Friday, July 20, 2007

Remove all the guess work





One of a La Carrera Panamericana engines worst enemies is detonation. It can occur at any time and if its left uncontrolled, severe engine damage may result as well as performance. Many racers tend to say, "I can hear the pinging or feel what's going on and adjust accordingly." However, the pinging noise may be hard to hear or recognize due to loud racing exhaust or excessive road noise not to mention we will be wearing helmets and focusing on the road. The MSD Engine Knock Alert listens to what's going on in the engine for us. When detonation occurs, it relays this information to us via a warning light. An extremely sensitive Knock Sensor is used to "listen" to the engine.

On the other hand just knowing when detonation is occurring isn't going to stop it. To take full advantage of the Knock Alert Lucky will also have an MSD Adjustable Timing Control. This way, when the Alert is showing detonation, I can simply retard the timing with the dash mounted control knob of the Timing Control until the Alert shows that the detonation is gone. So when we're driving through the mountains and the Alert light all of a sudden shows heavy detonation I will simply reach over and retard the timing until the Alert shows that it is safe. This way, I won't have to slow down to a snail's pace or worry about hurting Lucky's engine. Once we get over the peak, I can return the timing to the preferred setting for more power and go for it.

1 comment:

Gary Grant said...

Trick set up!