My 0 knock count, constant 54% knock control cal experience

Civic 2016+ 1.5 Turbo
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RedYung
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2021 7:39 pm

My 0 knock count, constant 54% knock control cal experience

Post by RedYung »

Hi folks,
As the people here are very helpful and support each other on tuning the civic x, I would like to share my experience and my cal file if it is useful for any beginner like me.

My target of Civic Turbo 2017+ High Output (91 Octane) calibration is to get the most from low-mid rpm at the same time with reliability aiming on 0 knock count with stable k.control if possible with RON 95 fuel.

My country is whole year summer with ~35 degree C high humid environment.

Here are some important points I learnt from trial and error, hopefully someone new to this is not repeating the journey and is able to enjoy the power the flashpro bring without worrying too much on the knocking issue.
  1. Knock
    Engine knocking has a few degree of severity. I hit many types of knock. low rpm knock count (~1k rpm) that is not noticable.
    2k~3k rpm real knock where you can hear audible ping sound and the worse 4k+ rpm knock with high rise of knock control (not artificial).
    If you get 3 or more in a row with audible sound and spike k.control %, it probably a real knocks and you should do something about it.
    If you get 1 or few in low rpm at different time with your k.control % unaffected, it is just some abnormal combustion which can be ignored, but still better if we can fix it.
  2. Fuel trim / AFM adjustment
    This is an interesting finding from my adventure. Not sure if it applies to different climate country.
    If you have stock intake system, do not ever adjust the AFM even you noticed fuel s-trim is -15% to -5%.
    I know many will say it is not optimized and should near to 0%. But once you make it near 0% (leaner), there is where all the low rpm random knocks will occur and raise the k.control means you losing power. I got easily a few knocks when I just floor the pedal from cruising at ~2k rpm.
    Trust me, I have redo it couple of times to confirm this is the case with weeks of real-life normal driving and sprinting on hot days, night and rainy/shady days ~30-50mins each runs.
    Leave it default to avoid knocking especially mid range rpm for closed loop.
  3. Ignition retard
    I have tried retard the ignition timing with my "perfect" trimmed fuel. But it is not worth it. I can notice the performance has lost on low-mid rpm due to my -2 degree retard to low-mid rpm timing just to get rids of the knocks for my "perfect" near 0 s-trim settings!
    When I leave the AFM default values, ALL of the knocks i had in this rpm ranges were GONE!
    What left me to deal with is the high rpm real knocks ~3.8-5k rpm range. This I have to adjust the Knock Ignition Limit by -2degree or some even -4degree on higher RPM + AIRC just to be safe.
    Which this, I have 0 knocks with many hours of testing under hot weather so far. I will continue to log to see if I can keep it 0!
  4. Artificial knock control
    This thing will get in the way if you ever hit 5.5k rpm or above. k.control shoot up to 60% or more and will remain for couple of minutes even you are now driving at 2-4k rpm region... this means you having power lost for nothing by just touching 5.5k rpm for a few secs!
    I'm glad that Hondata is able to provide us option to disable it!
    As a beginner, I'm super worry to try disable this in the beginning. My advise is, just disable it when you have fix or at least very unlikely to knock at high rpm. when WOT, the AFR is rich and it is actually unlikely to knock unless you have push it over its limit on the timings.
    There is basically nothing to worry to disable it WHEN you have confident that your settings is safe from the edge of knock!
    I have floor the pedal to bring to 5k-6k just to verify a couple of times and there is no real knock and the best thing is you still have same k.control value! There is no big retard even after you back to 3k and want to push it again!
    Anyway, I tested on my car on all stock hardware. I'm not responsible if you get serious knocks by disable it with a custom extreme push to limit mods or any non-stock hardware mods.
I attached my cal file for anyone new to this. It is not a pro tuning but at least it is safe for someone would like to just use it and hopefully without worrying on knocking. There might be still chances that there are mechanical differences between my car and yours that you may not get the same experience, so just pay attention to k.control and knock counts that is real.

In general, avoid touching the fuel trim / AFM unless you do not have knock issues like me.
Attachments
Civic-Turbo-9psi-no-ak-reduce4Deg.fpcal
(19.32 KiB) Downloaded 148 times
0Knock54percKControl.fpdl
(4.34 MiB) Downloaded 132 times
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