Not with the knocking. That means a bearing either on the crank or pistion is loose. The play when it fires is from the combustion pushing it fully the other way from the compression stroke. The kind of timing it would have to be out would be herendous and shouldnt ever start to fire after or before top dead center. Its 1 in a million but the torture you would put on the motor driving it that way at all would call for bearing to be redone.