ok i was gettin some detonation and i coudl hear it so i would imagine it was bad. i got it richened up and tried to stay off the gas. now i cant hear anything and i have no KR and really didnt have much if any with any detonation earlier. what i wanna know is if i cant hear the detonation how can i detect it and how long and hard would i have to run my engine while lean to cause major internal problems?

 

The absolute best way to detect/prevent detonation is do yourself and your car a favor...buy Autotap. This way you can monitor KR at all times, and know when it's happening. "Playing it by ear" is most certainly not a good idea, detonation can be lethal to your rings.

If you were only detonating for a short period of time, then you're fine. Most LS1's detonate from the factory somewhat. It's long term detonation that hurts a motor. It'll tear the rings up first, and if it's bad enough it'll eat up a piston. But you'd know if it was that bad. Buy a-tap.

josh

 

knock sensors can hear alot of what you'll never be able to hear. Unless you're superman or a dog or something.

 

lol thanks, im not burning any oil, its EXACTLY where it was 1800 miles ago. i do watch the predator very regularly and i have no KR once a week ill drive for about 30 min and monitor everything.....dont really have much to spend on atap....can someone explain to me how that works and about how much it costs?

 

A-tap is an easy program to figure out, especially the windows versionl. You can get a cable for ~150 bucks on the net, and the software is free. You just download it from their site. A-tap has much more troubleshooting capability than the Predator, I recommend it for a diag. tool over the Predator which is more of a tuning tool. If you had both, you'd be set IMO.

josh

 

who has the best deals for this, thanks for bringing this up to me......so pretty much if i could figure out how to use the predator i should beable to use this?

 

went to ls1speed.com and i see a lot of different ataps, what one should i get and what is the difference?

 

The more advanced versions of diagnostic software allow 2 way communication. You can make a temp change in the parameter and see if it fixes the problem. If it does, then you make it permanent (generally with a computer tuner or LS1 Edit).


Some versions of ATAP work with more than just Camaro/Firebird.

 

i'd just get efi live v5 or v6 over autotap. its kinda expensive but its a great piece of diagnostic tooling.

 

Detonation eats plugs, destroys rings, blows head gaskets, and pounds your bearings. In severe cases it even destroys pistons.

 

another fan of efilive, more comprehensive.

 

EFILive. I own atap and wish I would've gone that route.