Engine and Transmission Tech

This hasn't been discussed much, here, but I guess it's time to move into a bit more high-tech territory even if some of us are still using carbs on our conversions.

The problem is how do we know if the car is running rich or lean? It's hard to know for sure. Spark plug reading is pretty much a thing of the past. Anyway, I have been thinking real hard about stepping up to the wideband O2 plate. Leaning toward a portable system that can be used to aid tuning my MG, Camaro, & 2 motorcycles. Seems that is what the MG Roadmaster needs more than dyno time.


A couple that I have been studying:

[www.innovatemotorsports.com]

[www.zeitronix.com]

Suggestions & opinions encouraged. ;)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2012 09:19AM by MGBV8.

It's guys with carbs that need these gauges most of all!

If you're using it as a tuning aid for multiple vehicles, I think this NGK unit seems particularly suitable:

[www.ngk.com]

For me, the choice was mostly between the NGK and the AEM, and I went with the latter.

[www.aemelectronics.com]

AEM seems to be most popular with vintage racers on BritishRacecar... and the AEM has worked flawlessly for me so far. The two little gripes I have aren't necessarily specific to AEM: (1) that there's no option to adjust dampening, so measurements move around quite a lot and you have to average them in your head. An undamped gauge is probably what you want when judging between step-up springs or accelerator pump settings. (2) It turns out that engines naturally spend a lot of lean time on rolling highways - as they should when you lift your foot off the throttle at cruise - and the red warning lights for a lean mixture get a bit disconcerting.

I suspect these gages would run out of "room" in a direct injected engine ? They idle and very light load down to 65/1 afr. Is it any wonder why they get 25% better economy and such impressive power ? The first LBC to get a "Traverse V6" or comparable, will have some genuine bragging rights. Cheers, roverman.

Carl

I run the Innovate LC-1 and it seems to work pretty well. Digital guages work well in GT cars, but sometimes can be hard to see in roadster cars with the top down on a sunny day. Depending on where you mount the gauge, a small sun shade could be made to improve top down visability.
One thing to remember about O2 sensors ( both narrow and wide band) is that missfires can give you false readings due to the un-burnt oxygen in the exhaust system. So if you have an ignition or missfire due to overly lean or rich condition, the O2 can read oposite of whats really happening!

HTH
Bill

I have the LC-1 on my TR4A to use with the Megasquirt, I think I bought it off Amazon, and it was only about $5 more to get the digital readout, so I went ahead and got that. Pretty sure that is what Jim has been running. I also found JAW (just another wideband) and NAW (not another wideband) from a guy in Canada named Alan Toh. He sells controllers for the widebands and kits to make the controllers. [14point7.com]