Knock Retard Issues

[bmackinnon]

OOOO i dont wanna make another thread, what temp should my car be at normally? After driving a little my scanmaster said my car was around 214-215 is that normal or is it about to catch on fire and explode??? Thanks

That's pretty hot! Are you sure the fan is coming on? Alot of people run a 160 thermostat..... I run a 180 and the car runs 180-190... I believe the tiny loss in performance running at 180 vs. 160 is well worth it, as the engine components/clearances are designed to run at the higher temp, and the oil runs hotter, allowing it to vaporize/burn off moisture/contaminants... kinda' like the idea that it's bad to always run your car only for short trips that don't allow the oil to reach full operating temp... and your owners manual will specify that as 'severe' duty.... plenty of intelligent thought on the subject if you search....

but anyway... 214-215 is hot..... definitely don't want to be any hotter than that... the tt chip should turn the fan on around 165 I think.... is your's working correctly?

 

[TrAb]

That's pretty hot! Are you sure the fan is coming on? Alot of people run a 160 thermostat..... I run a 180 and the car runs 180-190... I believe the tiny loss in performance running at 180 vs. 160 is well worth it, as the engine components/clearances are designed to run at the higher temp, and the oil runs hotter, allowing it to vaporize/burn off moisture/contaminants... kinda' like the idea that it's bad to always run your car only for short trips that don't allow the oil to reach full operating temp... and your owners manual will specify that as 'severe' duty.... plenty of intelligent thought on the subject if you search....

but anyway... 214-215 is hot..... definitely don't want to be any hotter than that... the tt chip should turn the fan on around 165 I think.... is your's working correctly?

Hmm the fan does work, the only time i have noticed it cutting on is when i open the hood it seems to cut on as soon as i pop it up. Maybe thats just my imagination... I do have a new thermostat laying around, but i bet its a bitch to swap it out isnt it? Any guides on here...

 

[bmackinnon]

It's kind of a bitch, but not that bad.... the 'stat is underneath the 'neck' that is o-ringed into the intake. Remove the hold-down clamp that holds the neck in (like a distributer hold-down, 1 bolt, PITA to get to). Remove upper hose from the radiator, leaving it connected to the neck... and use the hose to pull/yank the neck out of the intake. The neck is a beItch to get out sometimes because it gets all corroded in there... and it's easy to f#$k it up as it''s a fairly thin, weak piece of crap alum... but no worry, because if you jack it up getting it out, aftermarket necks are available from every vendor for cheap, and I'm almost positive you can even get a replacement neck from oreilly's, autozone, advance, etc. for like $8. Once the neck is out, the thermostat is right behind it.... oringed as well... it will pull rite out.

I think you need to diagnose/verify your fan is working properly before you change the stat... It's likely the stat is not orig. and someone already put a 160 in it. Let the car get cool, crank it up, and let it idle with the hood up till the fan comes on. If it doesn't come on before like 180 deg. on the scanmaster, something ain't right, and we can diagnose it from there. The ecm normally controls the fan, but if for some reason the temp gets real hot, like where your's is running, there is a hi-temp fan overide switch on the intake that turns it on at like 218 or thereabouts. That may be what's turning on the fan, rather than the ecm... and if that's the case, we need to fix it and you may be fine with the stat that's in it.

 

[Razor]

No i dont have meth on this car, i just wanted to bump up the power just a tad

You need octane to bump the boost up. Either using higher octane fuel 100+ or get a meth system.

You tune for zero knock. Once there squeeze a little more till you see knock then back it down. There's nothing left.

200+ degree's and going WOT is a recipe for disaster sooner than latter. get your radiator/fan/thermostat issues sorted out and dont beat on a hot motor.

 

[it's just a six]

200+ degrees, wonder what the inlet temps are?

Note to self,,, arrrhhh I mean YOU,huntsg ,Must buy & use methanol injection.

 

[huntsg]

Just thought I would post a reply with where I am today with this knock problem. I ended up setting my fuel pressure to 42 lbs at idle vac hose off, setting my TPS to .42, and setting IAC to 20. I also set the cam sensor using the LED tool. None of these things solved the problem and in fact when I set the cam sensor it actually increased my knock - to 25! At that point I was pretty stumped and decided to replace my Red Armstrong Chip with a TT v5.6. Once I did that my knock was reduced to less than 4 and I have it around 2 right now as I continue to play with the parameters I can change using the scanmaster. Thanks for all the suggestions and thanks to m233roller for the PM.

 

[we4Mateo]

I tried to tune my car without alky for a couple of years with the stock turbo, and I had a supercharged Grand Prix that I raced before this car, and same problem; PUMP GAS IS GETTING WORSE EVERY YEAR! I had a scanner on the Grand Prix too, and with no changes in tune, that car would pick up KR every year. The bottom line is get alky! I didn't want to change the stock appearance of my WE4, but after adding alky, I never looked back. If you want to really enjoy these cars, even with stock equipment, get alky and run 16-18lbs of boost. IMO, it's safer to run 16-18lbs with alky then even 15lbs with straight pump gas. Especially true in areas like mine that only supply 91 octane. Better octane is available in other regions, but even then, alky makes it happen even better, and safer!