So I remembered something that I ran across years back on a different swap. The 96-02 L30 305 Vortec and OBDII LT1, LT4 and L99 engines all use the same knock sensor and it is different than the 96-02 L31. At this point I am thinking of swapping to the L30 knock sensor or properly torquing it to 14 ft/lbs. I seem to remember an overtightened knock sensor becoming too sensitive.