Engine Pinging, anyone has it?
After all this, my mechanic said it must be engine pinging. He kind of was in denial because it wasn't something he really encountered with the lexus V8's.
as I have noticed the sound from my car, I really started observing most cars new and old in my area have that sound. I think it's the quality of the gas over here (low combustion levels cause pinging from what I know)
the only way of real elimination of this is to remove the valves and manually remove the carbon build up. Expensive as hell.
So right now I use octane booster with my gas to bring up the combustion rating and it definitely helps.
Do any of you guys experience this?
If you're having "pinging" its most likely your MAF sensor going bad or just contaminated. Ever install K&N or any other oiled intake filter? What will quickly contaminate your MAF sensor. Grab a can of CRC MAF cleaner from auto parts store and clean it up.
I have also changed many stations. The only gas station that seem to reduce the pinging is the Sunoco and I have to use their 93... which is about 15 cents more than every other station in the areas 93 octane. I used to try their 91 octane but that didn't work
If you're having "pinging" its most likely your MAF sensor going bad or just contaminated. Ever install K&N or any other oiled intake filter? What will quickly contaminate your MAF sensor. Grab a can of CRC MAF cleaner from auto parts store and clean it up.
My mechanic told me that to get to the valves, the valve covers would have to be taken off. At least for the 1UZ engine. I know anything involving the valve covers are NOT cheap. Then it would have to be shaved off if it was hard to take off, because it's a lot of carbon build up.
I will look into cleaning the MAF again. I did it maybe 6 months ago with the same product you are speaking about. I also have changed the throttle body and it was cleaned before installation. Looks like seafoam might be the next step, but I was always nervous about doing it.
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My mechanic told me that to get to the valves, the valve covers would have to be taken off. At least for the 1UZ engine. I know anything involving the valve covers are NOT cheap. Then it would have to be shaved off if it was hard to take off, because it's a lot of carbon build up.
I will look into cleaning the MAF again. I did it maybe 6 months ago with the same product you are speaking about. I also have changed the throttle body and it was cleaned before installation. Looks like seafoam might be the next step, but I was always nervous about doing it.
As far as removing the valve covers, its a rather simple job... its removing the valves, that gets complicated. As far as shaving the valve covers, your mechanic is just clueless. Its an aluminum engine, not a rusty piece of junk.
If you want a simple way to clean your valves, then take it to a shop that does "run-rite" service - I believe most Strauss Discount Auto centers offer it. It costs roughly 60-90 bucks, and what they do is hook up a can of cleaner to one of your vacuum lines, and inject it slowly while the car is running - the process takes about 30 minutes. It works much better than seafoam and will make your valves clean as new.
But I very much doubt its your valves that are causing this condition. Its much more likely to be your MAF - they do go bad, or it could be low fuel pressure. A new MAF is relatively inexpensive, and testing fuel pressure isn't very hard either.
Do you have any random misfire codes?
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You can clean the gunk off yourself. You wont need to get it sanded off. Your mechanic is feeding you garbage. If he has to put so much labor into cleaning your head; I suggest you get a used head and get new valves and move your rockers and springs/retainers over instead of cleaning.
Theres also this doctor RX thing, if i find the link later i will post it but its an additive you place into your oil and it cleans the **** out of your cars engine. It could possibly loosen some crud/buildup that is blocking oil from coming out of your engine (rear main seal, oil pan fipg, etc). Its like $20.00 but works wonders.












