2k1gt

Its a waist. All it does is go back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth... You get the picture. I have one and its unless besides a light show as others have said.

cliffyk

[/align][/align]This is not so, a lot of us did a lot of tuning with narrowband sensors, back before there was any such thing as a wideband...[/align][/align]Certainly they are not as foolproof as a metered wideband, and using a metered narrowband for tuning requires a lot more interpretation and skill--however adding a good narrowband meter can tell you a lot for some pretty short money. As long as you're pushing the limits hard.[/align][/align]Read this...[/align]

sstang

I thought they stay still when under fullthrottle?

HMUSN

Seems some people have questions on the purpose of a Wideband O2 sensor so here is why you need one if you plan on more modifications. In case you don’t know much about AF, Lean has higher AF numbers and less gas, and Rich has lower AF numbers and more gas. If you run too lean your motor will get extra hot and lead to issues like detonation which will burn holes into your pistons, blow head gaskets, grenade motors, etc. Running too rich will wash the oil off the piston rings and cause issues due to excess friction. Lean will get you more HP, but will be closer to the edge of detonation. Running rich will net less HP, but will be more tolerant of bad gas, hotter temps, etc (safer). Timing also plays a role in heat and detonation so it’s good to know that a lean mixture will handle less timing that a rich mixture due to the cooling effect of the extra gas. Higher octane is required for leaner / more timing tunes. Never ever run 87 octane in a highly modified vehicle, and never run 91 octane in a car with the stock tune for 87 or you will loose power and get worse gas mileage.

The stock O2 sensors are narrow band sensors that have the very good resolution around the stoichiometric AF of 14.64, but have very poor resolution in the range below 12. The Narrow band gauges are a waste of money, they do nothing as far as actual AF at WOT because they are not accurate at the desired ranges. They are designed to use about 90% of their output range centered directly around AF of 14.64, so you get excellent resolution between 14 and 15 which works great for part throttle driving, gas mileage, emissions, but is way too inaccurate for WOT ranges.
The wideband O2 sensors have a linear output range from about AF 9 to AF 18 so they give accurate results over the entire AF range.

Here is some general AF target ranges, but feel free to ask any questions you might have.
NA car 12.4-13.2
Blown Stang 11.5-12
Blown Focus 11.0-11.8
Heavily blown 11.0-11.5

If you are doing any high speed runs the WO2 is the most important gauge to monitor.

djb1187

lol they dont sit still while driving down the road? wtf????

newb2000GT

Mine sits still while driving down the road, at least until I get out of the loud pedal anyway. I'd spend the money on the tune and know your AF is good through the whole range. Unless you have gremlins that sneak into your car and change the tune on you, it should be around the AF you got during the tune.

djb1187

thanx for the writeup hmusn. Well I have a in a can tune so I have no idea what my A/F ratio is. I know that I have all the bolt-ons so I was kinda expecting a lean reading which I wanna avoid.

cliffyk

A narrowband meter will tell you you're too lean rather well actually, exactly and precisely how lean (or rich) thay aren't good at as others have gotten hung up on.[/align][/align]Something tobe aware ofhowever is that an overrich mixture, I.e. <11.0:1, will cause the narrowband sensor output to drop to 0.0V and look like a sudden drop from rich to dead lean (>17.0:1) on the meter--this won't generally hurt anything, but if you see this (a rise toward rich as you press the throttle and then a sudden drop to nothing on the meter, accompanied by a loss of power and no pinging) then you are most likely way rich and the engine is bogging.[/align][/align]If I had to chose between no A/F meter and a narrowband meter I'd get the narrowband unit, even if I threw it away in six months 'cause my ship came in.[/align][/align]

bransdaman78

well if your not tuning the car yourself.. the wideband is pointless

cliffyk

[/align][/align]An astute and exceptional point--any tuner worth paying will have one...[/align]