AFR gauge with o2 sensor worth it or not?

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stumblinhorse

stumblinhorse

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Will be finishing up my engine work in the next week. I purchased the header reducer with a O2 bung in it, just in case. But wanted to find out what the general consensus was on spending the $200 on a wideband set up for a mild 318. I live at 7000 feet and can drop down to 5500 in a 30 minute drive. So I am never sure if I am too lean or rich, edelbrock 1405@8% lean with new rods and jets. Reading spark plugs good enough for just a simple street engine?

Let me know your thoughts! Worth it or not?
 
stumblinhorse said:
Will be finishing up my engine work in the next week. I purchased the header reducer with a O2 bung in it, just in case. But wanted to find out what the general consensus was on spending the $200 on a wideband set up for a mild 318. I live at 7000 feet and can drop down to 5500 in a 30 minute drive. So I am never sure if I am too lean or rich, edelbrock 1405@8% lean with new rods and jets. Reading spark plugs good enough for just a simple street engine?

Let me know your thoughts! Worth it or not?
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my opinion is yes. to me, its a tuning tool and worth it.

btw:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N3VGPYS/?tag=joeychgo-20
 
Definitely worth it. Takes a lot of the guess work out of tuning, and provides another safety gauge for you too since it’ll show any kind of combustion issues. Hardest part is realizing that the gauge is more accurate than the carburetor is, so, you can’t make the a/f ratio “perfect” all the time. Which might create EFI envy :p

This is the set up I use, has been working great on my Duster.

Innovate DB Digital Air/Fuel Ratio Gauge with LC-2 Kits 3796
 
It's a great tool and worth the money if you take the time to tune. A 2500 ft change in altitude is going to have you running in circles. A holley type carb will require around a 2 jet size change to keep the AFR ideal. You might want to go FITech if you drive a lot with those kind of altitude changes.
 
I bought one for my duster, but I also learned how to tune old school style.
So I am actually not going to hook it up, until I have the car dialed in the way old school style.
That way I can see if I hit the mark, or am way off.
 
mderoy340 said:
It's a great tool and worth the money if you take the time to tune. A 2500 ft change in altitude is going to have you running in circles. A holley type carb will require around a 2 jet size change to keep the AFR ideal. You might want to go FITech if you drive a lot with those kind of altitude changes.
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Uh, if he drops from 7,000 feet to 5,500 feet that's only a 1,500 foot drop, not a 2,500 foot drop. The change in AFR isn't that bad even for a 2,500 foot change, it will be barely noticeable for a 1,500 ft change.

I drive my Duster through a 3,500 ft elevation change pretty regularly, at least once a month or so. Yes, you do notice a change in the AFR, but really it's not that bad. I was surprised it didn't change more. I've driven my car up to Lake Tahoe a few times, from where I start in Sacramento that's over 7,000 ft of elevation change over the pass. Again, sure, the car runs a bit rich of there, but it still runs ok. Going down in elevation is a little more troublesome because you'll run leaner. With a mild engine it probably isn't a big deal, I know I would have to richen my carb up if I was going down in elevation as much as I go up in elevation, but my engine is pushing the limits of pump fuel a bit so lean isn't a good thing.
 
stumblinhorse said:
Will be finishing up my engine work in the next week. I purchased the header reducer with a O2 bung in it, just in case. But wanted to find out what the general consensus was on spending the $200 on a wideband set up for a mild 318. I live at 7000 feet and can drop down to 5500 in a 30 minute drive. So I am never sure if I am too lean or rich, edelbrock 1405@8% lean with new rods and jets. Reading spark plugs good enough for just a simple street engine?

Let me know your thoughts! Worth it or not?
Click to expand...
I'm with Yellow Rose. Logging with rpm, a TPS and/ or MAP gives a much more complete picture. Of course that costs more.
Either way, its a tool to help see the effect of a change. The engine will tell you when its too lean or too rich.
 
I bought the innovative wideband O2 sensor because I have two carburetors and I needed all the help I can get. It was like 209 or something at Summit and I found it on eBay for 159 and ask Summit to price match and they found it for 149! I said send it. It has all the capability for logging and all that stuff but from what my research so far is found out the hardware for the logging can be quite expensive. I just use it as a tuning tool and something to watch. It was easy as pie to hook up screw into the bung, hot wire, and a ground and done. I think YR could do it within about 14 months LOL
 
72bluNblu said:
Uh, if he drops from 7,000 feet to 5,500 feet that's only a 1,500 foot drop, not a 2,500 foot drop. The change in AFR isn't that bad even for a 2,500 foot change, it will be barely noticeable for a 1,500 ft change.

I drive my Duster through a 3,500 ft elevation change pretty regularly, at least once a month or so. Yes, you do notice a change in the AFR, but really it's not that bad. I was surprised it didn't change more. I've driven my car up to Lake Tahoe a few times, from where I start in Sacramento that's over 7,000 ft of elevation change over the pass. Again, sure, the car runs a bit rich of there, but it still runs ok. Going down in elevation is a little more troublesome because you'll run leaner. With a mild engine it probably isn't a big deal, I know I would have to richen my carb up if I was going down in elevation as much as I go up in elevation, but my engine is pushing the limits of pump fuel a bit so lean isn't a good thing.
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My bad on the math. I only mentioned FI because the price has come down. I still run carbs on both my cars.
 
I installed an AEM wideband HEGO with datalogging ($320) and boy did it help me dial in the part throttle on my blower car. I had it close on WOT but way too rich at cruise. It also has failsafes you can set if you lose fuel pressure. REALLY handy! After tuning I now get 11mpg and that is with two Demon 750 carbs, 4200 stall converter, NO overdrive and 4.11 gears with a spool.
 
Ordered, arrives on Friday. I have a single gauge a-pillar mount from the old days that hopefully will work for the mount.
 
I love mine, if the car flakes out during a run it cut down on what could possibly be wrong. I forgot to turn on my electric fuel pump. I run both mechanical and electric. Died at 4000 rpm. Guage was dead lean. Doh! Flip the switch!
 
stumblinhorse said:
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Let me know your thoughts! Worth it or not?
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I bought the older FAST Portable dual O2 Sensor kit. I've used on two cars so far. It will record internally and I can play it back on the screen. I just use it for the real time readings anymore. I've also just use one O2 sensor at a time, because they are so close to being equal on my motors.

My '68 is EFI and I emailed the readings to my tuner, who lives on the east coast, he adjusted my tunes with the info and I upload them into my ECM with a hand held tuner.

On my '70, I have 3 Holley 2bbls. I'm currently in the process of tuning the carbs with it. So far I have dialed in the full throttle, the 3 accelerator pump shots and cruise A/F ratios. I am waiting on some bigger Idle Metering Jets to fatten up the idle A/F ratio on my Promax metering block.

I know that I would never have been able to tune either system as completely as I am able to with the A/F gauge. The portability part is nice, as all I have to do is plug it into my cigarette lighter and insert the O2 sensor. Having a permanently mounted gauge would also be nice.

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