Help: 1998 Trans Am knock sensor problem

[90ARAPAJ]

tuning out the KS will not give you any performance gains, but WILL open you up for damage to the engine if it knocks and you have no way of knowing.

Knocking in spark-ignition internal combustion engines occurs when combustion of the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder starts off correctly in response to ignition by the spark plug, but one or more pockets of air/fuel mixture explode outside the envelope of the normal combustion front. The fuel-air charge is meant to be ignited by the spark plug only, and at a precise time in the piston's stroke cycle. The peak of the combustion process no longer occurs at the optimum moment for the four-stroke cycle. The shock wave creates the characteristic metallic "pinging" sound, and cylinder pressure increases dramatically. Effects of engine knocking range from inconsequential to completely destructive.

Basically it means that if your PCM is not able to register knocking in the engine it can not adjust the timing to compensate.

Serious drag racers will run without KS because they run for very short durations and will rebuild engines or swap out between/after events if an issue comes up.

yes but does knock sensors retard the timing????

[pajeff02]

yes but does knock sensors retard the timing????

The knock sensors send a signal to the PCM and it will retard ignition timing in an attempt to protect the engine from damage.