Knocking In Diesel Engines. Diesels actually do not suffer exactly the same knock as gasoline engines since the cause is known to be only the very fast rate of pressure rise, not unstable combustion. When sudden and violent knock are experienced in a petrol engine, these knocks are termed as “detonation”.

Uncontrolled combustion in petrol engine is known as knocking and in diesel engine its called as detonation. You are just not familiar with the sounds that a diesel engine makes. > question as answered what does knocking in petrol engine mean and how is it different from detonation.