I have a 2014 JKUR.
Purchased a SuperChips 3872 and updated it through the Spark program.
Put the 87 Octane Tune in and changed the tire size and shut off tpms.
Seemed to run pretty good. However on hills and such it would ping.
I tried stepping on the gas to get the pinging to stop, but made it worse.
I also tried higher octane fuel....we only have 91 here, but that still didn't help.
I have removed the tune and now it goes just fine.

I talked to Ron on the forum over there and he said he has never heard of the new engine pinging.
So my question is has anyone else had this happen and is there any remedy?

 

Is it hot whether wise at the moment where you live ?
It wouldn't be the first time somebody has issues with their engine pinging on a Superchips tune or alike tuning device, especially during summer times, and this companies responses is always the same, "What? no, you must be pumping piss in the tank because there is no way your engine will ping with our tune..." if you don't believe me, google "pinging with superchips tune" and check for yourself, it will take a flood of people having the same issues for this fackers to react quick enough that they can revise your tune and lower the timing, it's as simple as that, they need to lower the timing in the map. i've been in those forums before as a customer, i know exactly how it goes... and the main reason i do my own tuning now days.

I know plenty of GM and Ford applications where their Superchips 87 tune will ping, typically pumping 91 octane gas will cure the problem(full tank of 91, a couple of gallons of 91 with most of the tank being 87 won't do it), but you did good going back to stock. you can also find a pump with 100 octane unleaded, and pour 4-5 gallons in your tank, it should stop the pinging, but the actual fix would be to lower engine timing where needed, or run higher octane. Run the stock tune if no other alternatives are provided, can't be any safer that this ..

Some of this canned tuners will allow you to go up, or back down the timing in blocks by 1 or 2*, But i don't think Superchips is one of them, if they allow you to do so in their menus, remove 2* or so and see if it helps. I don't know what's going on in their Jeep tunes, but i can tell from my tuning experience, and what we know in the PCM tuning community companies like this do:
They'll dumb down your knock sensors, and add a bunch of non needed timing, because timing is power , sure in a way yes, but not in the way they do this, i bet you don't have a way to log knock retard with that tuner device do you ? , this is among other little things, like what's going on in your trans after tune if there is a TCM calibration for it as well ..

in Stock trim, Dodge does a very good job protecting your engine from the BS 87 octane gas, so good that they print in the manual this is the recommended fuel of choice. It's the same with GM and Ford, they need people to believe 87 is where things are at, because they know the average consumer wont like to hear they should be using 91 or higher to feed their engines, and the factory map timing/knock sensors learning strategies in factory calibrations allows them to do this very well, mock with the knock sensors in the tune, and dumb down their ability to "listen" for knock, and their respective strategies to deal with knock after the knock event is tripped, and well, you would start hearing your pistons complaining about it fairly quick.... most of the times you don't even know this is happening because the average user buying handheld tuning devices are not interested in the inner workings of their Calibrations and how to improve on what the factory did, they just want to click yes/no, and tell their buddies they have a "tune" and the vendor says 30hp more with the tune, it's worst in the Diesel market

Lastly, just because you don't hear the engine rattling doesn't mean the engine is knock free, i can log the "knock retard" PID directly from the PCM, so i can literally "see" what the knock sensors are detecting, so funny there is knock retard with the factory Jeep tune and 91 octane gas , i can only laugh at what Dodge printed in the manual with the "87 only...." BS, improving what the factory did while keeping things safe as the factory intended is not very difficult to attain, if you knew exactly where timing needs to be modified , same for fueling, same for torque management etc, etc, among other things.. then you'll know how to actually gain more power/efficiency without deviating much from what the factory wanted to do, this is what separate a tuner from a tooner, and unfortuantely this is something you can't do with just a handheld programmer.

So if you can hear the pistons rattling with this 87 tune or any other tune, backup the throttle, don't give it more, you're damaging your pistons everytime you hear the explosions.
For the lack of other tuning procedures to fix your issue, the factory tune is your best bet, either that or get a real tune

 

On my '14 two door I have the 91 tune installed and use 87 because it doesn't knock. I live in FL...pretty hot here.

