I have an 86 GL wagon 4wd which detonates like crazy when accelerating at medium throttle. If you ease up on the gas a little it stops and if you plant it it stops. The car also gets +/- 23 mpg only, and I would think a slow car as such would do a little bit better. The car has a reman'ed carb (hitachi), new air cleaner, plugs, wires, distributor cap & rotor. A dude I know suggested cleaning out the EGR and testing the diaphragm, but he also though that detonation and pinging were different things, so I'm dubious it will work. Any help?

Detonation & pinging are the same thing.

 

Check your timing.

 

-=Russ=-

The timing has been check and rechecked and rechecked yet again. Unless my timing light is faulty, the timing is at factory specs. Perhaps I'll rent another light and qc mine just to make sure...

 

 

 

Detonation & pinging are the same thing.

 

Check your timing.

 

-=Russ=-

Detonation can also be caused by excessive carbon building up the combustion chambers.

Also check your spark plugs are correct - should ideally be NGK BPR6ES.