In addition to his statement and explaining mine a little more...you should use the ignition timing to keep your peak torque going as far as u can. The peak torque is the highest cylinder pressure that the combustion chambers will see. At the highest cylinder pressure the demands of your octane levels are at a maximum. If you aren't detonating at peak torque and the rest of your torque curve is even or falling below the peak torque then 9 times out of 10 you are not going to detonate. Increasing the ignition to go above the peak torque later in the rpms is where you should start to see detonation (assuming your peak torque is already getting close maxing out the octane. Also the longer you can keep peak torque going the more power you will be makin. I tested out my theories last night and i'm spinning tires from 4th gear rolls now. Hope this helps...still best left on a dyno tho

 

Take a basemap with uberdata or something and use the standard 0.75 degrees per PSI. In my experience this is a lot for most turbo setups with ideal timing being closer to 0.30 degrees per PSI. This is dependant on IC, turbo and exhaust flow.

Go get a mazda knock sensor from a protege and screw it into any available threaded hole in your block. It will screw in. Hook that up to your laptop as a mic in. Plug in headphones and use the audio amp built in.

Personally I use a bandpass filter on the above setup but that is enough to hear the onset of knock. Something interesting is that as the RPMs go up above 4500 or so Honda doesn't advance the ignition anymore. There is power to be made - even on an NA setup. More on a boosted setup.

Be aware as you advance your ignition you need to add more fuel. For every 5 or so degrees this works out to 1-2 increments on uberdata.

I would recommend tuning without boost so you can get used to this setup.

-Michael