might try running some combustion chamber cleaner thru the fuel system, see if doesn't help at all.

 

Have you ever heard of the "death flash". Well regardless of it's stupid name, all this was was the dodge dealer flashing the computer to pull a little bit of timing out of the pre-set tables to prevent detonation. There is speculation about whether or not this was done to "cover up" leaking plenum gaskets. I don't know whether that is true or no, but I can say that my 01 has some aggressive timing. Below is the stock timing table from my truck. Mine does not detonate on 87 anymore after fixing the plenum and vacuum leaks even with up to 40 degrees of timing in it.