What is "engine knocking"?
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If this is a serious question, here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_knocking Happy to help.
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Thanks, I looked into it and I understand how knocking happens. I don't think my car "knocks" but I just wanted to know what to listen for. I looked on youtube and from the sound quality it didn't sound "pingy" like wikipedia said. I just want to know what to listen for and how to fix it if the problem ever occurs.
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Your AP will listen for you 
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Knock and ping are old car guy terms describing ignition irregularities. It's a common misconception, but in internal combustion theory (4 stroke), the air fuel mixture does not ignite and explode. If it did, you would have uncontrolled combustion, which is what is referred to as knock.
You want the air fuel mixture to burn completely evenly, imagine a field of grass. The flame front travels across the field, it doesn't all go up and once. That's what produces power by creating pressure that acts on the top of the piston.
Knock is really post ignition, which can be anything ranging from the failure of the ignition system to ignite the mixture and an alternative ignition point spontaneously forming to multiple competing flame fronts hitting each other head on in different directions. This is defined as after the point at which the spark plug was supposed to fire the mixture. When it gets super volatile, it just seems to completely explode at the same time.
Pre-ignition, which is called pinging, occurs when there is extremely high pressures caused by lean conditions, too much boost, etc, at a point before the ignition system tries to fire the mixture.
Both knock and ping are detected by a microphone (the knock sensor) which listens for high pitched noises that are associated with both knocking and pinging. The sensor has a tight threshold, so it is easily fooled by noises that are not associated with post and pre-ignition. It'd really an inexact sensing method, but short of putting $5000 pressure transducers inside the actual cylinder it's the best method for detecting problems.
You want the air fuel mixture to burn completely evenly, imagine a field of grass. The flame front travels across the field, it doesn't all go up and once. That's what produces power by creating pressure that acts on the top of the piston.
Knock is really post ignition, which can be anything ranging from the failure of the ignition system to ignite the mixture and an alternative ignition point spontaneously forming to multiple competing flame fronts hitting each other head on in different directions. This is defined as after the point at which the spark plug was supposed to fire the mixture. When it gets super volatile, it just seems to completely explode at the same time.
Pre-ignition, which is called pinging, occurs when there is extremely high pressures caused by lean conditions, too much boost, etc, at a point before the ignition system tries to fire the mixture.
Both knock and ping are detected by a microphone (the knock sensor) which listens for high pitched noises that are associated with both knocking and pinging. The sensor has a tight threshold, so it is easily fooled by noises that are not associated with post and pre-ignition. It'd really an inexact sensing method, but short of putting $5000 pressure transducers inside the actual cylinder it's the best method for detecting problems.
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Bah internets.
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i think this answer was the most accurate lol
Its nice to see real answers and not some cocky ass remark! I though this was a better forum?
Well said discogodfather!
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learn something everyday on this forum,
so when looking at datalogs etc. how much knock is acceptable? at what point to you consider adjusting the timing or tune?
so when looking at datalogs etc. how much knock is acceptable? at what point to you consider adjusting the timing or tune?
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first time I ever heard it on my first turbo car it sounded like "a box full of marbles and gravel being shaken"
I know that's pretty loose in description, but as one of the early responses said, actually detecting it with 100% accuracy requires equipment too expensive to run on the car. Going to a good tuner, they will uses the forces of witchcraft and wizardry to extract more power without pushing too much timing or boost and getting the peak cylinder pressures too high for your fuel accommodations.
how much that's acceptable will usually change per model of car. When I dyno'd my X (100% stock) my first run I had 12 counts (insanely too much). My tuner was datalogging and also guessed it was from the factory tune overfueling and because of the heat soak I had. My second run had 1 count. He said that was totally fine for the X.
I know that's pretty loose in description, but as one of the early responses said, actually detecting it with 100% accuracy requires equipment too expensive to run on the car. Going to a good tuner, they will uses the forces of witchcraft and wizardry to extract more power without pushing too much timing or boost and getting the peak cylinder pressures too high for your fuel accommodations.
how much that's acceptable will usually change per model of car. When I dyno'd my X (100% stock) my first run I had 12 counts (insanely too much). My tuner was datalogging and also guessed it was from the factory tune overfueling and because of the heat soak I had. My second run had 1 count. He said that was totally fine for the X.
depends what software your using,
KnockSUM is what the ECU see's, anything above 3 is bad, but only if its consistently above 3, and above 110load...
KnockRetard (i think Cobb calls it) is just KnockSUM * 0.35, so in this case anything consistently above 1 is bad (same 110load as well)
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Thanks for all the info. I hooked my AP up last night and went on a 20 minute drive, going WOT a couple times and monitored the "knock". On the log the "knock" was always at 0, so it looks like I'm good. I listened for any strange noises too, everything seemed normal.
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Evoscan on my MR (bone stock) picks up tons of clutch rattle and calls it knock, up to about 10 counts. Hard to believe because it's happening at 1 psi and 600 rpm, so mechanical noise and other problems can cause heart attacks and false alarms.
Like Tephra said, look for consistent knocksums at higher boosts and loads to have a legitimate heart attack.
This is a video of combustion in a coke bottle, not really a cylinder, this video shows a good flame front:
And this is when it has some uncontrolled problems, similar to what would happen with knock:
Like Tephra said, look for consistent knocksums at higher boosts and loads to have a legitimate heart attack.
This is a video of combustion in a coke bottle, not really a cylinder, this video shows a good flame front:
And this is when it has some uncontrolled problems, similar to what would happen with knock:
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Didn't one of the last AP updates change from KnockSUM to Knock Count so you don't have to *.35?
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Yup, when I did my baseline pull my knock count was maxed out on the stock tune. I think mine had alot to do with the lean spool and timing.
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