Wideband O2 install and use... tips?

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snailpower

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I have my 360 mag up and running and ready to fine tune it. I have had this Innovate Motorsports LC1 Wideband I have had forever and never installed so figure now is a perfect time to use it. Im working with a edelbrock 1406 at the moment.

My plan is to install the O2 on the drivers side pipe behind the collector 8-10 inches (per the instructions) clocked somewhere north of 3 o clock, run the wires into the cabin forward of that and wire it up to the gauge and controller I got from them.

Any tips on reading and tuning this thing once I get it set up? It seems like it would be way easier to use on a car with an ECU because you can edit the new school way via fuel trims in the computer.

Any tips on idle, cruise and WOT readings I should see would be much appreciated.

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There's been a few fairly recent posts about Air fuel ratio you can take a look at. One of them includes a graph I posted from an MIT engineering book on carburation. Another has a link to Edelbrock's tuning guide. If you can't find, post back and I'll dig em up tonight.

If you want to see all the relationships, something more like EFI would be using, I think you can daisy chain a logger onto your gage. Then you can view it on a computer with logworks. Or you can setup a video capturing rpm, vacuum if you have, and the AFR gage. If you're doing a logger, in addition to rpm, a throttle position sensor is real nice.

Here's a nice example of a guying doing that with hot rod pickup if you're interesting in seeing what it looks like. (check out post 1 & 33 and there's others in between)
 
That's the same set up I have on my Duster. Pretty close to the same install, I think my sensor is a little further downstream than that but I had to place it to keep it out of the way of the shift linkage for my 4 speed. I ran the wiring up through the 4 speed hump, the controller sits underneath the driver's seat. I put the test button and LED in my dash ashtray next to the cigarette lighter, and the gauge on next to the steering column.

As far as tuning there isn't much to it, you just want to keep an eye on the gauge and see what it does. Idle is easy, just set the idle screws and speed. My car seems to prefer high 13's for idle, things start to get wonky if I try to set it mid 14's and its harder to start and keep running if it's cold. Cruise is pretty easy, you can run mid 14's to low 15's at cruise if you want, that's steady state and only on the primaries. I run mine a little fatter than that because I'm close to detonation with my compression ratio and timing, so, upper 13's to low 14's. WOT is probably the next easiest except for where you need to drive to go WOT and keep it there for a bit without getting arrested, that will tell you about the secondaries. Then it's just about knowing the carburetor functions and knowing what is kicking in when, ie, when you stomp on it what's the pump shot and what's the secondaries coming in. With an Eddy you've got jets, rods with a couple steps, the step up springs (which control the rod movement based on vacuum) and the pump. So you just have to look at the A/F in certain conditions and make changes from there.

The A/F changes a lot more than you think. Or maybe the gauge changes more than you'd think, a few tenths back and forth even at idle or steady cruise is very common. There's also a small delay, so, when you stomp the throttle the A/F may still say what it said at cruise for a second before it adjusts to what happened when you stomped it. Takes a second for the fuel in the carb to work through the engine and back to your sensor. Well, maybe not an actual second, but it's not instant.

You can totally drive yourself nuts with one of these things too. It'll read different when it's cold out than when it's warmer, so like when I start my car to drive to work its a lot colder than when I drive around in the afternoon, and even with the car fully warmed up you'll see different numbers. You may not be able to set everything so it's always right where you think it should be all the time, you kind of have to step back to "regular" carb tuning. If it doesn't stumble, hesitate or detonate you're ok even if the A/F isn't perfect all the time, because you only have so many carb adjustments and the gauge will tell you everything down to a few tenths.

If you really want to go crazy you can do the data logger thing, but really I think when you start getting into fuel curves you have to be going EFI. You can do a lot with a carb, but not everything.
 
Is the a maintenance/cleaning procedure, particularly if it's in a leaded fuel environment? I believe I read somewhere that lead can eventually cover or clog the sensor and cause inaccurate readings. One option was to take them out when not needing to take readings.
 
Where can you get leaded fuel?
I have had my LMX-T wideband for some time now. I used it for many miles on my car each time transferring it to the new vehicle when it's ready...never cleaned anything.
I have found it difficult to lean an engine out at idle with a large cam though.l have jetted cruise to lo 15's but keep them a little rich now in mid to hi 13's...i just like a little more fuel to be on the safe side and wot around 12-12.5
 
Thanks for the replies so far guys, super helpful!

I definitely won't go to EFI for the time being just due to cost and kinda like messing with the carb and learning more. Maybe eventually.

Not likely to data log, at first anyway, but that would be a nice thing to have. I did it before in boosted applications where its maybe a bit more critical, and having to mess with fuel trims.

Also probably not going to use leaded race gas either. I'm only around 9.5:1 or so, probably don't need to go that hardcore. 91 California swill will do. haha

Thanks again guys, really helpful. Some good stuff to digest after I start playing with it.
 
The nice thing about the Innovate setup (there are others) is that it generates a data log so if you say, make an acceleration run, you can download that and see what it did through the run
 
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