Thundertub

How many miles are on that Dodge Ram engine? What grade and supplier of gas do you normally put in it? If you normally buy whatever is the least expensive brand of Regular in your neighborhood for your Ram, then it is highly probable that you have deposits around your valves and on the piston, since the "El Cheapo" brands do not contain the "cleaners" such as Techron (found in Chevron and Shell and BP). Those tiny deposits become hot spots in the cylinder and cause pre-detonation. Under normal loads, you would not see a big problem. Under the stress of towing in the hills, the cylinders run hotter and thus you get the pinging. A higher octane will temporarily reduce that. However, unless you use the Techron (available in quarts at many locations) to clean the deposits, then you revert back to the pinging on the next tank of El Cheapo.

You may decide you only need to use the additive when you are towing in the mountains, but the additive itself is not an octane booster. And cleaning deposits via additives does take time.

Another source of hot spots is old or dirty spark plugs. If the spark plug is slightly fouled due to oil deposits from high mileage, or carbon deposits from a rich mixture, then the pinging would also be heard under the same circumstances as above. A freshly cleaned and gapped set of plugs may save you the money spent on higher octane gas, if that is the cause.

But that would explain your experience.

KC-944 Turbo

93 from a BP station near my work, and luckily, enough another 93 BP station near my home. Most other places here in Kansas City only have 91.

nick49

Increasing the load on most any motor at relatively low rpm will cause pinging. It will go away if you increase the rpm, pull back the timing or increase the octane rating of the fuel.

BiteEmNBeatEm

E85 (I've gone green) lol

Hurdigurdiman

The one I use is the highest grade they do at our garage 93

Imo000

The truck was a company truck and this happened back in '01. Years later I ended up buying it and drove it until it was rearended by a transport. When the pinging was going on, it used regular gas, except for that month in the high desert. At some point it got new plugs but other than that, it was retired with over 200k miles.

Macster

How can you run E85 in your Porsche?

BTW, not to get into a green argument but ethanol is hardly as green a fuel as it is touted to be.

There are several arguments against it being green (just the opposite in fact) but one is that in most areas of the country and the world underground water aquifers are being depleted to grow corn. This involves pumping water from underground.

The real negative impact is this water is very old -- it is referred to as "fossil" water -- took a long time to accumulate, and will not be replenished by nature for a long time, probably not until the next ice age has run its course and then starts to pull back with the resulting melt water run off once again recharging the aquifers.

Another is that this water once removed from underground of course makes its way to the ocean. It is the use of fresh water from these large underground aquifers that is contributing to the rise in sea levels.

This increase in the influx of fresh water changes the chemistry of sea water which affects the ocean currents and this then changes the climate which can result in an increase in the melting of ice.

nick49

Interesting.

They should save the very old fossil water for bottling, drinking and paying down the federal deficit.

Imo000

Never mind the fact that we are using food to make fuel but half the World is still starving.

jasper

Another vote for Chevron - British Columbia - ethanol free - 94 octane. The Chevron refinery here in town is the last one operating in BC - and it basically serves only the BC market...hence the availability of this boutique fuel. They are feeling a lot of pressure from Alberta producers though...

The downside of course is that this product costs between $1.40 and $1.60 per litre. That's $5.29 - $6.05 per US gallon....and I use a lot of it. But that is all I use. My annual fuel bill for just the Porsche is $4988.

On the other hand - Regular 87 octane 10% ethanol gasoline still costs between $1.20 and $1.40 per litre (and as high as $1.50 when the oil companies are feeling particularly gougy). That's between $4.54 and $5.29 per US gallon.

If I drove a Chevy which could tolerate that swill I could reduce my annual fuel cost to $4323 per year.

Yeah - for the additional $665 - I'll drive the Porsche thank you very much.