How do you tell if an engine is pinging?

[Forbidden Snake]

I'm not a mechanic and I'm not much of a car buff when it comes to the engine and modifications to it.

My car is stock right now and runs perfect. The engine is silky smooth all the way to 6500 RPM. When I start modding this baby with chip & pulley, how can I tell if the engine is pinging? I've never heard an engine pinging before. Do you hear the engine make weird noise? Does the car hesitate in exceleration? Does the engine shake violently? Or how does a dummy tell if the engine is in fact pinging? Pinging and detonating are two words for the exact same thing right?

Sorry for all the dumb questions and thanks for helping out another SVT enthusiast!

 

[Got Incon?]

will sound like marbles in a tin can. And usually by the time you hear it if it was serious it is to late, especially on a high ouput engine.

 

[i8u]

Originally posted by Forbidden Snake
I'm not a mechanic and I'm not much of a car buff when it comes to the engine and modifications to it.

My car is stock right now and runs perfect. The engine is silky smooth all the way to 6500 RPM. When I start modding this baby with chip & pulley, how can I tell if the engine is pinging? I've never heard an engine pinging before. Do you hear the engine make weird noise? Does the car hesitate in exceleration? Does the engine shake violently? Or how does a dummy tell if the engine is in fact pinging? Pinging and detonating are two words for the exact same thing right?

Sorry for all the dumb questions and thanks for helping out another SVT enthusiast!

It will sound like marbles smacking each other.

Detonation is caused by tempatures rising above a certain level within the cylinder. The sound is actually the piston shuddering in the cylinder bore. The piston is somewhere between 90 degrees to 60 degrees before top dead center.

Then there is pre-ignition.... Occurs when the piston is somewher between 60 degrees and 30 degrees BTDC and multiple ignition points occur.

A ping is caused by the collision of pressure waves. Both conditions will cause a substantial power loss, rapid heat generation, and serious damage to engine parts.

Hope this helps.

:beer:

 

[Forbidden Snake]

Thanks. That helps a little. I'll be purchasing a complete kit from someone soon. Hopefully they have all the programming done perfectly for the mods and I won't have to worry about such. But it's a good thing to know incase things don't go right!