My experiences on pinging

I went to Colorado recently and before the trip the explorer was pinging pretty bad. I decided to run mid octane gas the whole trip and the ping went away. (I'm from St. Louis BTW) About half way to CO I started loosing power bad, I could go 75mph with it floored, not good I thought. Before the trip I was allready experiencing very poor performance with the explorer. So in desperation I stopped at a gas station somewhere in Kansas, and talked to a mechanic. He changed the fuel filter...all my pinging, poor performance, etc. went away. I had 53k mi on it. He said its pretty common and Ford recommends changing it every 15-20k. Seems pretty lousy to me. Good thing I had it changed though...got to Pikes Peak with no problem. Thin air and all. Oh and for the trip I covered up the holes I drilled in the air box thinking that may have been causing the pinging...it was not.

Ryan J.
ryanj@primary.net

Did the mechanic give an explanation of why changing the fuel filter fixed affected the pinging?

gatlin

Did the mechanic give an explanation of why changing the fuel filter fixed the pinging?

gatlin

I didnt know the pinging was gone until I left and I didnt think that getting the fuel filter changed would help the pinging either.
Its now about a week since that had happened and STILL no pinging.

Does anyone have any ideas on how changing the fuel filter could affect pinging?

gatlin

Gatlin:
The probable reason that the fuel filter change stopped the pinging is as follows:
Fuel flow to the engine is controlled by a combination of a constant fuel pressure to the injectors and the spray timing of the injectors. The fuel pressure is controlled by a pressure regulating valve which can only do its job if the fuel pressure from the fuel pump equals or exceeds the regulated pressure. If there is a restriction in the fuel feed line (a plugged fuel filter, for example) the fuel pressure reaching the engine will be reduced as higher fuel flows are demanded by engine load. This will cause a lean air/fuel mixture in the cylinders with the result of a tendency to burn by "explosion" rather than with a progressive flame front which is normal. It is this explosive burn that you hear as "pinging". Of course, restricted fuel flow also means less power output from the engine.

Sounds like a good explanation to me.
Hehe, I was talking to a car parts dealer (attempting to buy somthing to fix it) before I went on my trip..told him that it was pinging bad and mentioned I had drilled holes in the airbox. He freaked out saying the MAF couldnt tell how much air was going to the engine, thats why it was pinging. I didnt aruge with him and left without buying anything...guess he thought I managed to put holes somewhere after the sensor...whatever.

Oh, one other thing. The irony of this whole situation was that I attempted to change the fuel filter on my own before I went on the trip...just because I thought it would be good to do. But had given up because I could only get one of the fuel lines off...so I figured it would be ok if the filter stayed on a little longer...that'll teach me.

Thanks for the explanation, Skip. I'll be changing mine this weekend.

gatlin