crazy knock... any ideas?

[biddybengbeng]

ok, i am not sure what the deal is. i can do two back to back runs with the datalogger and they will be completely different. for example, today i did that. the first one, i was getting 43 counts of knock from 4000-7000rpm in 2nd gear. i shifted to third, and it immediately dropped to 18 counts from 4600rpm to about 5500rpm where i let off. that is a LOT of knock. the o2's were at .92 the entire time, and the intake air temp was 87*. on the 2nd run (at the next stoplight, about a mile down the road at the MOST) i started logging in 2nd gear, at 4000rpm i had 9 counts of knock, shifted at 7000rpm and still had 9 counts of knock. it never went above 9. again the o2's were at .92volts the whole time, and the air intake temp was the same.

i just don't understand what is causing the car to run so erratically. sometimes i can do a pull and have absolutely NO knock at all, and then as soon as i shift it will jump up to anywhere from 9-20, whatever it chooses the knock to be it stays there for the duration of the gear. then if i shift or let off, it goes away. other runs it will just have no knock whatsoever, and yet other runs i will have crazy amounts of knock through the whole pull. any ideas what i should look into, i don't even have any ideas for a starting point
thanks

 

[90tsi]

What's your timing like?
Possibility of an overtightened knock sensor, or that awesome thing called phantom knock

 

[DSMu4ia]

Check your base timing.

 

[biddybengbeng]

well, the timing was fine. it was noisy lifters. i cleaned them all out, and the knock was eliminated completely

bad news is, about ten miles later, my timing belt slipped a few teeth, and a few valves had a slight disagreement with a couple pistons. the rest is history... good news is, i have a JDM engine on its way right now, and it will be installed next week

 

[jdmawd]

Originally posted by DSMu4ia
Check your base timing.

I think that's my problem also, the car idles at 1400 and timing reads at 23* for some reason when I remove the grounding jumpers when I adjust the BISS the computer ups the idle back to 1400 when the idle was to 850-900 timing was at 11-18*