Knock sensors

[Todd Knighton]

Tom,
	My first question is, how tall are you really?!? ha, ha.

	I've found that if I run the ignition timing too close to the limit on
the dyno that the knock sensors hit, the runs will be very
inconsistent.  But if the engine is set up properly, and the knock
sensors never need to do any thing then the engine performs well and
consistently.
	Knock sensors are for worst case scenario's.  Bad gas, carbon buildup,
impropper octane, exceedingly high temperatures.  I've never found a
system that works well enough to let it run on the sensors.
	We use the knock sensors with the monitor from J&S to tune the engine
till there is no more knock showing, not to leave it run on it.  A
properly calibrated engine should never see knock anyway!

Todd Knighton
Protomotive Engineering

talltom wrote:
> 
> Have to say that I've seen "Dr. Jacobs" advertise so much stuff that sounded
> flakey, I'd personally have to ride in the before and after and watch the
> proceedure to believe it.
> 
>   I did a Corvette with a turbo on it and used a old buick spark retard
> system, and while it worked, I wasn't really very happy with it. It would
> retard 3 degrees for every clatter it didn't like, and hold it for 20-60
> seconds. The problem was that it was inconsistent, back to back runs would
> vary widely. In fact one day it decided to run harder than it had previous
> and fried the tires hitting second. The result being the rear end stepped
> out to the left and the car climbed the curb to teh demise of the right
> front corner.
>   My question is what kind of expieriences have others had with knock
> retard systems? I'd think that by now this would have been refined some.
> 
>