mfinocc

I'm not sure if I'm hearing a little pinging or just the combustion sounds that stainless steel headers don't absorb. When I'm driving on the highway at about 70mph in 6th gear and I give it a little throtle, I think I hear some pinging but I'm not sure. Definately no knocking, but maybe some slight pinging. I always use Mobile super unleaded. I even threw a little 104 octane booster in just to see if it would make any difference. It didn't. How can I be sure that it's not pinging I hear? Is this sound a characteristic of headers?

2008corvette

I think a pinging sound is common with headers because of the combustion.

EuroRod

Hmmm, it would be one of a couple of things. First, if you gave her a drink of 104, and the sound is still there, you can probably rule out pinging. It could be a small exhaust leak, or just the music of the headers. If you do not have a CEL, I wouldn't worry. Good luck.

burtonbl103

When i did this i noticed it as well
The headders make the drive train more noticeable !

Due to there design
You have no worries

DrivnXcitment

My LT headers did the same. You think its a leak or knocking, but its actually the exhaust pulses.

C5 then C6

It's a long shot...but they could be a little loose at the collector and giving a little noise...

SpinMonster

The headers are thin wall metal compared to the thick exhaust manifolds they replace. The sounds travel through them and reach the driver. Actual pinging is highly unlikely since the car pulls timing if there is any. You must scan the car to verify knock retard but knock retard again is that the car pulled timing and not actually having pinging.

In the past, I would swear I was pinging and a scan showed nothing when the sound was there. Ears arent that accurate.

If anyone regardless of year is located near me and thinks this is an issue for them, shoot me a PM and I will meet up with you and scan your car for free.

Zig

the walls of the headers are thinner, at certain rpms, the exhaust pulses are slow enough to bounce off the walls at the transitions, and cause a 'ping type of noise', instead of smoothly flowing through the tubes. usually it sounds like a hollow ping instead of the solid ping that you get from engine knock. but spinmonster is correct, as long as the knock detector is working properly the computer will keep it from pinging long enough and loud enough for us to actually hear it.

gtodoug

ditto on spin/zigs comments. I had mine put on a couple of weeks ago. Cruising in 6th I gave it a little input for passing and heard what sounded like very very light ping, or noise coming from the headers. I figured it was the headers, and hooked up hptuners last night to finish up my tune and confirm 0 knock. It's just the noise.

dougie

HITMAN99

I ran into this also on my C5 with coated Melrose headers. However, it turned out later that the car WAS running way lean, and the pinging was real.

One "acid test" is if the pinging gets worse on WOT pulls at around 4K RPMs. This is when combustion pressures are highest, so if you are running lean, pinging is most likely to occur. Another likely time is when you are cruising, & going up an incline. If the pinging gets worse when you apply throttle, you are problably running a little lean, or may have too much timing.

C5-BRUCE

Mods such as headers cause the engine to run lean. I'd also guess that other mods were also done such as intake and exhaust. All contribute to a lean condition which is NOT good. The car needs to be tuned on a dyno to get it back to a normal condition. O2 sensors are another item that should be inspected.

SpinMonster

Headers cause all cars to run lean but only in closed loop. The positive long term fuel trends tell the PCM to dump that much more percentage of fuel at WOT. At WOT the car runs richer without exception. I doubt headers would cause any car to ping. Mine ran +24% lean and didnt ping with headers. They come way too rich from the factory to do so.

In fact just to show the extreme: I ran 1.8 rockers,stage 1 heads (11.4:1 compression with the stock cam) headers, air cleaners and a FAST manifold on the stock tuning since there was no programming at the time and when I got a HPtuners beta unit as a loaner from a friend, there was no knock retard/pinging with my extreme set-up on the stock tune.

'06 Quicksilver Z06

Had the same problem in my C5. And is why I think I will forgo headers in this car. Too much valve train noise which can be difficult to distinguish from pinging.

chempowr

I believe you have a predator with your other post? If so, you can datalog while running and see if the car detects knock. I'm not sure if the new cars/knock sensors are better but older ones would misinterpret knock if there were sounds similar to knock (like metal on metal). Good luck.

mfinocc

I do have a log that I could send from I drive I took last night. In this clip, I think I may have been hearing ping. Does anyone know how to interpret a Diablo Sport Predator log? I could email it to you.