Knock control - worth upgrading an ECU for?

Hi team

I have a Link G4 which doesn't have built in knock control, it can do it with a Link KnockBlock but for the price of one of those. I think I could sell my G4 and get a G4plus which has it built in for less of a difference.

What I want to know, is it worth the say $600 difference to have Knock control. My car has been tuned and run for about 18 months without missing a beat. Am I just being paranoid? I have an oil pressure sensor for the ecu, but no fuel pressure sensor yet.

I understand there are more features that I would get out of the G4plus, but other than knock and being able to run e85 with a content sensor nicely, charge temp correction. There actually isn't that much more in terms of performance that I would gain by changing ecus. Labeling outputs would be nice, and changing to a multi fuel modelled. Especially given all the HPA courses. But they are just nice things.

John I would think of it this way. Even with an ECU that can detect knock you still need to tune the engine using something like a knock block anyway.

Good point. A knock block does have audio though which the inbuilt ones do not

$600 is a lot cheaper than an engine rebuild from a bad batch of fuel.

I'm a big fan of knock control. That being said I tuned engines for probably 10 years or more when knock control systems on standalone ECUs either didn't exist or were not particularly advanced so it's not essential. Most tuners I see in the industry don't set up knock control in aftermarket ECUs even when the feature is there - I think this is part laziness and part a lack of understanding of how the system functions.

My thoughts would be:

1. It's a great feature and well worth having for peace of mind - As BlackRex said, $600 is a lot cheaper than a rebuild.

2. Knock control is there as a safety back stop in case you get a bad tank of fuel or something goes way outside the usual operating parameters. It's not there as a band aid, and you still need to tune the ignition correctly in the first place.

3. If you want peace of mind that your knock control system will save your engine, it must be configured and tuned correctly (we have a few webinars dealing with this). If it isn't set up properly it can't help you.

Ok, so if the tune is good. In theory you shouldn't need knock control.

I'll see if I can upgrade to a G4 plus for a reasonable amount.

For now, my G4 can do e85, so I'm going to pursue that route. She still has some life left in her.

It's probably not quite that simple - Yes, a well tuned ignition map shouldn't cause knock, and this is really a requirement if you want your engine to remain intact with or without knock control. Even with a well tuned engine though you may end up in a situation where the operating conditions are so far outside the conditions the engine was tuned under that knock may occur, and that is where knock control can save the engine.

Traditionally with an engine that is very knock sensitive but where we have no knock control, we may leave a wider safety margin in our ignition tuning which reduces engine power. This safety margin is there to protect the engine once it leaves the dyno. If we have knock control we can choose to tune a little closer to the knock limit and potentially release some more power without risking the engine.

i really would like to use knock control function of my ecu but the setup isn't easy. I would have to bring my enginge into knock situation to prove my sensor and ecu setup is working. But im afraid to kill the engine with this action. I have got phormula pro knock detection system headset available and also mounted knock sensor to ecu.

But as a beginner im not sure how knock sounds like and if i could hear it. Also my valvetrain is quiet noisy.......what makes it more difficult.