difference between knock sensor and misfire detection sensor?

As I said, I put a 96 ODBII 5.8L into my 95 EEC-IV Bronco that used to have a 5.0L in it. The old engine I guess used to have a knock sensor in it. I guess it's at the back of the engine? (I can't seem to find a good picture of it out there, yet). The 96 has a sensor near the harmonic balancer. I looked around on the internet, and they're calling it a "misfire detection sensor". Is that a knock sensor, or something else? If it's a knock sensor, I assume Ford moved it from the top/back of the engine to the front? Confused.

Late answer, but it isn't a knock sensor. The sensor next to the harmonic balancer on the '96 5.8 is a crankshaft position sensor. It reads a toothed wheel behind the balancer, and the OBD-II computer uses it to watch crankshaft speed. A misfiring cylinder makes the crank slow down for an instant, which is how the computer detects misfires, so that's where the "misfire detection" name comes from.

Whether you need it depends on which computer runs the engine. A '95 EEC-IV computer doesn't use that sensor; it takes its timing signal from the distributor. If you keep the '95 computer and harness, the crank sensor just isn't connected.

Dana