Ping Sucks!

[Snakeyes_Tx]

I drove home last night at 3AM. What happened? Well, it's about 53 degrees outside, and I turned on the heater. The drive home was about 40 miles. The motor wouldn't warm up for the first 35 of them! It barely crawled out of the black area! The pinging was unbelievable! I had to drive like a grandma to keep it from doing it. The pinging ALWAYS goes away once the temp needle goes to about 2mm into the green. I can't believe how temperature versatile my rig is. In the summer with the A/C it'll crawl almost to the top of the green area towards the HOT mark. Last night I could barely get it out of the cold one!

What gives?! Should I really look into the timing?

[64Trvlr]

Snake
I'd start with the radiator and make sure it's full, then the thermostat and rad cap. Are the hoses ok? After that maybe check timing.
:cool:

[Snakeyes_Tx]

Yessir, I had the radiator cleaned and flushed, and I replaced all the lines including the heater hoses, and the cap is new (although I wish I got the ventable one), and I believe the thermostat is a 160. Oh and I put in the Water Wetter, which obviously works very well!

Problem being, ping only happens on cold, and with the heater on, it takes the motor forever to warm up. I think, I need to..... retard the timing a little bit so it'll fire a hair later on the right part of the stroke. Correct me if I'm wrong though!

[64Trvlr]

Snake
When you have a problem with warming up it's the thermostat not the timing. In my opinion you need a 180-195 thermostat for it to warm up in the cooler months. Let me know if it helps.
:cool:

[joe]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 64Trvlr:
Snake
When you have a problem with warming up it's the thermostat not the timing. In my opinion you need a 180-195 thermostat for it to warm up in the cooler months. Let me know if it helps.
:cool:<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'd agree with 64trav that you need a hotter thermostat. Stock should be aroung 190 or so and you need at least 160 deg to get your CTO's to work.

[bchesley]

I second the thermostat! I just replaced my CTO's and noticed they don't start working till after 160 degrees. This will have an affect on the timing and all other vacuum driven components. I am pulling out my 160 thermostat and going with a 195 like it was from the factory. Besides this will leave the coolant in the radiator longer in the summer to be more effecient.

[wagdriver]

I'll have to chime in with 64Trvlr and others, you have definetly got to cold a thermsotat for the 360. I know it is hot down there(well its kind of up there from FL)but all the books I have seen call for 195 degree thermostat.Most of the other emissions stuff does not operate until the temp gets up. I believe if you make this change most of your problems will go away. The egr does not operate until the the temp get up and that will definetly help with the pinging. ;) In the old days before emissions systems and even running coolant it was generally thought that running a colder thermostat was the thing to do. But with emissions equipment and all that goes with it, proper operating temperature is one of requirements to make all that stuff work. smile.gif

[Dive 30]

I compromised with the cold/hot t-stat settings 195 being factory and 160 the coldest Autodrone had, I went with the 180. This summer in IA (100+ temps, 100+ Humidity) I would run a little over half with the AC on. But it always came to temp quickly. Hope that helps.

[Stuka]

Hrm... run a 160 stat in my jeep, and its been in the 40's in the morning. within 3 minutes of idling (with high idle cam on) the heater will blow out hot air. When it was getting over 100 it never ran hot that i could tell. I am thinking his stat is stuck wide open.