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The traditional philosophy that all knocking combustion is damaging has caused engine and fuel manufactures to operated with large “safety” margins, incurring both fuel production and consumption costs. This paper describes an attempt to relate knocking conditions to erosion damage. One of the goals was to discover a measurable knock intensity parameter which describes the propensity of knock to cause erosion damage. An experimental technique was developed in which test specimens were subjected to controlled knocking conditions in the combustion chamber of a modified engine. A photographic method was employed to measure the relative level of erosion on the test specimens. This methodology was used to determine the effect of fuel type and operating conditions on knock-induced erosion. It was confirmed that the geometry as well as the temperature played a considerable role in the damage mechanism.