Yes yes, I know, get a wideband. Im just trying to see if anyone here has used the old method of a single or 3 wire sensor and a good digi multimeter to get a decent base tune so I can get my car driveable cruise wise. Essentially I want to get my idle and cruise mixes setup for regular street driving and dont want to be stopping and reading plugs. And no, im not wasting and money on the regular "Party Lite" AFR gauge lol.

I know its not ideal, and im getting my wideband before I even think of uping my boost(4PSI), just figured since I have a few o2 sensors brand new lying around and a good meter, why not try it. Or is this a waste of my time, I gotta weld the bung on the downpipe anyhow !)
Also, im torn between an Innovate or AEM UEGO... which one is better. Ive had 2 AEMs in the past and no issues, just the innovate is the same price now and have heard its a better unit.

 

As far as which is a better unit, this is my experience.... I have used 3 innovates (all a few years back), 1 worked great, 1 worked for about 70% of my drag strip passes, and didn't give any readings the other 30% of the time (would start the run working, but had issues before the 1/4 was done), and 1 that didn't work from the start. I sent the last one back to Summit, and exchanged it for an AEM, which has worked flawlessly for the past 3-4 years. I currently have 2 AEM's, and have nothing but good things to say about them. The innovates were from 4-5 years ago, so take that for what its worth.

 

narrow band worked great for me getting cruising ratios rite. I Use a fluke 87 to read egt's too

 

So it works decent then? I know I have enough fuel for 4lbs, probably too rich but I just want to get it setup for normal driving for now. I can roll into boost vs trying to figure out tip in lean bogs and whatnot

 

Gotcha, I was aiming for an AEM and theyre pretty cheap now. I remember paying $300ish when they first came out

 

Just checked, I have a few 4 wire Ford o2 sensors. Would these give a better signal reading? The heater will definitely help.
Also, if I put one in each header collector, would that give a more accurate reading?
Since it would be gettin a less dense mixture, only one header at a time vs all the exhaust together. Mite slow down the voltage sweep

 

I don't understand how you are going to read anything past a standing idle with a narrow band O2 sensor. It will read rich at 14.0. You might be able to get a very light cruise AFR.

I think you would be wasting time not getting a wide band O2 sensor.

 

Ive read alot on it and as long as you have a good sensor and multimeter its not too bad for tuning cruise and idle ratios.
.5 volts is stoich, and lower lean
Higher voltage is obviously rich
Its not ideal no, but lots of people have had success with it apparently.
Its just like a wideband which reads 0-5v,
Narrow is just 0-1v. Setting the meter to millivolt will show small spikes in .01-up which seems to me it would aleast help vs flying completely blind

 

The difference between the 1 wire, 3 wire and 4 wire is as follows:

1 wire-Signal only, not heated. Would definitely pass on trying to tune with one.
3 wire-1 signal wire, signal ground to body/exhaust system. Big upgrade from a 1 wire
4 wire-Signal wire and ground+heater circuit. Probably the best of the narrow bands.

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Here is the transfer curve, this should help with the meter. It will tell you if you're rich or lean, but not a ton more.

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I used to use a heated one ten years ago. It's OK to let you know if your going lean. Engines are a lot more "rich tolerant" than they are "lean tolerant" so it is better than nothing. At some point your going to have to do some plug reading.

 

Kinda how im thinking. I have the parts already so its not like im spending money and then I also wont need to remove my DP to weld the wideband bung in later. I dont plan to be racing or boosting at every stop light, I just want to drive the damn thing now and want to atleast know im not leaning out. Its probably going to run rich anyhow. I plan on checking plugs for a lil while, just don't want to be pulling over on the highway reaching thru hot headers to see if I have wet plugs

 

check out 14point7.com, they have some pretty good prices on wideband and controllers and even a small kit to build a lambda controller with lcd output.
I mean unless your engine/car is just a toy and not a dd, why chance melting something.
So many people TRY to do something with so little experience doing just that ,,then figure out its hard, limited or a failure.
TRUST THIS, find a way to build a wideband controller, heck I think there is one listed on Megasquirt site somewhere. I know, I know a lot of people will tell me"I did it" and Ill tell you I have helped way too many people fix carnage for lacking proper tools.
You turbo a car, minimum is better fuel parts, better fuel, wideband guage atleast, and some way to control boost and tune.
Watched a kids scrape together a bunch of parts, very smart but too eager. He built an engine, told hm to save cash and use cast pistons over hypertech, didnt listen, spent $150 on rings when a $65 set would work better, some idiot told him to use a mechanical pump and drill "boost reference " port in top. He didnt do carb mods right and for $75 another fellow offered to do them and KNOWS how too.
Well kid gets a JY turbo kit together, fires it up, drives it maybe 10 miles. Gets call for new job, good money and he and his family need it as he was working fast food locally in two stores to help out.
Well he decides its ok to drive too work with all hooked up. He gets 10 miles from work and passes slow car, fuel pump explodes on him. Lucky him truck driver had extinguisher handy.
Devastated he grabs his gear and HIKES to work, left car along side of road. Trucker was on down time and told him he would make sure it was ot gonna burn down.
So he calls parents, of course they havent got any money and wont call anyone he thinks he is stuck. So he hikes back to car, note on steering wheel from trucker. "Kid if you wont listen to good information from people you will destroy what you have, I fixed your car and took your modifications off for now. Good luck on the job."
Trucker was one of a bunch of people who knew him from a forum, recognized car and had looked up several people local to the blow up to borrow parts from.
blocked off his set up, swapped hid carb for non modified one and dumped his burnt/broken parts in trunk, also installed a NEW fuel pump.
Going cheap may work in some respect, going cheap with wrong parts, hurts even worse.
Cause after all that, he reinstalled all the parts and got few new/right parts and proceeded to scatter the hypertech pistons. Lucky for him by then he had bought second engine, ex race engine with better parts and had started back yard compression lowering.
Search for wideband controlers ,they are out there reasonable.
Heck 14point7 has a small controlercard and a few other items to run wideband and for VERY reasonable prices.

 

Appreciate the input and story, but im also not an asshat lol. This isnt my first rodeo with turbo cars. Mostly ive done fuel injected setups on 4 cyl and 6 cyl. Messed with a few supercharged v8 carbed setups also. I have no intentions of blowing up my car ive been working on for 11 years. I just saw the info on the web about base tuning with single wire for carbs and people had good results, they werent blow thru however.
Ive even considered removing the gate spring til I get my base tune down and get her legal.
Btw, ive known quite a few guys who have blown motors with a wideband. Just cuz you have the proper gauge to read it doesnt mean you actually know how to tune it. Blow thru setups have been around ALOT longer than in car wideband gauges, if ur and idiot who just goes out and full throttles an untuned car you deserve to have it melt down, regardless of how much money u invest in any gauge, software, or all the bells and whistles.
Ill check out that site tho, thanx!