Maybe it is not "knocking/pinging" that you are hearing. When it occurs, it sounds like "marbles rattling around in a tin can".
The stock GM eprom is pretty mild IMO and the knock sensor is set to be "overly" sensitive. Unless you've advance you timing to over 10*, some high compression, heavily carboned up, disabled the EGR or some REALLY bad gas, you should be able to run Mid Grade with absolutely no problem.
With my L98, I run 42-43* when operating in "normal" 14.7:1 on part throttle. And when Highway Mode invokes, I run 47* with 17.6:1, with no pinging. |