3.6 engine and 87 octane a no-no

[DanW]

I can’t get past the words “our cars”.

Once upon a time in America, most cars were full frame vehicles with V8s and solid rear axles. Today I'd call a car like that a truck! Lol!

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[Petey]

Yep, he said engines in general, not just the Pentastar. I'd bet if the higher octane smoothes it out a little that it would be perceived as quieter. I'm going to try it out. Nothing to lose. Except cash, if it turns out to work, Lol!

By quieter I do mean the pinging I get on the low end ...below 2000rpm is my issue . u probably have an automatic anyways. The gear ratio also has to do with the load on the engine. If i were to tow I can't even begin to imagine the sounds the engine would make. Toddlers form a mile away of my radius would all stop crying just to listen to my 32k rattle.

 

[bbq4133]

Do you have a video of this pinging?

 

[Petey]

Do you have a video of this pinging?

I admit I don't however, I have tank full 87 and a bottle of lucas in it right now. I fill up about once a month.. I don't want to tape a 500 dollar phone somewhere in the engine bay to prove it. and a go pro is really useless to me just to go and prove what the engine does. I rather find a cost effective way to fix it . For now it seems , I will have to buy my bottle of lucas on my next fillup no matter what . If no other ideas come after that I will have get the tuner.

 

[Bruce Willys]

So somehow this engine that has past the 10 million mark in the production run; installed in Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, and Maserati; has been tested in the real world/worst case scenarios of stop and go delivery vehicles with 700+ thousand miles; and has been around for almost 10 years now has poor development and testing?

Let’s get real, stop arm chair quarterbacking, and not loose credibility here.

Quality control in complicated machines in high numbers is hard, but the subject here is 87 octane, so different posts are out there to cover that.

My concern is that this Google searchable thread will mis-inform people, convince them to buy expensive fuel they don’t need to prevent something that is happening in a small percentage of the product.

If the OP just needed to vent/rant about his pinging issues, then let’s take it for just that.

Relax, I was just poking fun in a meme heavy lighthearted thread. But if you want a serious response for the googlies, relying on sensors and knock control to dumb down the efficiency and performance of an engine seems silly to me. Especially in a toy like a Wrangler, nobody is buying it to save money on gas and they aren't cheap to begin with. Yes, the 3.6 and 2.0 can compensate like most any modern engine but it is at the expense of running at peak efficiency.

 

[DanW]

By quieter I do mean the pinging I get on the low end ...below 2000rpm is my issue . u probably have an automatic anyways. The gear ratio also has to do with the load on the engine. If i were to tow I can't even begin to imagine the sounds the engine would make. Toddlers form a mile away of my radius would all stop crying just to listen to my 32k rattle.

I've got a manual. I'll let you know what my friend says about what can be done about it. In the meantime, I'd contact @JeepCares and see if they can help. It should not ping like that at all.

 

[Petey]

I've got a manual. I'll let you know what my friend says about what can be done about it. In the meantime, I'd contact @JeepCares and see if they can help. It should not ping like that at all.

Ur getting the wrong impression I think... it pings without a doubt but my point is that it does so even though it doesn't have additional weight on it . The ping is overall light and now almost non existent after the dose of lucas bottle. If u ride with the window down and radio off along with no rad fan on it can still be heard for split second after first few gear changes form the stop.. There is no doubt it will be heard again even louder if I were to tow some thing like in the area of several hundred pounds. I didn't go to the dealer for now because I know very well that they'll say it's nothing to worry about , just like what some of the posters wrote or, say they don't hear anything (lost time for me). It just needs a small tweak with spark timing or fuel map edit . In the end I will go to the dealer anyways soon because they wont be able to deny that the JL pulls to the right. The engine ping will be looked over by them anyway so if ur buddy has ideas I'm all eyes and ears . THNX.

