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
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