 

Perhaps the 4.56's have something to do with that
But kidding asides, this is what it's frustrating for people with pinging issues, other users are more than happy with the same tool, which makes them the minority at the time a case needs to be open so the master tuning engineer on the other side of the phone even cares to look at the calibration. i can submit a couple of live examples, but i really don't want to open Pandora's box, i wish the OP the best luck handling this situation. i've been in the exact same shoes, with the same type of responses from both sides of the coin. If there was something in the gas, the pinging will happen even on stock tune/stock mods, been there as well.
Typical issues with plugged cats or missfires or bad sensors will throw a DTC, simple fact, switch tunes, if the issue can't be reproduced with the stock tune, chances are you have found the main problem..

 

Every vehicle is different. I was surprised actually that I had no ping. I had 87 in the tank when I installed the tune and then went to the gas station (1 mile away) immediately. Didn't ping on the way there. The station had 87, 89, and 93. I didn't install the 93 tune so really didn't want to pay 93 prices. I pumped the 89. Only a half of tank in case I needed to pump some 93 in there. No ping at 89. I thought what the hell and next time pumped a half of tank of 87...yeah I'm cheap. No ping. Filled it twice since and both times with 87. I'm not saying that will work for you, all I'm saying is it works for me.

Pre-ignition (pinging) , as I understand it, is caused but the temperature of the cylinders exceeding the flash point of the fuel. Higher octanes simply raise the flash point preventing pre-ignition. Using a fuel that doesn't ping is the goal. If 87 doesn't ping, anything higher in octane is a waste of money etc.. It is called pre-ignition because the fuel can actually detonate on the upstroke of the cylinder. And I have heard, as a kid, so not really sure if it's true, that the premature detonation is like hitting the top of the piston with a hammer. Makes sense because if it is on the upstroke and the fuel detonates, it will attempt to drive the piston downward. And when all the mechanical parts are moving the piston upward toward the event, well...it doesn't seem to me like it would be a pretty picture. But I'm not a mechanic or engineer so I am simply relating my experiences, like it says in my sig, YMMV.

That said, if I was having a problem with a tune I would be pissed too and seeking answers as well.

 

Agree every vehicle is different, and even same model year can take mods and tune in a different way, sometimes that's just the nature of the beast.
being able to take logs of what's going on with your engine/trans play a really important role making this determination though, without being able to visualize, you can't make/take good decisions, gears will help in your case as you're not lugging down your engine as bad as you will with factory gearing, so you can take that into consideration as well.

So in this case, if something can help to visualize the debate about knock is a graph that contains knock retard amount in degrees vs rpm vs load,
This is my bone stock Jeep, with bone stock timing on 91 pump unleaded gas. I don't run 87 in anything gas powered i own that i care for, 87 is only $0.20 cheaper per gallon around here compared to 91, and i pump 19 gallons every of gas 2 days, $3.80 more expensive every tank, $7.6 per week more expensive, or $396 year more expensive compared to 87, i called my cable company and downgraded my cable package to something at least i know i'm watching more actively, so i'm saving a lot more than that per year with a simple phone call

In any case, this is live knock retard at cruising, not flocking the engine around at WOT, just regular driving with some little uphills and what not, varying the amount of throttle but not going WOT. this is the kind of knock you ears will never know is there, but if you were watching the PID, then you'l know when it comes and by how much degrees, this was happening with 91 octane. i doubt this knock will cause mayor damage, and if the factory is ok with it, they're the ones that warranty their stuff. i've cleaned this up in my tune anyways along with a bunch of other improvements, but again, 1-1.5* KR is not really bad at this engine loads, it should be more than that with 87 octane, but still not enough to cause concerns, can you get improvements with less knock, you bet, there is better driveability, a little bit more mpg, better throttle response etc, etc, eventually in the long run, longer service out of the engine, knock is knock, whether you hear it or not, problem is you have no way to see what your tune is doing, and that's why i always say jut because you don't hear knock doesn't mean the engine is exactly knock free, i wouldn't worry about a factory tune anyways

