I just filed my bee with regular unleaded like every other time. I installed a Mac cold air kit, and now I am experiencing pinging. It is only slight if I accelerate a Little more or less when the pinging starts it goes away. I added some octane boost to the full tank and it has not helped. Has anyone else experienced this? Any Ideas?

 

My guess is that you either accidentally disturbed a vacuum hose or sensor.

 

Actually it is my experience that the increased octane will cause pinging, not fix it. The engine computers are tuned to run on 87 octane and the increased octane combined with the new charge of cold air is gonna cause the engine to run a little lean, I think you will find it better to run the cheap stuff, wouldn't hurt to try it for a few tanks to see if the problem goes away.

A vaccum hose wouldn't cause pinging, it would cause the engine to sputter and die when you backed off the throttle.

 

Check your EGR hoses. As indicated below it is a major cause of pinging, and increased fuel octane will NOT cause pinging and is more likley to reduce or eliminate it.

Pinging, knocking and detonation are all terms for a condition known as "pre-ignition". That means some of the gas and air mixture is igniting in the cylinder before it's supposed to. And when that extra flame front crashes into the normal flame front (created by the spark plug), you hear a noise, and that noise is pinging.

There are four major causes of pinging. The first three are related to excessive heat.

The first is severe engine overheating. If the engine is running too hot for any reason, the temperature in the cylinders can simply be too high. In that case, some of the mixture can ignite before the spark plug fires just from the intense heat.

The second major cause of pinging is carbon buildup inside the cylinders and on the pistons. When too much carbon collects, it can reduce the size of the cylinders (increasing the compression and temperature of the cylinder contents) and retain excessive heat itself.

The third cause of pinging is a malfunctioning exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system. The EGR is supposed to send non-combustible exhaust gas into the cylinders to lower the temperature of the mixture.

How does 800-degree exhaust gas LOWER the temperature in the cylinders? Because it doesn't burn, and it crowds out some of the oxygen that would have burned and made an even hotter flame. And if that EGR is not working properly, the cylinder temperature can be too hot and the engine can ping.

And finally, incorrect ignition timing can cause pinging. The ignition timing determines when the spark plugs fire. And if they're set to fire too early, the stuff will begin to burn too early.

The use of higher-octane gas often makes the pinging stop because it has a higher ignition point. By requiring a higher temperature to make the gasoline burn, you reduce the likelihood of it "pre-igniting" somewhere else in the cylinder.

 

I have to agree with DonG - increased Octane fuel will not increase pinging due to detonation - it could only decrease it. Could the pinging you're refering to be the notorious "ticking" some of the Hemis have? (It's not related to detonation and octane fuel.)

 

I stand corrected. Glad to know that I can run higher octane if I want to do so.

 

if the o2 sensors are working you wouldnt have lean mixture even with the cold air intake its not any different than driving in cold weather. also more octane would only help pinging problem