Just put an AEM Air / Fuel guage in my 65

[65racecoupe]

Beau from Mental Addiction Motorsports suggested it to me. I am either going to run Nitrous (150 to 200 shot) or put a 6 psi supercharger on (10.8 to 1 compression). I needed a way to get the car set up so it is safe to run, don't want to be too lean.

It is a really neat install, very easy. All you have to do is drill a hole in the exhaust past the header (driver's side). Then you weld the thing that the O2 sensor screws into. You then connect the wires, route them tight along the engine bay fire wall, through the hole, and under the dash. All you need is a ground and power connection.

I mounted mine under my ash tray on the dash. It is pretty cool. I was running really rich (12.5 at idle). It was really easy to tune the carb. I am not old school, so I don't know how to do it by smell and ear.

The cost was $450. It will help out when I do add a power adder.

 

[TT670]

Im assuming at that cost its a wideband correct? Good buy, its a great tuning tool!! If its not a wideband then its sure is an expensive piece of eye candy. Keep us posted on your project, I want to put a 6 psi novi 1200 blower on my 10.5:1 331 EFI but everyone says now way, that I need to get my compression down at least 1 point. I can do that with head porting and chamber work so maybe next year.

 

[65racecoupe]

Yeah, it is a wide band. It literally took 15 minutes to install. I had my friend do the welding for the o2 sensor.

I just contacted Paxton regarding the SC, since I am set on that over Nitrous. I also contacted Beau.

I am trying to find out how safe it is to run 6 - 7 PSI on 10.5 to 10.8 to 1 compression, if I need a Mighty Demon 750 (as opposed to my Speed Demon 750), If I need a new smaller distributor cap, and if my electric fuel pump set up is compatable. I think the answers are.... safe, mabye, pretty sure, and yes, in that order.

 

[TT670]

Post the answers when you get them, Im itchin for boost.

 

[Lxpony]

hey I just got the same guage and installed it this past weekend- it was really east to install and I used a stock floor pan drian plug to run the wires through.. my idle at fully warmed engine is about 14:7-15:2 and the same at cruise speeds- at heavy throttle is actually bottoms out below 11:1 and I get the "--" message on the guage which I assme means to rich to register.... but then a second later it goes into the 12 and 13 range
overall I am happy with it... still need to get back on the dyno to compare the AEM to their WB tail pipe reader because I swear mine fluctuates much more then the tail pipe reader did..... either way it is a helpful tuning device...

 

[iamadonut]

What's the difference between wideband and regular? Is the wideband worth the extra few hundred dollars?

 

[oldmustangjunki]

iamadonut,
The difference btw a wideband and normal A/F guage is that a wideband is useful to tell you what your A/F is at all engine speeds/throttle positions and a normal A/F guage is inexpensive and pretty much useless. BTW, if anyone else buying one of these, PM me and I'll give you the link to a place that sells them for $400.

 

[Lxpony]

I got mine for $430.00 DOH!

 

[iamadonut]

So a normal A/F gauge only reads at idle?
Would you mind PMing me that link so I can take a looksie?

Thanks for your help.

 

[bull999999]

So a normal A/F gauge only reads at idle?
Would you mind PMing me that link so I can take a looksie?

Thanks for your help.

The problem with normal A/F gauge and narrowband O2 sensor is that while it shows you if you are running lean or rich, it doesn't really tell you how much. I've known many turboed import guys blowing engines up because they had cheap A/F meters hooked up to their stock narrowband O2 sensor showing that they were running rich so they turn up their boost and blow up their motors overboosting.

 

[jikelly]

So if you got just a regular narrowband O2 sensor is it bad to try and tune your car with it? How bad can it be? Don't most EFI cars use them to regulate the fuel flow to the engine?

 

[iamadonut]

Would a crappy A/F gauge be adequate just for tuning the carb? I don't really plan on FI or nitrous...I'd just like an easy way to determine if I'm running rich or lean. I don't have enough experience to sniff out the differences in my exhaust.

 

[bull999999]

So if you got just a regular narrowband O2 sensor is it bad to try and tune your car with it? How bad can it be? Don't most EFI cars use them to regulate the fuel flow to the engine?

The computer ignores the O2 sensor on WOT because of this.

I used to have a Stealth Twin Turbo (a rebadged 3000GT VR4) with a cheap A/F meter and a datalogger. The stock injectors and fuel pump cannot support the boost of over 15psi. When I set the boost controller for over 15psi boost, the datalogger will show excess knocking and the computer will pull the timing back, even though the A/F was showing rich.

Narrowband O2 senors and A/F meters are good for tuning for emissions or gas economy, but I would not trust them for turning with forced induction or NOx.

 

[ForceFed70]

Narrow band O2 sensors were ment to to hook up to the computers and basically only tell the computer "rich" or "lean". No matter what the fancy guage shows, the sensor itself wasn't designed to read like that.

A wideband sensor/guage will say how rich or how lean you are..

 

[blown65]

I love my wideband, tells you so much when crap is going wrong. LOL

The dyno guy was shocked how accurate mine was, comparing to his dyno one I was only off .1 at most. Which isnt bad since he had his screwed into the other bank, so that could just be the difference in left/right AF.

Ive done those narrow band O2's and they are a total waste of money unless your going to tune with them for cruise only. For WOT they are JUNK.