AIR / FUEL RATIO GAUGE

[corley]

I am looking at getting an air/fuel ratio gauge and I keep seeing both wide and and narrow band mentioned.

I am trying to work out what would be best for me, I understand Wideband is more expensive and more accurate – does it come with its own sensor making installing more difficult?

Narrow band seems cheaper and I am guessing you hack into the existing Lambda sensor to get the feedback/reading??

Will a Narrow band work for basic monitoring? What has everyone else used?

Thanks

 

[Flying Scotsman]

If you are using this for turbo, considering the section you dropped it in, you will need two lambda ports on the downpipe for a wideband as they come with their own sensor.

I have gone for a wideband with a second port
Easier for mapping the engine management.

 

[Ziggy]

Some wide band sensors have a narrow band output to suit OEM wiring. Narrow is pretty much useless for mapping purposes - far too slow to react and when it does just indicates too lean / too rich.

 

[Cartman]

As stated abowe, you need a wideband sensor..
But if Your not doing a turbo Conversion, or fit nos, it's realy not something you need, as it wil be completley useless information to you.

 

[corley]

should have specified, this is for a turbo conversion!

 

[PumaNoob]

I'd ask if you are going to tune the car yourself, and will you actually be using the gauge. If you will be tuning yourself, then you need a wideband for that. But if someone else will be tuning it, tuning shops have their own lambda probes and generally wouldn't use your installed lambda anyway.

If you are going to be data logging then wideband again is more accurate.

But if you are going to be doing nothing with the information displayed on the gauge, you don't really need one. I've installed gauges in cars that the owner didn't even know what the numbers meant, and had never even looked at it, he just had one installed because people told him he needed one.

If you just want to get an idea of what your fuelling is doing, a narrowband is fine, but as stated above, a narrowband will just tell you if it's lean, optimal, or rich, it won't say how lean or how rich.

 

[Ziggy]

The output from a narrow band lambda sensor will also alternative between lean and rich every half a second or so which makes it even more useless for tuning purposes. I guess narrow band lambda meters "simply" average the signal over time to provide something which looks nice to the user.

 

[CherryVimto]

I'd like to hijack this thread, as it's basically about the same thing.......

I've looked at several AFR gauges/sensors, which vary quite a lot.
So, would this be the sort of thing we would use?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261294537...l?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=261294537072&_rdc=1

 

[PumaNoob]

Yes Tony, innovate are a good wideband and there is a lot of support for them. And the good thing with them is they are compatible with most aftermarket ECU's, and I believe some models have a narrow band output so you can use it with an OE ECU (so you don't need to run 2 Lambdas)

 

[Flying Scotsman]

This is what I went for:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GlowShift-Elite-10-Series-Wideband-Air-Fuel-Gauge-/230960457492?pt=UK_Diagnostic_Tools_Equipment&hash=item35c650e714" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[CherryVimto]

Yes Tony, innovate are a good wideband and there is a lot of support for them. And the good thing with them is they are compatible with most aftermarket ECU's, and I believe some models have a narrow band output so you can use it with an OE ECU (so you don't need to run 2 Lambdas)

I need to replace my lambda so running one lambda sounds like an easier option, but running narrow band isn't supposed to be accurate enough?

This is an area I'm not overly familiar with, so forgive my ignorance!

This is what I went for:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GlowShift-Elite-10-Series-Wideband-Air-Fuel-Gauge-/230960457492?pt=UK_Diagnostic_Tools_Equipment&hash=item35c650e714" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I hope that price is a tying error! Lol

Did you buy a separate sensor Mac? It looks like those are gauge only....

Those are the gauges I initially looked at when I started to investigate a turbo conversion, but I was having trouble finding all of the gauges I want in the same colour/range.

 

[Flying Scotsman]

No the lambda sensor comes with it.

 

[PumaNoob]

You'd have to check it but it's not just a gauge and sensor, they come with different output options. It's a wideband and shows a normal wideband figure on the gauge, but it has 2 outputs, a 0-5v output for wideband signal to an aftermarket ECU, or a 0-1v signal to a narrow band ECU. So you can run one sensor, and have both a wideband and narrowband signals.

 

[yippeekiay]

I'd like to hijack this thread, as it's basically about the same thing.......

I've looked at several AFR gauges/sensors, which vary quite a lot.
So, would this be the sort of thing we would use?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261294537...l?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=261294537072&_rdc=1

I bought one of those to setup my nitrous correctly, didn't get round to fitting it but sold it to another forum member for his puma and he was over the moon with it as it's a complete kit for a decent price. and I quote "Arrived this morning, much more than I expected! Cheers Paul!"