Engine Pinging

[West 1]

Running on old gas is a very bad idea. it does not burn clean, it will shellac your pistons, lays a clear lacquer like coating on the piston heads, although pretty to look at it is sticky to touch. Not good for the engine. It can also coat the valves and make them stick in the head. If this happens the only cure is to remove the heads and have all the valves cleaned. The other issue that happens is the old fuel will gum up injectors. These can be cleaned. I have done them myself in my garage and had 100% success. Pick up a pigtail at your local Auto Parts store that fits your injectors. Hook the wires up to a 12V battery, this opens the injector, then spray carb cleaner through the injectors till you get a good spray pattern. For a final step I sprayed ATF fluid through to add lubrication before putting them back in the car. I am wondering if your pinging is the result of plugged injectors or possibly the shellac build up on the pistons increasing compression. I will lean towards the injectors. I recently fixed a boat with he same issue, it was a Fuel Injected 502 engine. When I got it, there was not enough power in the 502 to get the boat over 5 mph. Many dead cylinders. An Injector cleaning got it running like brand new and it would do over 55 MPH. Old gas was the issue. We had to dispose of 43 gallons of bad fuel. That was expensive, they charged $8 per gallon to dispose of it. I put less than 2 gallons of this stuff in my Yukon, 5.3L engine, I was leaving on a trip the next day, 1000 mile round trip. With the 2 gallons of the old fuel in my 26 gallon tank I thought it would mix in and burn fine. Wrong. I got a check engine light within the first 100 miles. It ran OK but something was wrong and I was towing 7,000 pounds. Once I got fresh gas the check engine light cleared and it ran like brand new again. And this was heavily diluted old gas. 2 gallons in a full 26 gallon tank. Towing 7,000 pounds at up to 8,000 ft elevation I was only getting 7.5 MPG so I burned through the bad tank quickly. I do know better but pumping out 43 gallons of this bad fuel I ran out of storage containers to hold it, I thought less than 2 gallons won't hurt. Ha, I was wrong. No engine damage from the 2 gallons but it did not run right till that stuff was burned and replaced. I have seen several engines in the past 20 years with this same issue. Always the same story, car sat for over a year, finally got it fixed and never thought about the effect of old gas. I did see you drained your tank but the injectors may already be plugged.

 

[coz3z3]

Keep it.

Lol it is very tempting. It's a great vehicle. Has a few cosmetic things wrong (turn signal stalk sticks, notorious center console lid wear and trim is bent, center console cup holder lid won't stay closed, back seats have some side trim missing), but nothing major. Going to put a full detail on it in the coming weeks and see if I can bring the paint back and shine. The roof isn't peeling like I have read as an issue.

Running on old gas is a very bad idea. it does not burn clean, it will shellac your pistons, lays a clear lacquer like coating on the piston heads, although pretty to look at it is sticky to touch. Not good for the engine. It can also coat the valves and make them stick in the head. If this happens the only cure is to remove the heads and have all the valves cleaned. The other issue that happens is the old fuel will gum up injectors. These can be cleaned. I have done them myself in my garage and had 100% success. Pick up a pigtail at your local Auto Parts store that fits your injectors. Hook the wires up to a 12V battery, this opens the injector, then spray carb cleaner through the injectors till you get a good spray pattern. For a final step I sprayed ATF fluid through to add lubrication before putting them back in the car. I am wondering if your pinging is the result of plugged injectors or possibly the shellac build up on the pistons increasing compression. I will lean towards the injectors. I recently fixed a boat with he same issue, it was a Fuel Injected 502 engine. When I got it, there was not enough power in the 502 to get the boat over 5 mph. Many dead cylinders. An Injector cleaning got it running like brand new and it would do over 55 MPH. Old gas was the issue. We had to dispose of 43 gallons of bad fuel. That was expensive, they charged $8 per gallon to dispose of it. I put less than 2 gallons of this stuff in my Yukon, 5.3L engine, I was leaving on a trip the next day, 1000 mile round trip. With the 2 gallons of the old fuel in my 26 gallon tank I thought it would mix in and burn fine. Wrong. I got a check engine light within the first 100 miles. It ran OK but something was wrong and I was towing 7,000 pounds. Once I got fresh gas the check engine light cleared and it ran like brand new again. And this was heavily diluted old gas. 2 gallons in a full 26 gallon tank. Towing 7,000 pounds at up to 8,000 ft elevation I was only getting 7.5 MPG so I burned through the bad tank quickly. I do know better but pumping out 43 gallons of this bad fuel I ran out of storage containers to hold it, I thought less than 2 gallons won't hurt. Ha, I was wrong. No engine damage from the 2 gallons but it did not run right till that stuff was burned and replaced. I have seen several engines in the past 20 years with this same issue. Always the same story, car sat for over a year, finally got it fixed and never thought about the effect of old gas. I did see you drained your tank but the injectors may already be plugged.

Yeah I knew it wasn't a great idea, but I went for it anyways. I didn't think it was the injectors as it was the same cylinder 5 that was missing. I then did replace and swap injectors around to see if the misfire would follow, it didn't. In the end, it had a hole in the piston. Problem solved now! Thanks for the suggestions and I also can't believe that 2 gallons messed up that much! lol

 

[West 1]

Pinging in the engine is either a lean fuel supply, low octane fuel or over advanced timing. A lean burn condition / detonation can melt a hole in a piston. Make sure you find the cause of your pinging or a piston may melt in the new engine also. In most new engines you bolt up the old manifold and injectors which still can be the cause of the first failure. I hope you have it dialed in and it runs great.

 

[Tahoe14]

You may be able to find some interior trim items at a salvage yard or LKQ online.