Effectiveness of O2 sensors on an off-road H pipe?

[Hawaii-50]

How effective are the 2 O2 sensors on an off-road H-pipe as opposed to the setup on a stock 4-cat H-pipe (or even a high flow catted H)? I'm curious as to how the absence of catalytic converters affects the O2 sensor's performance and if the readings that the sensors send back to the computer are in turn skewed because of the lack of convertors. Can someone explain this to me?-I ran codes due to a surging problem and I need new O2 sensors.

Thanks-
Ted

 

[GearHd6]

The O2's collect information before they get to the cats so the information wont be affected without cats. If the codes say you need new O2's then get some. Or clear the codes and run it for a while then check them again. Unless you've cleared the codes then its possible someones changed them already but never cleared the code.

 

[Hawaii-50]

Thanks for the quick reply. I've had the car for 8 years now and this is the first time I've ever gotten the code to replace the O2s. How do you clear the codes? I may do that then drive it for a week (or should I drive it longer?). All I know is that when I back her into the garage, I smell a lot of fuel in the exhaust, and she has developed a minor surging problem at idle.

 

[dragnazz5.0]

just because the c0de is f0r the 02 sens0r d0esnt mean its bad. 8 years with0ut changing them pr0bably means that they are bad. but a car that is running very rich will als0 thr0ugh an 02 c0de.

 

[Hawaii-50]

So are you saying that even though I change the O2 sensors (which I will), something else may be making it run rich and will continue to throw an O2 code? If so, what else would be the likely culprit for the rich condition? Would an AFPR help?

 

[QUIKSVT]

I would think, with bad 02's, the computer would go into a sort of limp mode and run pretty rich, as it hasn't much clue as to the A/F ratio...

 

[HISSIN50]

If you already installed the new catless pipe, you wont know that you're running rich - even lean stinks with no cats.

Things like a vac leak, MAF issue, uncalibrated ECT, clogged fuel filter, weak FP, etc can cause the O2 code.

Good luck.