Will the knock sensor always pick up rod knock?

[High PSI]

8-years ago I blew up the bottom end of the factory 7-bolt in my 2g. Lack of time and motivation caused the car to sit until two months ago when, home (stateside) from Australia (new home) on a break, I decided to bring it back to life.

I bought a "fully built, mint condition" 2.3L SBR 6-bolt off someone local a few years back, and just finished the swap yesterday. The engine started right up (whoop!), but has a horrid knocking noise. My dad (pretty experienced engine builder) doesn't think it's rod knock, but I'm paranoid as all hell.

Just idling the engine (which is all over the place ATM - still some work to do) didn't reveal anything on the output of the knock sensor. When my 7-bolt went I had it configured so that it would flash the CEL when I detected knock. I wasn't logging with Link when I blew it up, but the CEL flashed more and more frequently for about 5-10 min until the engine just shut down.

How sensitive is the knock sensor? Assuming it's properly installed and functioning, is it possible to have rod knock and not have it detected by the knock sensor?

Thanks guys. I'll post a video of the car idling later as well so you can hear the sound I'm describing.

 

[Jeff99GS]

Hey, any update on this? Was it a rod knock or something else? Did you get it fixed?