Apexi Power FC knock

[R33-East]

I just installed an Apexi Power FC in my gtr today, I went through the 30 minute setup procedure, checked all my sensors and made sure all the readings were within spec. When I took the car out for a drive everything ran smooth but sometimes when I was around 3000rpm the engine light flashed. I checked all the readings and knock was well over 60, I tried it a couple more times and got as high as 80 once. Sometimes however it goes through the rev range without any issue at all. Now I don't know if it was just me being paranoid after seeing the check engine light flash but I thought I could hear a faint ticking sound when it came on.

Does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing this? The car only has a cat-back exhaust and apexi power intake. If anyone needs anymore information to diagnose the issue just let me know. I would really appreciate some help with this.

[bobbo]

Did you get a DataLogit? The PFC is very difficult to tune without it.
Of course you're gonna get knock. The base tune in the PFC is based on Japanese rocket fuel vs. our pond water. You have to get a tune to adjust timing and fuel.
I can tell very easily (after my car was properly tuned by Almasi) when I get bad gas. I'll get knock all over the place. Never have problems unless I get fuel from a shifty station.
I reduced the sensitivity on my knock flashing light down to "40" for more advance warning.

[MattiasJacobs]

Where do you see numbers lol. I get the stupid bar.

[bobbo]

See my first question...

[MattiasJacobs]

So if you need datalogic he must have it to see the numbers?

[cory]

Normal knock is below 30 from what I read... The power fc uses a frequency an it picks up engine noise as well. I know on my tune anything above 40 I can hear the knock plain as day. Almost sounds like someone is hitting the top of the engine with a wrench.
It's really easy to pull timing in case you get a bad batch of fuel with the dataloggit.

[quadracer111]

Where do you see numbers lol. I get the stupid bar.

Press right (or up? Or maybe it was down?) when on the bar, it will show peak. If you push next it will show a graph.

But yeah, you need a tune. That map is basically just to get you to the tuner. I wouldn't be beating on it on a base map.

[gtrjon]

One of the many reasons why i ditched my power fc for a vipec. the sensitivity of the power fc knock "monitoring" is crap. I have still valve train and huge cams and I would get knock counts of 80 cruising around and over 130 when id pin it. dont worry if you were knocking with a count of 60 it would be plain as day

[Phastwon]

What was the weather like outside. With my head nad cams done I never saw readings of over 10 knock on the PFC. However sometime when it rained I would get readings of 60 and it would flash the engine light. Not sure why.

[R33-East]

So I took it out again and listened very closely(hard to hear over the exhaust lol) I definitely can hear knock when its over 40 on the hand commander. I didn't expect everything to be perfect on the base tune so I took it easy when driving, I can still drive it and get it to a tuner no problem. The plan was to go on a road trip next summer to Almasi in Montreal or maybe even RS Tuning in Toronto for a good tune, but thats only if I can get the rest of the mods I want to make it worth it. If I don't make it to that point in the build by then I will have to grab a Datalogit to tune it myself, however I am not jumping into that until I know I can do it properly lol.

Thanks for your help everyone!

[bobbo]

Buy a Datalogit. With that and the software you can do so much more. Tuning without it is a nightmare and will take forever.

[R33-East]

Buy a Datalogit. With that and the software you can do so much more. Tuning without it is a nightmare and will take forever.

Yeah that sounds like a plan it looks like a really great piece of kit, thanks for the advice.

[bobbo]

Let me know if you have any more questions. I've been using it for awhile now.

[R33-East]

Sure will, I also have a wideband to hook up to help with tuning.

[bobbo]

Sure will, I also have a wideband to hook up to help with tuning.

Another reason for the DL. So much you can log, adjust and compare.
Where are you in Ormocto? I've got family in Burton.