Gizzmo K-mon The Best Tuning Tool You Will Ever Use

[STATUS]

This is by FAR the best tuning tool I have encountered to date especially @ $1100, after starting out with snap on chassis ears years ago for all my V8 carb jobiies.

I have been searching for the ultimate KNOCK detection device for years and a decent detector can sometimes mean the differrence between life and death of an engine especially if a 1/3rd party fault occurs during a tuning or power run. The only other knock monitors worth a pinch of salt is the HKS one but it requires extensive modding to be truly effective and useful and the knock-box but quite simply i have never really liked using it and the K-mon seems to be far more easy to use and better at detecting knock.

http://www.gizzmoelectronics.com/Kmon.htm

[180bfj20det]

Sounds interesting. How much does it cost and how does it compare to the link knockblock?

[MBS206]

Price?

[paulr33]

yeah curious how much

the hks knock amp costs a bomb

[STATUS]

  paulr33 said:

yeah curious how much

the hks knock amp costs a bomb

i will post up pricing 2moro.. i cant remmeber i got this one on loan till the next batch is released. Im sure it was only 1100 or round abouts... half what everything else is.

[STATUS]

  180bfj20det said:

Sounds interesting. How much does it cost and how does it compare to the link knockblock?

better for sure. It is by far the best thing for knock detection i have come accross.

[180bfj20det]

Cant seem to to download instruction booklet etc.

Do you have an instruction booklet handy?

How easy is it to use?

What settings do you use on your engine and if you want to change to say a big block chev, could you use your instruction manual or is this trhough experience only?

This subject is of huge interest to me as I tune my own cars, but admit Im weak in detecting knock. Be nice to have a gizmo like this, but im sure there must be rule of thumbs that exist when coming to using these detectors, as youre knock and final tune is only as good as the setup (ie sensitivity, placement of sensor and the like).

Care to elaborate/educate us a bit more on them? I keen to learn.

PS i have tried using microphone on blocks etc....useless method (for me anyway).

Seb

  URAS said:

better for sure. It is by far the best thing for knock detection i have come accross.

[unique1]

How much power are knock detection devices like this good for? ive been told with forged bottom end, big cams and solid valvetrain and 700hp+ (at wheels) that its very very hard to hear knock at all over the other engine noises, is this true?

[180bfj20det]

I would imagine the frequncy of knock is totally different and with the bandpass frequncy definability of this product means that it could differentiate. But surely theres a limit, how do they tune dragsters?

Watching thread.

  unique1 said:

How much power are knock detection devices like this good for? ive been told with forged bottom end, big cams and solid valvetrain and 700hp+ (at wheels) that its very very hard to hear knock at all over the other engine noises, is this true?

[The Mafia]

you are better off getting the kits that slip in with the spark plugs and detect cylinder pressure. They are about the same price as this

[rob82]

  URAS said:

This is by FAR the best tuning tool I have encountered to date especially @ $1100, after starting out with snap on chassis ears years ago for all my V8 carb jobiies.

I have been searching for the ultimate KNOCK detection device for years and a decent detector can sometimes mean the differrence between life and death of an engine especially if a 1/3rd party fault occurs during a tuning or power run. The only other knock monitors worth a pinch of salt is the HKS one but it requires extensive modding to be truly effective and useful and the knock-box but quite simply i have never really liked using it and the K-mon seems to be far more easy to use and better at detecting knock.

http://www.gizzmoelectronics.com/Kmon.htm

Havn't used a snap on chassis ear but the steelman chassis ear works very well if you know what your listening for. I would be very dubious to use something that is not a direct amplifier of actual enigne noise - as in I prefer no damping of any type.

[STATUS]

  rob82 said:

Havn't used a snap on chassis ear but the steelman chassis ear works very well if you know what your listening for. I would be very dubious to use something that is not a direct amplifier of actual enigne noise - as in I prefer no damping of any type.

1000% better than steelman chassis ears.... steelman and snap on are made by the same manufacturer are are crude and dont pick up half the knock compared to the K-mon... chassis ears are pretty back yard honestley thats why i upgraded. Best thing is the datalog software is handy and very good as a visual aid also.

Good enough for apexi to use it as their official tuning partner!!

http://www.apexi-usa.com/news_special.asp?id=12

[STATUS]

wrong post

[Guilt-Toy]

i invested in one of these, thanks for getting it to me sooo quickly Trent!! looks good

[unique1]

  Guilt-Toy said:

i invested in one of these, thanks for getting it to me sooo quickly Trent!! looks good

nice work let us know how u get on i still havent got my head around setting it up, i dont know how to adjust the settings to detect knock but not detect other random noise like it seems to be doing, ive had it for over a year and never used it due to this, i got a big tune on monday and would like to set it up to make life easier when the tuner is tuning it. Ill go for a run tommorow and see what readings i get on current tune (560hp at wheels).

Edited October 3, 2008 by unique1

[VB-]

how would this compare to det cans ie: copper tube bolted to the block?

The Mafia, are you reffering to ionisation current? or something different?

[Guilt-Toy]

okay.. had to make some adaptors for the knock sensors as they are not a direct fit to the stock RB knock sensor position.

Made up 2 x brass plugs with the same thread as the stock knock sensors and then drilled them and tapped them then screwed them to the block and then screwed new knock sensors to them.

Had to take the starter motor off to get to the rear knock sensor. bit of a pain but what the heck.

On the dyno, i just dropped the screamer back on, got rid of the cat (for hill climb) first run on 20psi, 480rwhp on 20 PSI!!! i was listening to the run and not a sign of detonation, the knock sensors on the Gizzmo software did not read anymore then 40....

Impressed, the AFR was 13.3 on full boost! 12deg timing as well with 20psi - most power it ever made on 20psi.

So my whole excersize for the day was to get the least power i could for the hill climb, richened it up to 11.5's afr and took 1deg of timing out, did not want to heat the engine as 11 is pretty retarded.

Here is a screen shot from one of my runs, URAS is this okay ?? thats the typical run from my engine on 20psi with 450hp at rear wheels.

and for Unique1, here is a screenshot of my settings that i promised you! (i got 2 knock sensors, they come with one knock sensor standard)

This Gizzmo kmon ROCKS. my power fc knock sensors were reading spikes to 80 90 on full load, for NO reason, no mattter how much timing i would take out it was not changing, so i had to invest in one of these babys.

Retail price is around $1200.. if you see Trent he can do you one at a better price if you ask in a nice manner

I know its a big cost to outlay, but i am going to continue tuning my own car even though its got over 500hp now and i dont feel like building another engine.

Definatly worth the money!!!

Thanks again Trent! i got the item the next day after ordering, which is weird whenever i want something soo bad so quickly it normaly takes ages but this little baby came straight away!

Yeah i give this product a 9 out of 10, the only reason why it dont get 10 is cos you need to power it with USB only, and the price is pretty high (im a tight arse)

[Guilt-Toy]

ohhh another thing that i did not like about the unit is that when you have your laptop plugged in and charging with a 12v to 240v inverter the unit gets lots of feedback and shows 20 - 30 knock at all times...

is there anyway around this ?

[TiTAN]

could be that the inverter is not giving clean enough power for it? is it just a cheap 12v > 240v job? pure sine wave?

[Guilt-Toy]

just a cheapie...

it works fine on laptop batteries and when pluged into the wall..