Difference Between Knocking and Detonation

What is Knocking?

Knocking is a process that takes place in the engine of your car when the air-fuel mixture in the cylinders is not burning evenly. This causes pressure and heat to build up until it’s finally released with a “knocking” noise.

What is Detonation?

Detonation occurs when the air-fuel mixture detonates prematurely in the cylinder. This can be caused by several factors, including a lack of compression, incorrect timing, or low octane fuel. Detonation can also cause excessive engine heat and damage to pistons and valves.

The Difference Between Knocking and Detonation are explained as follows:

Knocking is a series of very sharp noises that are usually heard when the engine is under a heavy load, such as when accelerating from a stop. Detonation is a louder, more explosive noise that sounds like someone banging on the side of the engine.

Knocking is a term used in internal combustion engines, to describe the sound that is produced by the irregular burning of fuel and air in the engine. Detonation is a term used to describe the uncontrolled, explosive combustion of a fuel/air mixture.

Knocking usually happens when there’s not enough air/fuel mixture in the cylinders. The fuel-air mixture detonates prematurely (before the spark plug fires), and this causes the sharp knocking noise. Detonation can also be caused by hot spots in the combustion chamber or by running the engine too lean (not enough fuel).

Knocking is a process that happens when an engine is trying to start and the high compression ignites the bubbles of fuel in the cylinder. Detonation occurs when an engine misfires and the combustion chamber pressure exceeds what it should be.

Knocking is when the fuel-air mixture in the engine is insufficient to sustain combustion, so it “slows” down, crowds together on top of each other, and creates a hot zone at the piston’s top. Detonation happens when the fuel-air mixture in an engine has for some reason been overly compressed and has reached a point where pressure fluctuations make fire jump from one part of the cylinder like a spark plug to another (detonator powder). Detonating can be caused by high temperatures around the spark plugs or spontaneous ignition because air/fuel reaches its saturation proportions under increased intake pressures that can come from turbocharging or high rpm. 

knock can be heard as a tapping noise it could also damage your engine! The initial cause of knocking is unburned fuel. This unburned mixture leaks into the puffed-up part of the exhaust port where there’s more room for fuel molecules to escape from than through valves and between piston rings.

Detonation can cause serious engine damage, as it creates extreme heat and pressure. Knocking, while not as damaging as detonation, can still shorten the life of your engine. The best way to avoid knocking is to make sure your engine has the correct air/fuel ratio. You can also improve your engine’s performance and reduce the risk of knocking by using high-quality gasoline and maintaining good engine care.

Detonations have been shown to reduce both volumetric efficiency and fuel economy by about 15%.

Detonation is a more serious problem that can cause significant damage to your engine. 

The difference between knocking and detonation is that when opposed to knocking, the fuel in a piston engine chamber explodes. This creates pressure waves instead of pressure points, which is what happens in a knock.

Typically when an engine starts to “knock” it’s because there’s not enough gas in the air/gas mixture being sent into the engine, or because they are running low on oil- usually both at once. Detonation occurs when too much gas is in the air/gas mixture being sent into these engines. If you have more than 16% of extra gases in your air/gas mixture coming into these engines then bad things start happening – camshaft damage can be caused by detonation along with piston rod.

Knocking occurs in the top portion of a diesel engine, whereas Detonation is when there is uncontrolled combustion in the bottom portion of the cylinder.