Over the last 2 days I've noticed a lot of pinging/detonation coming from the engine bay. Here's some background....

It's been average temperature around here, and I only use 93 gas.

The shifter (MT) has been vibrating a lot and makes the shift **** make noises from the vibrations. The vibrations get worse with more throttle. I believe my input shaft bearing may be going bad, since I get some hiss when sitting at idle that goes away when I push in the clutch pedal.

For the engine, I changed the oil about 2 weeks ago. As far as I can tell, the oil level is good, although I noticed a few drops on the concrete the day after I did the job. Thanks to our marvelous dipstick, getting a real reading on the oil level is almost impossible.

Yesterday I was cruising around 40 mph and when I got on the gas a little bit I heard what appeared to be a pebble getting tossed around inside the tranny. The noise only really appeared when I got on the throttle more than 20%. I took it easy and made it home without incident. The entire time the AFR, temp and power level of the car were all normal. I thought it may be related to the vibrating shifter, but the car shifts fine and the tranny hasn't given me a problem yet. This noise was very loud, so I figured it couldn't be detonation, but I could be wrong.

Today I'm doing some driving and I hear what appears to be detonation/pinging. Nothing as loud as the noise I heard yesterday, but it was there. I heard it whenever I got more than 20% on the throttle, but I didn't dare give it more than 50% because I'm a little worried.

Anyways, what are some things I should be looking for that may cause detonation? The car has a full DE-K swap with an ECU out of a 98 Max, reprogrammed by JWT. I also have a PF TB along with an oil catch can. The EVAP system (IIRC) was kind of hacked together by Tilley when he did the install.

I've never heard my car ping before, and it's really bothering me. I'm thinking of checking my spark plugs because I get the feeling they may be filthy from running too rich. I might also throw my stock ECU in and see if that fixes anything.

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

Just thought I should add that last time I checked my ECU for codes I didn't throw a KS code....although I suppose it could be a ghost code....

 

1.Does your Engine Vibrate at all.
2. What Color smoke comes out of your exhaust.
3. you could have warped heads or bent valves.
4. Is there oil leaking at all.

 

If you checked the codes, the GC's would show up anyway. Just FYI: my car did that all the time in the summer months when I had JWTECU.

You say you're running rich, BUT, you have JWT ECU. What injectors are you using, and what is your actual AFR part and WOT? The reason I ask is because JWT is typically known to be , IMO, lean(14.1-2:1).

When my KS was gone, there were instances where I would get my power back, but at the same time it would ping like whenever that power was back.

Perhaps try cooler plugs since you already have a CC in place.

 

I won't bother responding to StillenGLE....

Let me clarify- I was running rich for a few months after installing a Walbro FP, then installed my AFPR and turned down the FP. Right now the car idles at 14.7 AFR and peaks around 12.5 at WOT. I'm using the stock DE-K injectors, which I believe are 290cc, and larger than stock injectors.

Ok...so here's a list of the things I'm going to check
1. Plugs
2. Codes/voltage of KS
3. Swap ECU
4. ?

So has anybody else with the JWT ECU have the same problem?

 

How new are the coils?

DF

 

The engine has about 50-60,000 on it, so the coils are that old. I don't think the DE-K has coil problems like the 4th gens do....

 

Yeah, they were worse. You should only use new/grey dot 00-01 coils