So I have a 2010 sh-awd. I got a k-tuner almost 3 weeks ago. At the moment all I’ve got done is an rv6 j-pipe. Figured I’d pick up the tuner now so I had it once I got the rest of the equation together. I’m running just the base j-pipe map. The tuner is picking up a lot of spark knock. It’s very predictable:

1. On a cold/semi-cold start it is guaranteed to show a knock count anywhere between 1 and 6.

2. Whenever I give it any kind of “spirited” amount of throttle and shift before redline. This will occasionally cause it to happen going up a hill. Other that hills, casual driving shows no knock.

The car runs amazing. Hell, it’s smoother now than it was before the tuner. No hesitation. No noise. Now I know the J37 is a bit of a noisy engine. So I’m hoping that I can put my mind at ease and just assume it’s ghost knock. BUT I’m here to see if anyone else has experienced this before I decide to do that. So I welcome all insight.

 

You're putting 91 octane gas in the car, right? Can you hear it when you start it up or do you only know because of the KTuner? If the former, post a video so we can all hear.

 

I live in New York so I run 93 octane. Running ngk laser iridium plugs. I haven’t inspected the plugs yet. That’s the next step, if I should be worried. Car runs and sounds perfect. Just the tuner throwing numbers at me.

 

in previous experiments with the 3rd Gen TL, (2004-2008) the stock engine was knocking with 93 octane. a mixture of 100 octane and 93 to make somewhere around 96 octane stopped the knock.


you're just going to have to live with the little knocks....unless you tune the car to be more stoich.

 

hmm that’s an interesting finding. But I’m not too stressed about it. I don’t hear/feel anything. And I did my own little experiment and but the factory map back on the car and it still knocks. So I can only assume it’s always been happening. Just wanted to see what other people experienced/thought about it. But thank you for that input I’ll do some research in that end and see what I can find out.

 

^yes, it always has been happening.
to test, use a higher octane rating and check the ktuner to see if its still knocking under those conditions

 

I unfortunately don’t have access to any higher octane fuel, so I guess I’m gonna be that guy and throw in an octane booster and see what happens lmao

 

Octane booster doesn't do anything, it'll raise the octane up a point...
​​​​​ Meaning you'll now have 93.1 octane

 

you aren’t wrong that’s what is I’ll be “that guy”. But I know the J37 is honestly a little over built for what it does and I can’t hear or feel anything, so I’m not too stressed about it. I’m sure something will be figured out once I get a real tune done for it.

 

^right, that's why i mentioned "that it has always happened and you should just live with it"