The knock sensor is basically a microphone that picks up pinging (among other things) from the engine. When you have knock, your ignition is timed to far ahead of the piston reaching Top Dead Center (TDC) The flame propogates too far before TDC, and it pushes down on the piston while it'* still on the upstroke.

False knock is a noise in the engine bay that is picked up by the knock sensor that creates retard anyways. If you install headers on a bonneville they're generally made for W bodies, so you must use the W body dipstick or it'll hit the headers and create false knock for instance.

Ok. I checked out my MAC scantool. I understand about the log now. Bascially, it records whatever stats you tell it to. It seems to take samples at a set time. ( like every 2 seconds or so )

KS counter is the number of degrees it retards ? Or is it a logorithmic amount with 5 being the highest level ?

Thanks again . This information is SO valuable to me with these mods. I've been modding my whole life with 60'* technology and am just now understanding the joys of hightech
hot rodding. It'* becoming a little less scary each day.

JLathem

uhhhh the 3.8 SFI have knock sensors .... they are the heritage and the basis of your 3800'*


if you really wanna know what kinda KR your getting ... check out some turbo regal parts sites... they have KR gauges that are ususally pretty cheap ... they are LED and each LED that lights up is 1 degree of KR... as far as I can remeber from the 3.8 turbo cars 4-5 degrees of KR on 91+ oct is upper limit of "acceptable"

haha no problem

The KS counter is just a counter of how many TIMES it detonates. It goes up by 1 each time there is detonation and it will reset back to 0 when you turn the car off. The Knock Retard reading is how many degrees it is retarding when it detonates.

Yeah I could imagine rodders delight when the first knock sensor came on the scene

I've found several KR meters or Knock sensors as they are called on the web.
Several vendors carry them and they looked to be fairly simple to install. They are Pod gauge size and may be a nice addditon. They were on average about 70 bucks.
Thats a lot of money for a non go fast goody. Then again, engines arent cheap either.
Thanks for everyones help and info !

JLathem

P.*. The GN guys were installing these things with like .. 20 and 25 PSI of boost. We only run like 10 to 12. So it may just be a toy I dunno.

I found directions so you can build one yourself. I'm not very good with electronics so I would probably get the parts and have someone else build it haha.. If you are, have at it: http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/proj...jectspage.html

Thanks man. I'm an engineer by trade so I could build it. Now ... it may look like a twelve pack of beer with lights .. but I could build it. It did give me an idea though. Maybe I could build the box and run the two LEDS remotely. Then again .. I may hit E-bay.
I kinda like the flashing doohickies in a pod. Heck , each pod adds at least 20 HP'* right ?


AT least I have options. Thats what i came for. I'm thinking KR isnt that big of deal on these cars or else all you guys would have gauges. Do YOU have KR problems ?
I bet that cam bleeds off a little pressure but your more than adding it back.
And the N2O ... we won't even go there that stuff has sucked the money right out of my kids college fund. It just seems like with the pulley and the chip it could be an issue. I've zapped several motor$ due to preignition from getting crazy with the timing.

Thanks again .

JLathem