why use aftermarket knock detection equipment

Hi Andre,

I have a question for you. Here in Trinidad most "tuners" do not even use knock detection equipment such as the knock block or the plex knock monitor. In the road tuning course, you too had the stock knock sensor sending its input to the ECU in addition to the knock block.

My question is, if you can identify knock using the input from the factory installed knock sensor, then why bother to invest in aftermarket detection equipment?

Another question from the road tuning course surrounds the part where you removed 2 degrees from the top two rows of the map but then still heard and saw a little knock up top. You explained that this may be due to heat soak and you would not typically do this much testing back to back hence if you let the temperatures normalize a bit, then this knock should not be apparent in a subsequent run.

My question is why do this? Why not purposefully tune the main ignition table, especially WOT under a little extra stress just like what happened in the course and ensure with this bit of added heat and stress on the engine that we don't hear any knock? Won't this be like an added safety margin for say a hot day if the driver is hammering the engine a bit for extended periods at WOT?

Chris.

A lot of times modified engines induce noise into the power train that OEM equipment was not calibrated for so you might be getting false knock. Withe a device like plex knock monitor you can filter out the noise to better hear knock and/or confirm that the ecu is detecting true knock.

I dont think beating on an engine is a good idea, instead you can set IAT compensation tables to retard timing under high IATs or ECTs or both.

I always recommend using audio knock detection to confirm that the knock detection strategy is accurately detecting knock. This is a key aspect of tuning the system and making sure it is functioning correctly.

When tuning the ignition table, you want to make sure that under typical use no knock is occurring. This means that you want to use the engine in the same way it's likely to be used in the real world - The conditions in our video weren't particularly typical of this. You can of course utilise the IAT ignition trim to trim the timing if you are seeing a tendency for your engine to knock at higher intake air temps.