Pinging at Low RPM

**fastjaw24** · 10-06-2019

Long story short. I purchased a 2006 RC Ram SRT-10 with 87,000 miles about a month ago. Been going over it every chance I get and trying to get it in tip top shape and fixing everything I can find wrong with it. Car is unmodified(as far as I know) except for a Magnaflow catback exhaust(May be blown out like they tend to do plus its been on there for a long time). The tank is full of 91 octane fuel which is about the highest we have here except for BP which has 93 but have to go across town to get it.

I just noticed the other night when driving slowing in 3rd gear I slowed down for a round about and did not down shift and the car got down to almost idle rpm. Then accelerated about half throttle after leaving the round about and noticed heavy pinging till at least almost 2500 rpm's. It sounded like it was starting to taper off getting close to 2500 rpm's but the exhaust starts getting fairly loud by that rpm so its hard to tell exactly how high the rpm's go till it stops pinging completely.

Now the pinging sounds like a can of marbles shaking or a can of bb's also. So I assume that is detonation I am hearing. I went ahead and tried it 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear at light,medium and full throttle and all of them pinged from around 1000 rpm's to 2500 rpm's with all test I conducted. My question is this. I know more load and heavier vehicles and definitely run the risk of pinging easier then a vehicle that is lighter or not being lugged as bad. Obviously I do not want to purposely make it ping over and over in case it may potentially cause damage. So I'll try to keep the rpm's up until I get this problem solved.

1. Is this pinging normal for a Gen 3 motor at lower rpms?

2. Is it possible to check if my truck has a tune on it somehow?

3. Maybe run this test with 93 octane fuel from BP or use some octane booster instead?

4. Could a tune fix this or be worth fixing?

5. Anyone have any experience with a J&S knock sensor system? Heard nothing but amazing things about these and how they have literally saved 1000's of motors and it can do a whole lot more than the stock knock sensor. And are pretty reasonably priced. If it saves your motor once it has paid for itself 10 times over.

Any additional recommendations or advice would be helpful too. Trying to learn all I can about these trucks and motors. Thanks in advance.

Edit: When are O2 sensors recommended to be replaced on these motors?

**City** · 10-07-2019

This post belongs in the Viper truck area, so I'll make that change.

But more importantly, your post suggests that you are NOT presently using 93 octane (or at least 92 octane)? If so, why would you do that?

**Dan Cragin** · 10-07-2019

Truck motors are very knock sensitive and are notorious for excessive carbon deposits, more so if they burn a bit of oil.

I have seen many a truck motor break a piston from knock related damage.

I would suggest a top end cleaner, a colder plug and switching to 15w50 oil.

Also, back in the day many tuner's tended to run more ignition timing on these engines for power, not knowing how
it might effect the engine as it got higher mileage. Could be you have a aftermarket tune that's contributing to the problem.

**JonB ~ PartsRack** · 10-07-2019

What Dan Said. Knock/ping is BAD.....And:

Degraded plug wires can cause weak spark / pinging. Age + 87K miles = NEW WIREs.

Also check Coils......

also: 50K miles on O2 Sensors...

SRT RAM is thousands of pounds heavier than the Viper, loading the motor, and REALLY bad if towing anything.

**Dan Cragin** · 10-07-2019

Good call Jon,
Arcing or weak plug wires can cause extreme detonation.

**City** · 10-07-2019

Originally Posted by Dan Cragin

notorious for miles excessive carbon deposits with 87,000 miles

Yea. That's certainly a cause.

**fastjaw24** · 10-08-2019

Originally Posted by City

This post belongs in the Viper truck area, so I'll make that change.

But more importantly, your post suggests that you are NOT presently using 93 octane (or at least 92 octane)? If so, why would you do that?

Did not know the Viper truck forums existed. I will do my best to post here but it seems to be having the same problem as the Ram SRT10 forums where its completely dead so there won't be anybody reading this area of the forums. I posted over there and there was not any responses at all and the Viper truck forum has only 11 post in 6 years time. I was using Gen 3/4 cause there are a lot of knowledgeable people in that section and they are dealing with the same engine as I am. I feel as though if I do post in here I will miss the opportunity for many good intellectual responses about the engine that would be very helpful to me. It was also recommended on several post in Ram SRT10 forums to come over and and post on this forum for help cause that forum is not used anymore. Kinda stuck between a rock and a hard spot owning this truck cause all the forums are a ghost town for it so the Viper community is all I got left to look too.

The owner's manual recommends 91 octane. Is this considered the wrong octane for this vehicle? 91 is the highest octane we have in this area except for a few select stations that are far and few between that carry 93 which are the BP stations. BP stations are going out of business left and right and I would have to drive 15 miles one way from my house every time to fuel up if I wanted 93 octane. There are only a few BP stations left in business around the area and its looking very slim they will stay in business much longer. Thanks for your help.

**fastjaw24** · 10-08-2019

Originally Posted by Dan Cragin

Truck motors are very knock sensitive and are notorious for excessive carbon deposits, more so if they burn a bit of oil.

I have seen many a truck motor break a piston from knock related damage.

I would suggest a top end cleaner, a colder plug and switching to 15w50 oil.

Also, back in the day many tuner's tended to run more ignition timing on these engines for power, not knowing how
it might effect the engine as it got higher mileage. Could be you have a aftermarket tune that's contributing to the problem.

Thank you Dan this is very helpful. I currently just changed the spark plugs to the OEM recommended plugs which is what everyone on the forums still recommends as the go to plug(Champion RE12CC I think I got that right). I am currently running 15w50 mobile 1 oil I changed that as soon as I got it.

Which top end cleaner do you recommend? Seafoam or Marvel Mystery Oil maybe?

Edit: I have run one bottle of Seafoam through the tank will look at everything when I take the intake manifold off to see how dirty it is.

**fastjaw24** · 10-08-2019

Originally Posted by JonB ~ PartsRack

What Dan Said. Knock/ping is BAD.....And:

Degraded plug wires can cause weak spark / pinging. Age + 87K miles = NEW WIREs.

Also check Coils......

also: 50K miles on O2 Sensors...

SRT RAM is thousands of pounds heavier than the Viper, loading the motor, and REALLY bad if towing anything.

Thanks Jon for your reply. I do have pretty old wires and coils still on the truck. I have received my wires from QualityWires.com but I am still waiting on coils from JTS Venom Performance. Ordered them about 2 weeks ago with a short throw shifter and it said at least 3 weeks on the shifter so I imagine hes waiting on the shifter before he sends everything.

So I guess I'll wait to replace all those and see what happens from there and run some top end cleaner like Dan recommended. The O2 sensors look fairly new by the wires but I'm going to pull one and see what it looks like. May just go ahead and put headers and mids on if I'm going to replace 300 plus dollars worth of O2 sensors.