knock sensor/gauge

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70wayfarer

70wayfarer

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hi..
anyone using these? are they worth using.
i'm pushing 10 psi into my 360 via a vortech v2. have just had afr's sorted on the dyno where the dude thinks that a knock gauge might be worth the while installing.

cheers
 
They HAVE to be if they work correctly. Google around, there's guys hooking up sensors to headphones so that they can HEAR spark knock during tuning
 
i was looking at a visual type so as to keep things in check while at the track or just cruising around
 
my dad has a knock sensor on his turbo 6. It only activates a small LED on the dash when it knocks.
 
I haven't looked at this in about 10 years.
A knock sensor isn't a bad idea but its the implemtation that counts.
Typically the sensor is tuned in to a certain noise frequency, the problem is if your engine has something that rattles (resonates) at the same frequency then you get a false read.
So it all come down to how much you want to trust it with your engine.
 
Yeah, there are different kinds of sensors. The most basic are essentially just microphones (piezoelectric elements for the engineers out there). They produce a voltage when they are vibrated, so you can more or less just attach them to headphones or a scope. The amount of voltage they produce is based on the severity of vibration, so they'll have lots of electrical "noise" all the time and then spike under conditions like knock (or hitting a hammer on the engine block as a way to test them). I believe Dodge uses the tuned variety mentioned above. I think they operate in a similar fashion (produce a voltage based on vibration strength), but I believe they filter out a lot of the "noise" and only really respond on larger signals. Typically I'm fairly sure they are engine specific though, so they are sensitive at whatever frequency the engineers determined the engine knocks at. This would mean you couldn't necessarily just go out and buy a sensor and expect it to work.

The more simple "microphone" type are usually just a single wire hookup and I believe are farily common to GM. I know the sensors on my 5.7 Hemi are a two wire variety, but I still haven't figured out how to test them.
 
The J and S unit is a fantastic knockbox. I have one in my rice burner. It works so well because I have a factory knock sensor. The problem with using it in a motor without a factory sensor is getting the right sensor in the right location to get clean signal. I just order knocksenseMS that has a filter which is frequency tuned for my 318's bore. I plan on just datalogging with it. We'll see if it works. My setup is a 318 magnum with vortech V2 @ 15psi.

http://www.jandssafeguard.com/
http://www.viatrack.ca/
 
afr's were sorted on dyno and the way i see it if they are all good then the chance of knock/detonation is lessoned. the Innovate Motorsport MTX-L guage i fitted is digital with a digital needle around perimiter of gauge. easy to see and accurate.
 
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