thewarmachine

Mine "pings" when I don't let the clutch out soon enough under harsh acceleration. Otherwise, it doesn't do it. I'm running a Brenspeed 93 tune also.

fordfanboy

That was a good description of pinging but I strongly disagree with adding 'octane booster' to your gas. First of all, 99% of them are useless, and the couple that are good seem to burn up these 2 piece plugs quicker than a kid to candy. Don't use them.

What I usually tell people to look for cause you would know the sound is pinging will sound like little rocks hitting your windshield.

If you hear true pinging (or even if you THINK it's pinging) then get out of the throttle immediately. These toothbrush rods in your stock motors don't need much detonation to decide to get a birdseye view of your engine compartment...

A MAJOR cause for detonation is too much timing in the tune for the level of octane used. I cannot stress enough how important octane is. The more timing you run, the more octane you need...period. Now 90% of tuners want to give your car timing cause that's the easiest and quickest way to get your car more power but you have to be careful and make sure the octane is equivilant to the timing.

I'll give you a prime example. On my race tune with a peak timing of 28ยบ - I run straight VP C16 (118 octane) Many of you guys on the east coast have 93 octane which is pretty good and good for a lot more timing then we can run here in cali with our polluted 91 crap. brent is right though, try to steer clear of the 10% ethonal crap too if you have a performance tune with added timing in your car.

Uncle Peepers

I don't recommend the use of octane booster on a regular basis either; only as a test. The only side effects on the plugs I've seen is that the insulator turns red.
I totally agree on the timing thing for those that have the ability to adjust timing. If you've already maxed out on octane, then retard the timing until the pinging stops.
I think it's important to distinguish pinging from detonation. Pinging will harm an engine over time---either a short time or a long time, depending on a variety of factors. Detonation, where the air/fuel mix actually explodes rather than burns, will harm an engine right away. In my experience, detonation is much less common and sounds like the block being hit with a hammer.

Uncle Peepers

Ford_Dude

I agree most oct boosters are useless but IF you are to run one look for the ones with MMT
from tests that I've read on multible sites its the only additive that doesn't have ill effects and works
as well as I've run 2 tanks treated with MMT

the only down side that those tests found is for the price they were getting MMT for it would be cheaper to just mix 93 with race fuel(ie 104-118) to get the equ oct (but the price was close)

05slpGT

+1 on brenspeed being good customer service

fordfanboy

Agreed. MMT is the real mccoy.

carmanwelder

I'll give you an $800 reason not to use octane boost. Big mistake. Power cleaned injectors, a new set of plugs and 2 tanks of gas to find out the problem.