My car sure does "ping" a lot

[Garfy]

I never hear pinging on 87 octane in my 2017. Seems to me like something is wrong. Does your car burn any oil? Oil vapors will cause pinging.

Hmm... being that your Coyote is direct injected, that might be part of the issue. Maybe it's getting full of carbon deposits.

I don't think that's the issue; what you described is common on DI engines as most of those are DI only. The 3rd gen Coyote has both DI and port injection so the intake valves do get washed with fuel from the port injectors. I don't know when or what mode the PCM uses one or the other or both, but it's not like the DI engines in Honda, Toyota, etc. which have DI only.

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[Bikeman315]

Strange. My stock '20 GT has no such issues at all, even when I ran 87 octane regular during my break-in period (since I didn't punch it very much to redline for the first couple thousand miles). I now run 92 all the time (what a difference it makes in performance in terms of very obvious difference in acceleration times). I would think that with 4 knock sensors the PCM would pick up any early signs of detonation long before it would become audible. Perhaps you should see if there's an update for the PCM that might address that issue.

Not strange at all really. Every motor is just a tiny bit different. Tolerances vary. Your engine may be fine and the one built a week later could knock.

 

[Garfy]

Not strange at all really. Every motor is just a tiny bit different. Tolerances vary. Your engine may be fine and the one built a week later could knock.

True. Just as you can have 2 exactly identically equipped vehicles and one will outrun the other at least a little. Anything man-made is prone to variations, but with computer tech the way it is today I would think the PCM would "fix" it long before a person could hear the detonation (aka "ping" or spark knock). Today's systems are very fast unlike the early days of computer controls for the powertrain. Even with a very long list of PIDs the values update very quickly and I'm sure what the scanner "sees" is a lot slower than the system actually can react. That's why I suggested checking for possible updates from Ford. Our PCs keep coming out periodically with BIOS updates so I imagine vehicles do also (though the difference is that the auto manufacturer never tells us about updates unless we complain about something and the issue we have is addressed in a particular firmware update they released).

 

[Weyland-Yutani]

That's why I suggested checking for possible updates from Ford.

Good thought. Thanks. I have an oil change coming due, so no harm in asking.

Crazy thing is: I drove to work (only 12 miles) and did multiple errands after in 85° ambient heat and didn't hear any pinging all day. *shrug* Same gas as when I started the thread.

 

[Hack]

I don't think that's the issue; what you described is common on DI engines as most of those are DI only. The 3rd gen Coyote has both DI and port injection so the intake valves do get washed with fuel from the port injectors. I don't know when or what mode the PCM uses one or the other or both, but it's not like the DI engines in Honda, Toyota, etc. which have DI only.

It depends on how effective Ford's setup is. Does it use the port injectors enough to keep the carbon away? I don't know. 2018 was the first year of the DI/PI setup, so it's possible it doesn't function perfectly.

 

[DrZed]

It depends on how effective Ford's setup is. Does it use the port injectors enough to keep the carbon away? I don't know. 2018 was the first year of the DI/PI setup, so it's possible it doesn't function perfectly.

There was a post here recently which showed the PCM's calibration on when it uses DI vs port. Was very interesting to read, it seemed like the port injectors were used frequently enough.

 

[BenS]

My '21 also makes a noise when under light throttle while crusing at a constant speed.

I've had several vehicles that would ping with regular gas but not with premium and this sound like something different. IMO this may be the engine switching between direct injection / port injection. I've noticed almost everyone here commenting has an 18+ up car. Just a thought...

 

[Hack]

There was a post here recently which showed the PCM's calibration on when it uses DI vs port. Was very interesting to read, it seemed like the port injectors were used frequently enough.

How much is enough? How would a person know?

I can say that definitely 100% port injection is enough to keep the valves clean. 100% DI is not. But I have no idea without actual testing whether there's some in-between amount of PI and DI that is enough or what that number would be.

I would assume that the relative percentages needed will depend on how you drive your car, so it's probably different for everyone.

 

[Weyland-Yutani]

OK yeah, I get that it’s been a year, but I thought I should follow up

I just needed to clean my MAFS. That’s it *shrugs*

Thanks for the ideas. I did check plugs and have since set up with Forscan. Didn’t have any “ah-ha!” Epiphanies. I changed the air filter with no improvement, but thought about the MAFS. I cleaned it and … no more ping. I’ve purposely gotten gas from random places since and still no ping. It’s fixed.

 

[ice445]

OK yeah, I get that it’s been a year, but I thought I should follow up

I just needed to clean my MAFS. That’s it *shrugs*

Thanks for the ideas. I did check plugs and have since set up with Forscan. Didn’t have any “ah-ha!” Epiphanies. I changed the air filter with no improvement, but thought about the MAFS. I cleaned it and … no more ping. I’ve purposely gotten gas from random places since and still no ping. It’s fixed.

Unmetered air can definitely cause ping in a performance engine, so it makes sense that fixed it if there was some dirt reducing the reading.

 

[StangTime]

OK yeah, I get that it’s been a year, but I thought I should follow up

I just needed to clean my MAFS. That’s it *shrugs*

Thanks for the ideas. I did check plugs and have since set up with Forscan. Didn’t have any “ah-ha!” Epiphanies. I changed the air filter with no improvement, but thought about the MAFS. I cleaned it and … no more ping. I’ve purposely gotten gas from random places since and still no ping. It’s fixed.

Did you notice the MAF was dirty? Or did you just decide to clean it and see what happens?

 

[350 Feet]

Don't over look carbon build-up, specially if you drive short trips and/or don't bring the engine up to full temperature regularly. Take your car out, get it up to temp and do a few redline pulls. See if this doesn't blow out any lingering carbon. A dear friend told me if this doesn't work, you should buy a Camaro... Okay, maybe not such a dear friend.

 

[nustang]

I use 87 - regular, in the cooler months no problems.
About April i noticed pinging on a nicer day, and am back to 91 for the summer,
perfect now, no pings. (2020GT)

 

[Weyland-Yutani]

Did you notice the MAF was dirty? Or did you just decide to clean it and see what happens?

I did not. It didn’t look dirty, but there isn’t much to look at either. The MAFS in previous cars I’ve owned had unambiguous “hot wires” that you could see. There was a diode looking thing. Maybe that was it, but there was also some ducting that went when back where I couldn’t see.

 

[Black Coyote21]

I did not. It didn’t look dirty, but there isn’t much to look at either. The MAFS in previous cars I’ve owned had unambiguous “hot wires” that you could see. There was a diode looking thing. Maybe that was it, but there was also some ducting that went when back where I couldn’t see.

So what did you exactly do? Youse a MAF cleaner? Just pulled it out the intake tube and sprayed it?

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