My 1994 Continental is pinging

I posted before about the 94 Lincoln Continental my cousin gave me. Yes - I know - two free cars in one year.

He thought it had a rod knock. I have been driving it around and messing with it. Oil pressure is normal. No overheating. It idles nicely. No knocking noise most of the time. When I hit the accelerator hard I get a pinging noise. I guess that is what he thought was a rod knock.

It sounds more like detonation from some really bad gasoline. The car didn't get used much when my cousin had it. He has the kind of job were the car gets driven to the airport and left in the garage for days at a time. The first owner of the car was an older man who didn't drive it much and probably never put the hammer down on it.

The oil looks fairly new and he overfilled it by about a quart. No tiny pieces of metal indicating internal damage. No milky substance indicating oil mixed with water. Nothing. Only about one quart of oil more than it needs to have.

A mechanic I know mentioned carbon build up on the pistons. It was sitting in the backyard unused for about six months before I got it.

Any ideas?

Maybe seafoam then a couple of tanks of premium fuel with a few longer trips at higher speeds?

Travis_K wrote: Maybe seafoam then a couple of tanks of premium fuel with a few longer trips at higher speeds?

I already dumped some Seafoam in it. I need to get it on my insurance before I take it off my property.

did you do the seafoam fogging through a vac line, or just dump it in the tank?

i definitely recommend the vac line fogging. get the engine up to temp, pull a vac line, let it suck in about a 1/3 of a can, then shut it off and let sit for about 10 minutes. then start it up and drive it like your hair is on fire

You need to get it fully warmed up, blast up and down the freeway etc. THEN start pouring the Seafoam into the engine. The engine MUST be hot. This was a lot easier with carbureted cars because you could just pour it into the carburetor, with FI you might consider a spray bottle into the TB or maybe put a vacuum line into a jar of the stuff. If it is a V8 it can take a pretty good amount of it, make sure you rev it up pretty good.

The trick setup would be something you could turn on when you are on the freeway. Perhaps re-route the windshield washer to the intake?

BTW - you don't need to use Seafoam if you don't want to, using plain water will do the same thing (de-carbon).

aircooled wrote: You need to get it fully warmed up, blast up and down the freeway etc.

So when the cop pulls me over I just need to tell him I had to do it to blow the carbon out of the combustion chamber.

Isn't this what used to be called an "Italian tune-up"? (Or should I be asking that over on the CM board?)