I agree with MayhemSi. It's common practice even on oem ecus to turn off the knock sensor at high rpm. Too much engine noise. Call me old school, but when it comes down to knock finding I rely on my brain. And other old school techniques like plug reading.

 

So to summarize, the factories DON'T know how to tune engines, so they rely on knock control. Knock sensors don't work, so factories are literally throwing away millions of dollars a year for no apparent reason....got it! Makes sense!

Bottom line. The Factories invest millions of dollars every year doing research on developement of engine programs to prevent warranty claims. In the end......both sides are right! You want to tune without relying on Knock control to save your a##, but you CANNOT control the fuel you pump into your tank at the gas station. The factories are well aware of this, and there within is the need for knock control. If you tune for a specific race fuel, say C16, and that is all you run, and you know what you are doing, then knock control isn't going to do much for you. However you also need to remember that lean conditions can cause knock to occur as well, and your AFR sensor is averaging ALL cylinders, so if one cylinder is lean, it may detonate even when you afr's are "good". The knock sensor can still pick up on this. You are also most likely to detonate at peak torque, not high rpm.

Remember, you can turn it off, you don't HAVE to use it. It is INCREDIBLY usefull to monitor either way!

Jason.

 

Very true saying in your signature Jason , havent talked to you in a while , happy holidays

 

We are running the Autronic plug and play board in our shop Evo VIII MR with fantastic results. We were amazed how quickly you could tune with the system and get yourself a great running car in no time at all. We have been selling the AEM for some time and it is also a great unit for the Evo VIII. However we decided that for our shop car the Autronic was the ECM of choice for our time attack car. The AEM does have more features than the Autronic, however you will need to spend a few days going throught the menu's to get to all of them. At the end of the day it is the person behind the keyboard making the decisions that will determine if your tune is good or bad. As for the knock sensor being an issue on the Autronic we don't feel that it is at all. We are running 30 psi on a GT3076 for 35 minutes at a time on a road course with no issues. It again all comes down to the tuner, not the hardware.



Casey Horner
www.Forcedfed.com
925.371.2288

 

I'm a bit confused by this statement. Are you under the impression that you HAVE to go into all of the tables and options and tune/adjust them? This just simply isn't the case at all. You can just change fuel and timing if you want to. Just because it is there, doesn't mean you have to change them. After all, wouldn't you rather have the ability to make changes in certain areas should you chose to, than be stuck with only being able to make certain changes/adjustments???

Jason.

 

What is confusing you Jason? I did not say that you HAD to go into all of the tables, but that you will need to spend more time setting up all of the features the AEM has. This could be seen as a plus in many peoples eyes that are not paying $150+ an hour for tuning. The Autronic in my opinion lets you set the car up quicker than the AEM, but it should be quicker as it does not have as many features. Also it is more user friendly and it plugs right into the factory ecu compartment for a clean install. As I stated earlier, we sell and tune the AEM as well as the Autronic units and you will get great results from either one. Your sig quote is right on the money as well.

Casey Horner
www.Forcedfed.com
925.371.2288

 

This is my point. You don't have to set anything you don't want to use. All the basic stuff is setup already.

Jason.

 

AEM Rocks! Having said that, I must give credit where its due and the Autotronic really does have a great 'startup' file that has really good cold starts, drivability, etc. Having learned how to tune on an Autotronic (thanks EFI101) I really like the ability to SEE what A/F ratio I'm tuning for (without having to switch between screens) and the ability to input a certain RPM / LOAD figure and have the software do the calculations (without having to rescale the entire load / fuel map(s); also the ability to start with roughly one load / RPM and a value in that column AND have a drivable car (at least to the dyno) is a really nice feature mainly because of the compression ratio and charged air value calculations.

As far as knock control, you can't beat it. Like Jason said, if you control the quality of the gas (such as running C16 all the time) then you have nothing to worry about BUT if you run pump gas (read inconsistent gas) then you'll realize that what you see isn't necessarily what you get (in terms of consistency / octane rating) and a properly tuned knock control system can save your motor; not only a selling point for the AEM but really a necessity that every person that daily drives (or likes their car and doesn't want to blow it up) their car should DEFINITELY invest into.