1987 Aerostar Pinging

[Stephen_G]

My friends recently purchased aerostar is pinging, we got all the old fuel out (had year old fuel in it, we just drove it to get it all out) seafoamed it once on the night he bought it before taking it home.

The engine still pings under hard acceleration, at first i thought it was the old E10 fuel in the tank losing its octane, droping down to 85 or so from 87...but it still does it.

Would a second round of seafoam be a good idea? or should we try B12 Chemtool through the brake booster?

 

[addyguy]

Water de-carboning.

Do the same thing you do with Seafaomm down the vacumn line, just do it with water, very carefully to not lock the engine.

Cheap, and gets rid of carbonn FAST!

 

[CATERHAM]

Does the engine ping when it is both hot and cold?
A cooler thermostat solved the problem in a car I once had and this was pinging on premium gas.

 

[TallPaul]

I never did solve the pinging on the '92 Aerostar 3.0. Did the water decarbon thing too, and an Italian tuneup, as well as a real tuneup etc. Retarded timing stopped the pinging and made the car painfully slow, so I settled on using higher octane fuel to end the pinging. Never heard the thermostat idea, would be worth a try I guess.

 

[01rangerxl]

Is it a 2.9L or 2.3L? Most likely a 2.9, but pinging isn't uncommon in either engine. In fact, I think Ford had a TSB or some other notice for later 4.0 V6s (same Cologne engine family) to run the engine over 3000 RPM to prevent carbon buildup.

I'd do more Seafoam or the water de-carboning. Aerostars tend to not get driven very hard, so it's probably pretty carboned up.

 

[JasonC]

Have you done a tune up ? If not I would put some new Motorcraft/Autolite plugs and wires, distributor cap/button and maybe a new coil. I would also change the fuel filter and run some Techron.

 

[spasm3]

EGR stuck closed?

 

[mechtech2]

Sure, putting high octane fuel will probably stop the pinging.
But there are almost certainly one or more other problems.
EGR valve, thermostat, carbon deposits [use water by intake ingestion, or a tank or two of Chevron Techron].
It could be too hot - dirty engine or radiator, or bad thermostat.
Hot intake air will also do this.

 

[Stephen_G]

It is a 3.0L Vulcan, same engine my 2003 sable has, just flat instead of roller lifters (140HP and 160 LbFt vs my 155HP and 186 LbFt)

We plan to do the thermostat, and also it pings when cool.

The plugs and wires look newish, definitely within 4 years of replacement.

Going to see about getting him to check the timing

 

[artificialist]

While checking the timing, occasionally tap a hammer near the knock sensor. If the timing doesn't change, you have problems related to the knock sensor, and that can be a major cause of knock.

Some electronically controlled engines will advance the timing as far as they can until the knock sensor detects knock.