RE: RE: pinging and arcing observations

From: Ronald Wong (ron-wong@cox.net)
Date: Sun Mar 03 2002 - 12:39:43 EST


You may be correct in your theory about hotter vs colder. Bernd would be a
better sounding board for that than me. If you could push enough energy to
the plug you could even have a wider gap. That's the reasoning behind high
energy ignition systems. Though I would imagine there is a point of
diminishing returns or maybe there's no return to be had at all. Anyway,
the primary purpose of the plug is to ignite the mixture AND to dissipate
unneeded heat from the chamber to the cooling system. That requires the
correct plug at the correct gap. If your combustion chamber is too hot or
your plug can't dissipate enough heat that will cause pinging, but there are
other reasons too. Your fuel may be too low of an octane rating especially
with some of the weird formulations during the different seasons. Try a
premium fuel. Your timing could be off. Reindexing could help but also
check the camshaft position sensor. Your air/fuel mixture could be too
lean. Put a bottle of Chevron/Techron injector cleaner in your gas tank.
Nothing worse than a dirty injector dribbling out fuel instead of a healthy
squirt.

The arcing between your wires and the block should not be happening. Is it
between the boots and the block or the actual wire? Whichever it is,
replacement is the answer. I run MSD wires with high energy ignition and
coil and don't get any arcing.

Good luck Mike. I don't have all the answers, just the basics which I'm
sure you're well aware of.

Ron
00 PB SLT QC 4X2 5.9 46RE 3.92 LSD
For modifications see my DML Profile (URL follows), however,
http://www.twistedbits.net/WWWProfile/dakota/Kw9pV1EkFeOYY

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dakota-truck@BUFFNET.NET
[mailto:owner-dakota-truck@BUFFNET.NET]On Behalf Of default
Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2002 8:26 AM
To: dakota-truck-moderator@bent.twistedbits.net
Subject: Re: DML: RE: pinging and arcing observations

Ronald Wong wrote:

> That ping is like a hammer beating on top of the piston.

I totally agree, bugs the hell out of me, trying to fix it. :)

> Keep your wires away from your headers. They'll mess up the best of wires.

I've spent a lot of time with looms and things keeping the wires all tidy.
They're as far as I can get them from the headers, too hot.

> The stock gap for your plugs should be .040 to get the most complete burn
> within your cylinder.

Why would that gap cause a more complete burn? The way I understand it, it
takes more potential to bridge a larger gap, so the spark's hotter. I think
the
MSD wires have way less resistance than the stock ones, the arcs to the
block
are obviously way hotter/louder than stock, so isn't the spark also hotter
because of the wires? My theory is the smaller gap (cooler spark) and the
wires
(hotter) kinda cancel each other out, with the advantage that it doesn't arc
to
the block. I'm really just guessing, seems to work.

> Other things to check would be your TB and the sensors that are a part of
> it.

I'd like to reindex the distributor and check the tps voltage (per Bernd)
today. I guess I can clean the IAT (also per Bernd I think).

mike



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