Ford Escape 2006 V6 3.0 engine is pinging

That pinging sound is "spark knock" or "engine knock" and it can be very damaging to the engine. If you have to continue driving it, drive it very gently to reduce the that ping as much as possible. Neither engine for this vehicle has a "knock sensor" which retards the spark to eliminate the knock. So the only remedy is to go to the highest grade of gas you can find. (Go to a different gas station this time.) Gasoline octane ratings go from about 86 to 93 in most areas. Try to catch your fuel at it's lowest level and then fill up with 93 gas. This will quickly bring up the octane level and might stop the knock. There are also canned additives that do this. The question is why is this happening? Wrong spark plug heat range can do it, overheated engine, carbon coated combustion chamber, bad gas. Keep/find you gasoline receipts. Save a sample where you got "bad gas". Some refinery might be buying you a new engine. I used to work for Quaker State. I know how things happen and who pays.