This is the total timing I run in 3rd gear with very high quality 100 RON EU E0 gasoline (95 AKI?). So I wouldn't exactly call taking out 3.5 deg at max rpm in 5th gear retarded
(6th gear values irrelevant as they can't be reached). At 7000 rpm, total timing is 31.4 in 3rd:
I ran relatively close to these values with RomRaider too but would have FLKC in 4th gear and above. Some of it I could alleviate with the TCPC hack and some of it I had to accept.
It will have some FLKC if driven on track or very hard on the street (e.g. a lot of pulls one after another). Either you compromise or you adjust for one, or the other. Or I could, of course, make different timing modes with Ecutek if I wanted (I haven't bothered yet, but I run different AFR on track and street). I let the ECU retard what it needs though it may not be the most efficient solution. It's fairly recent that I switched to Ecutek and I didn't have the opportunity to test a lot on track since then either.
But, actually, I could otherwise run even more timing advance below 6500 rpm. The pull below was part of some other test I did (automatic AFR enrichment based on FLKC), so I was actually trying to provoke knock. I don't use this as it would require a dyno to see if it's advanced past MBT and I think this would be too much for track in any case.
But if it's not past MBT then it would be good for a dyno hero pull.
It's on a custom input so I can add (or remove) timing with the Ecutek app on my phone.
Anyway, Ecutek is not the reason that I can run this much timing, generally speaking, the fuel is really good here! So your mileage may vary. You can just advance until you find your max in 3rd with RomRaider too and you will have the same result. But with RomRaider you might have to remove some of it again to keep FLKC under control in 4th and 5th, especially if you track. If it's a street driven car, that is being driven legally and never being revved out in 4th or above it doesn't matter.
Anyway, not to get too far off the point, which was that FLKC is definitely dependent on which gear you drive. As such final drive has to play a part as well.
As for the reason, why physical load on the engine would cause more knock, I would speculate that it has to do with how much time the engine spends passing through those more critical areas. I would presume it's generating a lot of heat and the longer it's "stuck" in a specific rpm the more the internals heat up and the higher the likelihood of FLKC.
As such you may get the same FLKC in e.g. 3rd when driving up a steep incline as you would drive level in 4th. It's not really the gear per se, but rather I would presume how much the engine is being restricted from accelerating. I think it might even be worth considering to tune per track if we are speaking pro level. Going up the steep fast back straight "Kesselchen" of the Nürburgring is very hard for the engine as an example. I guess with modern advanced stand-alone ECUs you could even make timing based on GPS input (I know it can be done with traction control with some units, so the TC loosen/tighten up depending on where you are on the track).
P.s.
The difference between ProEcu and ProEcu Tuner version is only that you can't compare tunes. So it's a bit more complicated to copy tunes (e.g. between calids).