Ok thank you all for your replies. I will bite the bullet and get a new oem one. So does anyone know why I don't experience signs of a bad knock sensor or could it just be something else simple?? Also is it safe to baby it 100-150 miles on the highway to where I will be working on it?
Also is there anything else I would want to do while back there to make sure I don't have to go back there again?
Well the thing is that your knock sensor definitely isn't functioning if your getting the code for it, (There isn't many things that can go wrong in this case... if you look in the manual, the only reasons for this code are 1 bad sensor or 2 the circuit for the sensor is damaged) personally I couldn't notice a major difference in performance for the short time while my knock sensor was inop, but I believe when it has the code the ECM will retard the timing much more than usual as a safegaurd to try and prevent any detonation (which will in turn reduce performance). Normally when the knock sensor is working properly the ECM monitors the signals from the sensor and adjust timing that way, but when its inop, it has nothing to go off of so it goes into a safe mode.
You should be perfectly fine to drive with the bad sensor, you may or may not notice a drop in performance while you do.
As for other stuff to replace... if you're going the route of dropping the ATTS, you will lose some fluid from it when you drop it and remove the axles etc... it takes Honda ATF, I don't remember exactly how much but its not even 2 quarts to fill up when its completely dry. You might as well replace the fluid with fresh fluid since you're going through the hassle.
It might also be a good idea to replace the exhaust gaskets if you really wanted to (you don't have to remove any exhaust pieces to get the ATTS out but I think its easier just to remove the downpipe section with the CAT to give myself more room but its up to you), if you did happen to remove a section of exhaust they will probably work just fine when you reassemble the exhaust but they are circular metal pieces that are designed to crush into place when the hardware is all torqued down and that is how they seal. If you happened to have an exhaust leak after, it wouldn't be too hard to replace them though.
EDIT: Be careful when dropping the ATTS, the sensors on there are incredibly fragile and some of them are almost impossible to replace with the ATTS still mounted on the block. Nothing worse than seeing that ATTS light come on the dash after you've been in that area.
