My first Magna was a manual V6 TR. One of its best features was being able to sense what octane petrol was aboard (via the knock sensor) and deliver more power / torque as the octane rating increased. I could really feel the difference under my right foot when I filled up on PULP instead of ULP.

The biggest disappointment with my current 2001 TJ was the discovery that Gen 3 Magnas were NOT fitted with knock sensors. Filling up with PULP is now pointless, unless you argue that it cleans the injectors a bit. Why on earth Mitsubishi decided on this backward leap in technology is no doubt a sad tale, but can it be fixed? Does anyone know whether a Gen 3 Magna can be retofitted with a knock sensor?

I highly doubt the ECU would support any Knock sensor interface (or else it would probably have one), and even if it did - magna ECU's are locked down tighter than a nuns ****, therefore, you would be unable to "reporgram" it.

Rip out your factory ECU and replace it with a full aftermarket ECU with knock sensor support is pretty much your only option. Alot of work just so you can get a few kw difference from different fuel.

Or I believe if your always going to use 98ron you could just advance your timing?

Get a new ECU or Piggyback, and get your car tuned to run on 98ron.

Otherwise put an exhaust on, that'll give you better improvement than a few kW from a knocksensor/higher ron fuel.

Or I believe if your always going to use 98ron you could just advance your timing?
Yeh that's pretty much what a knock sensor does anyway.
If you plan to run RON 98 all the time, get the timing advanced to suit.

Yeh that's pretty much what a knock sensor does anyway.
If you plan to run RON 98 all the time, get the timing advanced to suit.

Not being a smart ****, just a small explanation for the members that aren't too sure, a knock sensor is just that, a sensor. Besides returning an signal to the ECU it doesn't do anything else. The ECU programming dictates what is done with that data, and usually the ECU will be programmed to ran a certain amount of timing advance (dependant on what fuel it's designed to run on, so some cars even with knock sensors might be tuned to ran on only ULP, and will not run better with higher octane fuels), upon receiving a signal from the knock sensors with then retard (reduce) ignition timing in preset decrements till no more knock is detected.

Thanks for the input, everyone. This certainly isn't a big issue, but it was simply a feature we got "free" with 2nd Gen Magnas. I don't particularly want to tie myself down to 98 ron fuel - it simply isn't available everywhere, apart from the extra cost.

For normal suburban driving, there's not much point in extra power, but with my first Magna a bit of higher octane fuel used to give an extra "edge" to country driving enjoyment. On reflection, I think the extra kick had very little to do with the couple of extra kW, which as people have pointed out above would hardly be worth chasing. Much more important was the fact that maximum torque was delivered at 3000 rpm rather than 4000 rpm. The lower revs happened to coincide with normal highway speeds.

It's just a pity Mitsubishi removed this little "fringe benefit" from Gen 3 Magnas.

just a note some fuelinjection systems don't have a knock sencor but the ecm can tell via a combination of other imputs if it is knocking crank angle cam angle ect