Ignition table tuning on the road

[kallegrabowski]

Hi,
I was wondering what you guys are using to detect engine knocking under full load while tuning the ignition table on the road?
Being an engineering student we used to screw a copper pipe with a flattened end to the engine block to detect knocking while working at an engine dyno, but of course the background noise in the car is orders of magnitude higher than sitting in a silent control booth of a dyno.
The car is a k-series with jenveys, 285h cams and an Emerald.

Cheers,
Felix

[nicemd]

I still haven't tried myself, but my engine tuner gave me the tip to get a knock-sensor from ebay and wire it to ordinary headphones.

[MXM]

I haven't done any actual tuning yet, but I did get a used knock sensor from ebay (from a bmw) and bolted it to the side of the block near cyl1. There's an unused threaded hole on xflow from the original alternator mount.

Knock sensor is basically a microphone, and I wired it into the music input of my intercom. It works in the sense that I can hear a lot of different sounds and noises, but I'm yet to learn how to identify the knocking sound

[BertBert]

You'll know when you hear it. You'll automatically say "who's there?"

[kallegrabowski]

I will try the knock sensor and headphones then. From my days at the dyno I am still quite familiar with the actual sound.
Thanks,
Felix