98 ram 1500 engine ping

[termitetrooper]

Guys do you know if the 5.2 L engine in a 98 model needs valve adjustments or not? whats happening is if I put regular gas in it it pings like crazy when I accelorate or when I go up hills. but if I put mid grade gas in it stops. with todays gas prices I'd much rather be putting low test gas in it. I dont want to do damage to my motor by letting it ping like that any suggestions?

[MagnumFiredNeon]

Where do you typically get your gas from? One of my buddies fills up at a cheap station and his F-150 sounds like a marching band uphill or under load unless he uses mid or fuels up at a different station (Shell). How's the rest of your general maintanence (spark plugs, wires, air / fuel filters, etc)?

[Scrapper]

it may be it's out of time a little bit..have you tryed diffirent gas stations?? and also you can put a litle octane booster in and see if that helps..if not sounds like your going to buy better grade of gas.....but good luck to you....

[HEMIDAZE]

Wihout a doubt the most common cause of engine ping is too low octane gas for your vehicle. Other causes could be timing (a lot of vehicles can't be timed anymore) or carbon buildup. Run your truck low on gas and fill it up with some high octane gas. My bet is it will cure your problem.

[MRDANGERUS]

I had the same problem. No, valves are not adjustable. I have changed plugs, wires, distributor cap and replaced OEM coil with Jacobs Engineering (ACCEL) variable flux coil. I get Sunoco 87 octane and never had pinging any more.

[scoutinkeith]

I'm really suprised nobody mentioned checking the intake plenum gasket!

it is (in my opinion) a flaw in the design of the intake manifolds on the magnum engines(both the 5.2. and 5.9). the intake manifolds on these trucks are a two piece design. the top "keg" part of the intake (part that you can see) is made of aluminum, wile the plenum plate(on the bottom of the manifold, you can't see it without taking the manifold off of the engine), is just a stampped steel plate.

there is a gasket between the two parts, however, because the aluminum and steel expand and contract differently as they warm and cool, it's only a matter of time before the gasket works it's way out of place and blows out.
OK, now that that's out of the way, a bad intake plenum gasket will let oil be drawn directly from the crank case, into the intake manifold. this will cause pinging as you described, and if it's only letting a little bit of oil through, the pinging may go away with things like higher octane fuel, hotter pluggs, and the dreaded "deth flash" (computer flash that pulls a few degrees of timing to stop pinging)

to check for a bad plenum gasket, there are two things to do;
1: remove air filter, open the throttle blades, and shine a light down the throttle body. you're looking for oil pooling on the bottom of the intake. NOTE: if the leak in the gasket is really small, you may not be able to see any oil without using one of those little mirrors on a stick to look in the verry back corners of the manifold.

2: start by removing the PCV valve (as well as any other vacume lines that you find) from the valve cover(s). plug/cap all of the holes/hoses except for the PCV hole in the valve cover. start the engine, and let it warm up a bit.
place your hand (or a piece of paper) over the PCV hole in the valve cover.
if the plenum gasket is still GOOD, you should feel a slight preasure start to build in the valve cover. if the plenum gasket is BAD, you will feel vacume at the valve cover.

I am by no means saying that this is the only thing that can cause these engines to ping, I've seen it caused by everything already mentioned, but the plenum gasket going bad is a verry common problem with the dodge 5.2 and 5.9 engines. and if your plenum gasket is bad, changing plugs, or running higher octane fuel is only going to cover up the problem.