JKU_KR by SilverFJ RSM, on Flickr



To make sure this type of knock if not false, you can pump some gallons on 100 octane, and take some logs again, if the knock goes away, then the knock is real, and you take measurements lowering your timing a little from the right spots, There are a couple of tables in the tune for our Jeeps that control part throttle timing, and WOT timing, so depending where the knock is located with respect of the tables, you take from there what's needed to knock down most of that KR, if the knock is false, then a different approach can be taken, and that includes modifying knock decay rates, timing increases, and other strategies, and we're not even talking about fueling yet, there is a correlation between timing and fueling, you can help for instance keep things cooler dumping a tad more fuel in certain areas, and help promote more power with a bit more timing. all in all, there is a lot things that you can do in our factory calibration to improve on what Dodge did, whether people will care or not, that's a different story, we're not running 1/4 mile or running laguna seca with our Jeeps, so tires and suspension for example take more priority before anything else.

I didn't have any knock with 91 at wot with factory tune, i'm running up to 2* more in certain WOT areas without any issues with 91 octane, can i run 87 ? sure, the knock sensors strategies are in place for this to happen, but always remember, knock retard events are reactive to timing events that induce knock, so the piston will get hit before timing gets retarded, the factory knows this, and they use a very aggressive decay rate that keep things in good check even running 87 octane, but what the aftermarket is doing is hard to gauge without looking at the tune and taking some logs.

 

Obviously you have put a lot of time into this and have way more knowledge on the subject than I do. I was just relating my experience with a superchips tune. Isn't the 87 tune for vehicles that, unlike our Jeeps, aren't designed to run on 87? Maybe that is a factor.

 

I think that should be the idea, but they don't often translate that into their calibrations, that's part of the hook, for example, you'll be saving money running an 87 octane tune for instance on a Camaro SS.

With the factory tune, you can run 87,89,91 or 93, without changing anything, you can run you Jeep in Alaska at -50F for 3 months in a row, then ship to in Kuwait and run it at 130F for another 3 months, same tune, and you don't have to worry a lot about their gas, funny thing as well, it's the same with the Camaro SS for example with the LS3 engine, manual states 91 is recommended, guess what, the wife can take the car and she could pump 87 in it without knowing you would never attempt to run less than 91 because the manual says so.

I can't tell you what Superchips did in the Jeeps as i haven't looked at a Superchips tune for this vehicles, for the most part except for some transmission parameters that are hidden from ether side, i can tell you what they do with the 04-06 Pontiac GTO's with LS1/LS2 engines, 08-09 Pontiac G8GT's with the L76 engine, 10-14 Camaro SS with the LS3 engines, 87 through 93 tunes, same thing for what Diablo does with this vehicles, if i had to guess, your 87 octane tune has more timing than the factory. but again, it's just a guess. i'd never ever run less octane than what the tune calls for, even the vendor will tell you not to run less octane with their tunes, and trust me, they know exactly why they'll print that out in their documentation...

Knowing a thing or two about this tunes, in a high performance application i'll definitely run 91 octane with their 87 tune, 93 octane with their 91, but that's just me. take it as a internet opinion from somebody that can see what's going on in some of this calibrations with a lot more details than the average end user.

 

Thanks. That's good to know. Guess I'll bump it up to high test. With these modern engines the old school way of determining ping is no longer valid. My other ride was designed to run on 98 octane...and with lead...gets expensive to run.

 

Well as it stands Ron at SuperChips wanted me to update my tuner again even though I had just did that.
To my surprise there was a bunch of updates that downloaded from their spark program.
I've been waiting for good day to put the either 87 octane or 91 performance tune in and see what happens.
I wonder if they adjusted the tune specifically for my tuner....they asked for the serial # before telling me to update it.