Help Distinguishing engine noise vs knock

Hello Andre,

I am a novice tuner and i still have many uncertainties about tuning. I have already cost myself an engine in the past trying to learn to tune and not using knock detection devices or properly configuring the knock detection system in my aem infinity. i refuse to let that happen again. I have taken many of ypur hpa course and i have learned alot. So I purchased the plex knock monitor v2 and the problem i have is that i have a really hard time trying to distinguish knock . Ive listened to numerous demonstration videos of examples of a run with and without knock and it frustrates me because to me they sound the same lol i have had my plex kock monitor on a few different engines and when i get above 4k rpm under load it just sounds like a rush of so much noise and i just cant pick out what is knock. It then causes me to probably be overly conservative with the ignition map because afraid to throw any timing into the car. But even then im not sure what is considard low timing either. I almost feel like there's a grey area with knock detection. Its definitely not like a afr tuning where if a wideband displays 11.5 afr then that is what your running Vs trying to interpret knock voltage in a datalog or a head set where it seems like it can be a judgement call on if its knocking or not. I dont know. It really bugs me and makes me uncomfortable with tuning.

You're right that knock detection isn't black and white. Particularly with the Plex unit there is a lot of flexibility in configuring it. It's always a good idea to cycle through all the available filters to see which one gives you the clearest signal to noise ratio. A filter that is crystal clear on one engine may be terrible on another so it really is worth taking the time to test. You also want to purposely induce some light knock so that you can distinguish between this and background noise. This will give you the confidence that your Plex is actually picking up knock. Check out this webinar for some more info: https://www.hpacademy.com/previous-webinars/103-setting-up-plex-knock-monitor/