The paper presents an evaluation of usability of the autocorrelation function which was calculated from the optical radiation signal and used for the detection of knocking combustion in a spark-ignition engine. The main source of experimental data was the resultant wide-band intensity of optical radiation which was acquired using optical combustion sensor having direct access to the combustion chamber. The gathered light was transmitted by a waveguide bundle to the set of photodetectors and after conversion – recorded using analog-digital card. The scope of the analysis which is described in this paper includes an estimation of the autocorrelation function and its evaluation for the purpose of knockingdetection. Results have shown that occurrence of knocking combustion is accompanied by a high increase of energy transmitted by the optical signal expressed by its root mean square (rms). Moreover, knocking combustion results in a slower drop of autocorrelation function and appearance of some periodic components