I just bought one and have a question or two...

MUST I connect the rpm cable if I don't want the shift light?

Does it even work on these cars?...lol...I have a G.

 

i wouldnt think it is needed

 

has anyone had actual experience with this? I wouldn't think it needed it either but part of the calibration requires you to rev the engine to different rpm intervals which makes me think it does.

 

oh ya, i forgot about that part. Ya, you'll need it.

It calibrates it off engine noise at certain rpms so it doesn't get false readings.

 

PM jining since he have/had them... He wasnt able to use the shiftlight feature thought..

https://my350z.com/forum/4344648-post1.html

 

hmm, i log rpms' with my innovate LMA-3 so you should be able to get a tach signal.

i do'nt really care about a shift light though. I might install one of these for monitoring my car just in case since i can't quite afford a J&S safeguard while i'm here in school.

 

If you're trying to use the feature that is described in the UTEC manual (part of the UTEC, not the separate shift light product), then no it is not enabled in the UTEC firmware. (This may be irrelevant for you - ignore if so )

 

So how would I connect it if the G/Z's don't have an rpm signal? Would connecting it to the first coil be the same thing or would it distort the signal rendering the knocklite useless or unreliable?

 

idk about the knocklite but my datalogger uses the first coil to log rpm on my g35. should work for anything needing an rpm signal.

 

After 3yrs and much dyno tuning my Knocklite hasn't ever worked and IMO it's a POS! The stock cpu knock detection works much better. If your inquiring as to the shift light function I never used it. What's wrong with the factory shiftlight?

 

g35 doesn't have one.

and if you are adjusting your timing tables then it will work. If you use stock timing tables then the stock ecu adjustments will be the best.

Problem is, the stock ecu stops looking for knock after 5k so after 5k if you knock, it doesn't care. At least iwth a knock light you can see that there is a knock and get out of the gas on your own. And yes, it can still display knock from the same sensor even if the ecu isn't making adjustments on the knock. The ecu still sees that knock from the sensor, it just doesn't do anything with it after 5k.

 

After you calibrate your knocklite, If it ever actually detects knock, please let me know, mine never worked, or the knock would have to be so loud that engine damaged occured first. Good luck either way.

 

Jiining was using the knock light and he has dialed it perfectly. He's using utec and was able to adjust the sensitivity on his knocklite to detect knock just as Utec detect it.

 

that's the issue though. if your car is tuned like it hsould then the knocklite should never detect knock.

the only way to tell is to use an advanced knock detector on a dyno while wartching the torque curve and put your car into detonation to see if it its working properly. I personally don't want to take that chance but if it's overly sensitive and gives me false knock readings i'll accept that over no warning system at all.

in a nutshell, a person with a safely tune vehicle will think a detector isn't working since they aren't getting knock but in truth their car just isn't knocking.

 

If you have the engine running and you tap the plenum with a screw driver it should spike the knock sensors. At least it did on other vehicles I've done it on.

 

"should"

best place would be tapping directly next to the knock sensor itself. hard to completely simulate it at high rpm because the engine acts differently when rev'ed with no load as it does with a load while driving at the same rpm.

your method will work to just check to see if it detects anything at all would work just fine.

 

I finally got around to installing the knocklite in my car and quite frankly I'm not even sure it works. I feel like advancing my timing like crazy to the point of knocking at light load to see if it'll turn on.

 

just let it idle and tap on the engine at the plenum. The knock sensor is on the block between the 2 cylinder banks. Tapping on the back of either cylinder should work too. get a wrench that will make some good noise.

did you get it all setup by setting different noise levels while you rev? that will have effect.

 

Just like Utec, you need to calibrate it using a detcan or on the dyno. It is easy to adjust the knock sensitivity below 5000rpm. All you have to do is monitor what the stock ignition and see if the ECU is pulling timing when knocking. The problem with Knocklite or Utec is that above 5000rpm the ECU dont do anything so you need a dyno to calibrate it. If you had Utec then we can give you a starting range on what sensitivity to set the knock setting and from that you can reference your knocklite base on the Utec sensitivity.

 

I have sensitivity at 1 and if I hit the plenum it won't turn on. I did the calibration as stated in the manual.

It DOES cycle through the lights whenever it shift from 1st to 2nd gear...maybe a bit of burst knock....but that's it.