Engine pinging

I started my car the other day and to my surprise was a loud pinging sound which seems to be coming from the left side of the engine beneath the car near the pistons. I called a mechanic and he suggested to try a higher octane gas. I typically just use 87 octane. Has anyone had any experience with this, and I'm wondering if I can simply put in some octane booster and the problem will correct itself?

Unlikely it's octane. More likely you are out of timing a bit. These cars don't have anti knock sensors. Be careful though, could also be a bad batch of gas. "Kangaroo Gas" (Remember HESS at Carlisle GRRrrr)

i'd run a tank of 91 through it along with some techron or something similiar to get rid of some of the deposits if any

Pinging?

When?

When it's Idling?

If it's "Pinging" when idling, then it's probably valve noise, caused by the valve clearance being too great.

Either do yourself or have some you trust do a valve adjustment and it should get quiet again.

If, on the other hand, it's "pinging" under moderate acceleration (and it didn't do it before you stored the car) then it can be caused by either (a.) bad gas (run around until the tank is 1/8 or lower, then fill with fresh, high octane, good gas) or (b.) the ignition is advanced too far - check the ignition timing with a timing light and reset it to whatever is right for your engine.

gn

Gas gets old with age the higher the octane the better.If you have old gas in your tank , pump it out of the tank and fill with premium feul a can of 104 octane booster works good .We have a secret stash of super duper feul in robinsville for those dragon runs

True "pinging" shouldnt be noticed at idle. More like WOT.
Another good reason to have adequate mufflers.

is this about the time of year when the gas co's hafta changeover to less volatiles in the formula ?

Pinging at idle ... and gets louder with rpm's. My first thought was valve problem, and that's probably what it is.

Do a valve adjustment and use higher octane gas and see if it works. Stock VW engines had a compression ratio of close to 6.5 or 7.0 to 1. When I did a head upgrade to my 1915 cc I used copper spacers to get a ratio of close to 7 to 1. I can use regular gas with no pinging.