 

[DanW]

Ur getting the wrong impression I think... it pings without a doubt but my point is that it does so even though it doesn't have additional weight on it . The ping is overall light and now almost non existent after the dose of lucas bottle. If u ride with the window down and radio off along with no rad fan on it can still be heard for split second after first few gear changes form the stop.. There is no doubt it will be heard again even louder if I were to tow some thing like in the area of several hundred pounds. I didn't go to the dealer for now because I know very well that they'll say it's nothing to worry about , just like what some of the posters wrote or, say they don't hear anything (lost time for me). It just needs a small tweak with spark timing or fuel map edit . In the end I will go to the dealer anyways soon because they wont be able to deny that the JL pulls to the right. The engine ping will be looked over by them anyway so if ur buddy has ideas I'm all eyes and ears . THNX.

Ok. Not sure how I'm getting the wrong impression. What you described is exactly what I was thinking in terms of pinging.

I'll let you know what he says.

 

[jlgolfcart]

Ok. Not sure how I'm getting the wrong impression. What you described is exactly what I was thinking in terms of pinging.

I'll let you know what he says.

Mine pings first thing in the morning let it warm up for 10 to 15 seconds and it goes away

 

[DanW]

Mine pings first thing in the morning let it warm up for 10 to 15 seconds and it goes away

That may be valve springs clattering, which would be a normal Pentastar trait. No worries with that. It takes about that time to pressurize and lubricate the valve train. Of course I'd have to hear it to be certain.

 

[Xcoaste]

I had a 3.6 in my JK for 8 years and only used 87 fuel. Ran and sounded just the way it did on day 1 until the day I sold it. If you are experiencing different sounds from the day you bought it I would do like others suggest and take it to the dealer. Even if you think they will blow you off, you now have a case started if it becomes worse down the road.

 

[Petey]

Mine pings first thing in the morning let it warm up for 10 to 15 seconds and it goes away

it's supposed to be less likely to ping upon cold startup. Mine doesn't seem to at that point. The fuel ratio is richer during this time...plus the idle speed is bit higher ...i wouldn't be able to hear it over that..I don't get to hear any pings until about 5 min later once its somewhere @ the 170 f temp range..under load only, and under 2000 rpm . The pinging is there for a moment until the engine management backs timing off and seems advance it back again as if though its just forgotten a second ago that it just suffered from predetonation . I can feel the engine jerking a bit (again not a lot but something u can feel as driver mostly)during this time. As soon as i hit the 2000 rpm range it al disappears and its almost as if a turbo kicked in.

 

[Petey]

I had a 3.6 in my JK for 8 years and only used 87 fuel. Ran and sounded just the way it did on day 1 until the day I sold it. If you are experiencing different sounds from the day you bought it I would do like others suggest and take it to the dealer. Even if you think they will blow you off, you now have a case started if it becomes worse down the road.

looking past the problems I have , I find it to be a very ..very quiet and quite refined engine.. again apart from the short pings and initial startup from the engine , it is very good for the greater part. Valve train noise would be unacceptable and mine doesn't seem to suffer from this thankfully.

 

[Petey]

I had a 3.6 in my JK for 8 years and only used 87 fuel. Ran and sounded just the way it did on day 1 until the day I sold it. If you are experiencing different sounds from the day you bought it I would do like others suggest and take it to the dealer. Even if you think they will blow you off, you now have a case started if it becomes worse down the road.

will do.. the thing is I don't have many expectations from them so if they fail I have something to work out a solution with.

 

[Bruce Willys]

@Petey

Why did you decide to run an octane booster instead of buying mid grade or premium? The owner's manual specifically says not to run octane boosters FYI, the dealership could give you grief and blame it for causing your preiginiton occurrences.

I still can't get over them saying that there is no benefit on these engines to running premium, but then the very next sentence they say you may experience audible knock while running 87 but that it's cool. You know what resists knock? Higher octane gas, sounds like a benefit to me. Call me old fashioned but I like my air fuel mixture to combust correctly, not erratically. The more the engine senses preigniton, the higher knock control will rise and the ECU will revert to a less aggressive fuel table for the same conditions accordingly. Saying otherwise is misleading.

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