Is there a way to find out if a car has a tune?

[elrichmeister]

So one thing my car has done in my ownership is some pinging noise around 2.5k-3k. Only weird thing it only does it sometimes, i have to really lug it for it to happen or go uphill on a high gear with moderate throttle. Last time i brought the car in for service i asked the shop about and they were able to reproduce the noise by going up hill on a high gear. They asked if the car was tuned, as far as i am aware its not, but i am like the 5th owner and around 3rd owner this car was manual swapped.

The shop recommended that i try an octane booster to see if the pinging goes away, and to my surprise the car does not ping anymore. With the octane booster the octane is probably close to 94. Ill continue to monitor the noise on the next fill up.

So wondering if the car does have a tune and if there is a way to find out?

The car has 180k miles, no misfires and doesn't burn any oil, and runs strong.


EDIT: Forgot to mention I'm in CA, so I'm limited to 91 Octane.

Maintenance under my ownership:
Rod Bearings: 144k
Full Vanos Rebuild: 166k

[jayjaya29]

Yes but its not straightforward. You will have to pull a partial .bin from your DME and then using Tuner Studio, compare your .bin to the stock .bin that matches your DME software version.

[Halftim3]

Not sure how to tell about having a tune, but that pinging in that rpm range sounds like it could be head gasket failure. I would do a leak down test.

[elrichmeister]

Yes but its not straightforward. You will have to pull a partial .bin from your DME and then using Tuner Studio, compare your .bin to the stock .bin that matches your DME software version.

thanks ill look into this.

Not sure how to tell about having a tune, but that pinging in that rpm range sounds like it could be head gasket failure. I would do a leak down test.

Yea ive been reading about this, was thinking of doing a compression test first, but probably should do a leak down test.

[jayjaya29]

Another thing you could do, after pulling the partial .bin from your DME, is flash your DME with the stock .bin that matches your DME software version and see if the pinging persists.