as title says im looking for opinions from indivduals with either, i currently have the fcon and looking for the best option to detect knock and retard timing when needed on a built tt setup. i searched but nothing worthwhile came up on the knock amp.

 

Since you have the FCON already, I'd go with the Knock Amp, since they are designed to work together. If you didn't, I'd suggest the J&S.

 

hks knock amp is pointless. All it does is display knock or allow you to hook up with headphones to listen for knock. That will help you none when you are racing because by the time you notice the gauge the damage is done. It isn't a safety device at all.

J&S can be individually setup to pull whatever amount of timing you want per however many knocks it detects. It truely is a safety device because it will retard timing in the event of knock which saves the engine.

The only think the hks would be good for is tuning and at 800$ it's not worth it. You can spend 20$ and make your own set of knock listening headphones.

If you want protection get the J&S

 

Well yes and no, the knock amp can retard timing if connected to the Fcon properly and the software set up for a knock map, then you have to calibrate it to set up the proper voltage signal to trigger the map if knock is present and not just noise. It is not the easiest set up so I would bet that most people with the knock amp are only using it for Air Fuel feedback and/or a nice display.

I have used the J&S before and it is way simpler to dial in and set up.

So between the two, I would probably go with the J&S for simplicity

 

+1 most tuners just make a quick buck with the knock amp... I've never seen one properly hooked up to the Fcon with timing retard, ect ect. J&S for the win, I'd prefer a separate device anyways for redundancy.

 

Okay, that's interesting because I called a couple of hks prodealers and they said that hks is putting a hold on hks USA pro dealer parts for an unspecified amount of time. So they said getting repkacement parts would be a direct order from Japan. I also heard that the knock amp is not 100% functional in our cars. But I don't know how true that is. Because I do remember a thread created a while back we one said shop just hooked up the knock amp as a af gauge and didn't setup the knock protection feature if it. For those who have a FULLY FUNCTIONAL knock amp... Care to chime in???

 

i heard hks usa was shutting down

 

ah, i didn't know it actually communicated with the fcon.

i'm sure a shop will charge a pretty penny for setting on of them up. I know it took me weeks to get the knock thresholds setup on my haltech. i would assume with a dyno it would probably take all day to dial it in. Quite costly for the hours.

 

yes HKS USA is shutting down, parts will still be available just may not be as easy if the US distributors do not have it in stock or on its way, which might mean long waits or expensive shipping from Japan

 

Forged charged for several hours of calibration during my inital build and installtion...what the exact calibration consisted of i do not know. I did not do a lot of research in the item back then, but I saw that it was installed in many of forges cars. I know it is hooked up to the FCON because I can view the A/F on my Camp2 (it's the only way it will show up on the camp2).

 

that sounds about right. On a dyno working quickly it could be calibrated in a couple hours.

i would assume it's the same thing we have to do on the haltech. You have a knock threshold map that needs to be adjusted for your engine so it doesn't think normal noises are knock. it's like a "knock map" specific to your engine.

 

^^Cool, thanks! Good to know!