The ping is the result of a premature burn in the combustion chamber. Either too rapid or started too early. Modern car technology can compensate for this with knock sensors. Performance can be significantly affected by ping and/or sensor compensation. Octane is the means of dealing with this in engines and different octanes are recommended across varying performance types. The higher octane equals less chance of ping or knock. The ping is noticed at the higher compression demands of the engine, i.e. higher throttle openings, and especially WOT. I have found that with age, my DeLorean engine has developed a ping around 3-4,000 RPM under WOT using "regular" gas (87). I have traced the issue to what I believe to be the spring on the spark advance weights in the distributor (I have clean intake valves and no carbon buildup). I figure the spring is weakening over the years (50,000 miles when I noticed it)and giving me premature advance as the timing light shows the advance slightly out of spec. I found the premium gas stopped the ping and have observed no other performance issues. So, I have not bothered with the weight spring and the cost of gas, given the limited miles I drive, is not an issue. Harold McElraft - 3354 --- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "tuxr" <tuxdarby@xxxx> wrote: > > Thanks very much for the info on this, I've been using 93 for this > car and my previous, will switch to 87 tomorrow. Since I put 650 > miles a week going back and forth to work, this is a real cost > savings. The forum is great for stuff like this to those of us that > aren't very mechanically inclined. But I had what might be a stupid > question: What do you mean by "less chance for detonation"??? > To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see www.dmcnews.com To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: dmcnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/