GreekGod:
Do you understand what was happening in the video I posted?
The truck was tuned for 91 octane and 19 psi. It had been running that tune for three years before I showed up, so it was proven to be safe, reliable, and had the power he wanted. Stock block, and the heads had never been off the engine.
I show up on the forum he moderated (lightningrodder), and offer him a unit, in return for being the beta install on a Lightning. This is his daily driver, so to lessen the chance of engine damage, he says we will test on the street at 0 psi with 89 octane. He knows it will knock but not bad enough to hurt the engine.
We do the install and take it out for a spin around town. Pulling away from a light, it would knock very audibly, for about two seconds, until it had enough knock retard built up in it to stop the knock. We played with the sensitivity for a bit, then gave up on it and went back to his place.
I told him the unit is not designed to work under conditions like that. Remember, we were lugging the engine at 1500 RPM on 89 octane, while tuned for 91.
His wife served cake and coffee, then my wife and I said our goodbyes to them, and we (dejectedly) head home.
Back in my lab I thought about what happened, and decided rather than give up on Lightnings running 89 octane, I would try to MAKE it work under his conditions.
The DETECTION part of the system worked perfectly. I had a portable scope on my lap and knock headphones. We could see the unit respond to the knock pulse immediately, but it didn't dial in the retard quickly enough.
The existing scheme at that time was it would retard one, two, or three counts per knock event, depending on knock intensity. Each count was worth one degree or two degrees, depending on one of the mode switches.
We had the switch set for two degrees per count, so that means six degrees retard on the first knock event was not enough to kill the knock the next time that cylinder fired.
In addition, the original code had a "feature" that lessened the retard increment, the farther it retarded. Kind of like a bicycle pump. The tire fills slower and slower as you pump it up. This was to prevent knock retard from going crazy if there was engine noise, which did not turn out to be a problem.
I reworked the CONTROL part of the software to allow UP TO seven counts, or fourteen degrees retard, with one knock event. In proportion to knock intensity. And I removed the accumulator code, described above.
We returned the next week with the software revision, plugged the unit in and went out again, on the street with 89 octane. Pulling away from a light, lots of knock retard, zero audible knock. Only the knocking cylinders get retarded, so you can't even feel it. It's just enjoyable to mash the throttle and watch the thing take over.
After about twenty minutes playing around on the street, Stew says screw this, and we head for the onramp. We drive North, from Oceanside to San Onofre, about fifteen miles round trip, goosing the the throttle when we can, but the unit kicks in and prevents audible knock. Stew is a happy camper.
He continued testing for a month, running on a mix of 89 and 91, and performed weekly plug checks, looking for signs of detonation on the porcelain.
We return for a final test at the end of the month. Everything was still working great, so we gave him title to the unit.
Very long thread about it here:
http://www.lightningrodder.com/foru...individual-cylinder-knock-control-system.html
More information in this old group buy thread:
http://www.lightningrodder.com/foru...tronics-engine-anti-blowup-safety-device.html