I know bad gas can cause a car to ping under load, and i'm using 87 octane. But this occurs no matter where i get the gas. As soon as the car starts going up a hill or even just a slight incline, it seems like the car begins to knock or gas detonates. It sounds like it's chugging, and the vibration gets so bad the whole car will start shaking. The way to get it to stop is give it more gas. It will shift down causing the rpms to jump up and the vibration and chugging stops.

Could this be caused by a compression problem in one of the cylinders? A couple years ago i used one of those engine restore bottles from slick 50 and I noticed a serious change in responsiveness and power from the engine, and the chugging decreased a lot for a while. That's why i ask.

 

.
.

.
.

 

Wouldn't a code in the ECM throw the dummy light? My SES light works, and it's not on.

My timing is advanced, so that may have something to do with it. I'm gonna set the timing back down closer to TDC and do some much needed fuel system cleaning and oil changing.

 

of course advanced timing can cause knocking if you use a lower octane rating. i'm sure this would solve your problems. you can choose either more performance from advanced timing or cheap fuel
anyways, sounds like you're in for a general tune-up eh?

 

Well, the advanced timing was an attempt to correct for a rich run. In reality, advancing the timing alone wouldn't help you with performance unless you had a cam to take advantage of it. I'll tune the timing and get a general tuneup soon though.