Are you sure you are hearing "ping"? It may be the sound of a loose piston,
pin bushing, etc. Ping will usually get worse as load is increased. Does the
engine make this noise being revved up while in neutral? If so, it is not
ping.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of Leslie Shiaman
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2001 10:28 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Ping in 1.9 Wasser Boxer

Greetings -

In my mission to figure out my 84 Westy's problems I thought someone
could enlighten me on this.  The engine pings like clockwork.  In 2nd
gear at 30 mph, a rapid ping-- acceleration or deceleration makes it go
away. similarly at 45 mph in 3rd I get ping also.  I rarely hear it in
1st or 4th (surely not related to tranny).  My trusty mechanic advised
using premium gas,  definitely a hardship here in Arcata, Humboldt county
California.  The cheap stuff is now $2.15 a gallon.  (sidenote:  we
probably deserve it. The rest of the world pays)  So I have been buying
the premium stuff now for 3 tank fulls and the darn ping still makes
noise, though not as long.  Is this a sign of piston/rod troubles?  Am I
paranoid?  As a 3 month-long westy owner, I have come to feel that the
thing comes unglued by the second.  Hell, if it is piston-related why
bother doing the head replacement?  By the way since it is so costly to
replace heads, where do most people draw the line between fixing an
expensive problem and just rebuilding/replacing the entire motor?

Adios,

Les
________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today!  For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.