Knock Control/Spark Retard - Do I have an issue?

[MJslasherADM1N]

2014 GT500 SVTPP/TP. 93 Octane is the only fuel I use. Car does not have a pulley. It has an intake and Ford Racing Sport exhaust.

Below I have pasted a link to a brief You Tube video which I created this morning on my drive to work. I wanted to give Van and the other supporting vendors a visual reference for my question.

Video - In the video you see a Diablo Sport Trinty. It is monitoring Spark Retard and Spark Advance. The gauge in the lower left of the screen is Spark Retard. Is it completely normal for there to be Spark Retard occurring during normal driving? I noticed my Raptor did this as well, much worse than my GT500. I am driving in 3rd gear during the video and I take the car up to 4100 RPM. You can watch the Spark Retard occur. Is this 100% normal and do all GT500 do this? I assume this is the Knock Sensor telling the PCM to pull timing? During the video the Spark Retard is always a -negative number, which I assume means pulled timing.

After taking the video I played around a little in third and 4th gear. The Spark Retard went +positive. I assume this means it added timing? The final Spark Retard values recorded during my 60 minute drive to work were -4.50 and +2.00

What does all of this mean and is my car running normally or do I have detonation?


[video]https://youtu.be/UOLWf-rSK3k[/video]

 

[GT500wantabe]

+ is reducing your timing advance. Ideally you want no +kr. 2* isn't a lot but you could fix it in those frames. Might need HP Tuner to fix it however. Very limited with Diablo.

 

[Spudz]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I wanted to ask the same question. My car has been in storage for roughly 9 months (In Florida) prior to me flying home for the holiday this week. I took it out and drove it for a few days with my nGauge showing similar spark retard to the OP. Here's what I've noted:

• I will see up to +2.00 when accelerating normally in daily driving conditions (mostly with a slight heavy foot) in 3rd, 4th, and 5th gear. No knock retard in 1st or 2nd, even with a spirited city driving foot.
  
• Since the car sat for 9 months, I took things very easy to burn off the half tank of gas that was left over. I assumed it might be bad gas, but saw the same knock retard with a fresh tank of 93.
• I did not blow things out until I'd burned off the entire tank of old gas. When I did get into it on a 2nd gear pull, I noticed some negative values to show timing was being added, and the occasional blip of knock. I only did a handful of single gear pulls, just to play it safe.
• I only had my nGauge hooked up recently, and I don't recall seeing the same knock retard initially when cruising around the city. The first instance I noticed was after filling the tank full for preparation of storing the car back in February. The gas station I went to was a new one and I suspect the 93 was bad there. So I assumed it was just bad gas. But with a new tank of 93, at the one gas station I always use, it's still showing the knock. Granted I didn't burn through most of that tank and put the car back in storage with it mostly full, so it could be that I just need to burn through another tank or two?
• Mods are as they are shown in my signature, with only a quick run done on a dyno at PBTH to ensure the engine was happy after most of said mods were installed.

The car has sat in storage for a good majority of the last 2 years (only has 5,000 miles on her), since I am up in Alaska working a field assignment. During this time. my father takes it for a run every 2 weeks or so to bring things up to operating temperature and get parts lubricated (why I had half a tank left when I got home this week). But he doesn't step on it or anything, and just cruises around until she gets warm because he is afraid of the car. It sits on a battery tender in a garage the rest of that time.

So I also suspect it is just this long term storage that is affecting the drivability. Does anyone have any suggestions for how I might be able to address this knock, if it isn't normal? I'm thinking it could also be something on the exhaust knocking against the frame, since I do have headers and whatnot. But I have no idea how to chase that down as a possible root cause. I did notice the transmission was very "growlly" this go, for lack of a better term, when driving around town, and there was some new whine in the differential.

I might make an appointment with PBTH and Lund when I get back in February to do a remote tuning session for peace of mind.

Edit: I currently have a canned Lund tune to go along with my mods

 

[Ghoust]

I had to get an actual tuning session done for my car as well. A well known tuner here in Norcal asked me to datalog and we found similar readings to yours...of course I was also dataloging in the middle of summer heat.

I ended up getting a dyno tune by Kurgan when he came for his annual tuning sessions here in norcal. Good peace of mind to ensure that the tune is made specifically for your vehicle.