Re: Spark Knock

From: fawcett@uism.bu.edu
Date: Thu Feb 24 2000 - 08:06:49 EST


I may be an ignorant bastard, but I still don't think this dog hunts... How
come the Japanese cars/trucks don't seem to have this problem? While I've
always had something (more or less) American made, she has always opted for a
Nissan or Honda. I swear you could put water in the tank of her Honda and it
would still run. My buddy has got a V6 Tacoma and he hasn't had any ping
problems either. Dunno about the V8's (a la Tundra) but I haven't heard of any
ping related problems with those power plants.

My point is, if the Japanese can figure it out and still comply with the EPA
rules; why can't we expect D/C to do the same? I love my Kota and don't want a
Toy but I think it reasonable to expect a ping free engine from D/C on the fuel
they recommend.
Tom

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: DML: Spark Knock
Author: <dakota-truck@buffnet.net> at smtpout
Date: 2/23/00 10:23 PM

I don't understand why everyone is so upset about a knock on 87 octane gas. I
think my lawnmower knocks on that low octane stuff. Out of the last 5 or 6 cars
or trucks I have owned that were supposed to run on 87 NONE WOULD without
pinging at times. I am talking Ford Taurus, Mercury Cougar v8, my 89 Shelby
Dakota, My 91 GMC V8 shop truck, My 98 Ford Ranger shop truck, my 98 S10 4 cyl
Shop truck My 96 Ram V6, My 98 Dakota 5.2 or my 99 R/T.
On engines that spark timing was adjustable (most are not nowadays) you could
retard the timing and usually get it to quit. However when you do you loose
power and get worse fuel economy.
I am sick and tired of hearing about people thinking their trucks are lemons
because of this problem. And the factory/dealers have their hands tied by the
government and are not allowed to make the changes in the fuel curve that would
fix the problem completely. So if you want to bitch about the problem, bitch at
Uncle Sam for demanding such lean mixtures that the engines can not run
efficiently anymore. If you don't understand what I am saying then you don't
know enough about a gasoline engine to know why it knocks in the first place.



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:48:42 EDT