Team7

I have always been under the impression that unless your A/F guage isnt connected to a wideband o2 sensor it is worthless. Basically a waste of money. Is this true for a turbo car? I was talking to a guy who builds engines and he said that your HAVE to have one on your car even if it isnt connected to a wideband o2 sensor. Down the road I am shooting for 550-600hp and I want to have a tuneable ash zemulator along with fuel pressure gauge. basically Im trying to say if I was worried about running lean I would have my fuel press gauge and my car would already be tuned well with the ecu.

Riz Z Speed

for ems functions, wideband O2 is recommended.
Also most dyno shops recommend it as well.

ZLover4Life

A narrowband O2 sensor gauge is by far the most useless gauge you can put on a ANY car (be it turbo or non). When you need to monitor your air/fuel ratios, you want to monitor a number value (i.e. 11:1, 12:1 and the like).

A wideband O2 sensor gives the air/fuel condition a numberical value which will show on an Air/Fuel gauge.

A narrowband O2 sensor ONLY says "too rich" or "too lean." While you may think that this is what you want to see, I'll explain why it isn't. Your car fluxuates between "too rich" and "too lean" 10 times in 10 seconds (every second your cruising in your car, your engine is altering its air/fuel ratio). The engine is incapable of maintaining a perfectly steady air/fuel ratio, and that's why cars come with O2 sensors. Upon wide open throttle (which is the ONLY time your a/f ratio would require your attention), your narrowband O2 sensors don't do ****. So when you boost, you could run incredibly rich or incredibly lean, and your gauge would never let you know because your narrowband O2 sensors aren't doing anything. ALSO, your ECU requires a very specific signal from those O2 sensors to run properly. If you're tapping into the signal for a gauge (let alone, a useless gauge), you're going to rob some of the signal from the ECU. This will cause poor gas mileage and possibly make your car run like ****.

It's a disco light unless it's hooked up to a wideband sensor, and that's the end of it. Tell this "guy who builds engines" to come out to Chicago so I can smack him in the face. And don't have him build your engine if he thinks that a narrowband O2 sensor is remotely purposeful.

Oh yeah... my car made 550-600bhp and I didn't have an a/f gauge. Sean Wagner didn't have an air/fuel gauge, and his car was 744.4rwhp. I don't know any high horsepower cars with an air/fuel gauge. Why? Because when you buy an ECU for the car, or have it dyno tuned, you don't need to monitor your air/fuel ratios anymore. Setup your car so you don't have to watch it all the time and you'll be fine. I just saved you some money, work, and your Z, be happy.

91zxtt

A narrowband O2 sensor gauge is just an expensive, obnoxious light show.

Riz Z Speed

oh btw, Wagz sold his car.
damn shame.

ZLover4Life

I'm aware, but it'll always be Sean Wagners car in my eyes (after all, he's the one who pretty much had it built). It's owned by DVD Burn (MD) on TT.NET.

Team7

Well I know alot about cars and that is why I was confused. The guy who buildes his own engines was just helping me out when I got stranded in a parking lot. He wasnt trying to sound smart he was just recomending I get one. I always thought they were F&F mods so I never bothered with them on any of my cars. But when he said that I rethought my opinion. I know all about wideband o2 sensors and I may get one down the road to tune with and remove. Thanks for your feedback guys.

Jays_Z

Hey ZLover thanx for the info i almost bought a A/F meter. I thoughtb it was something know i know its not thanx alot.

91zxtt

A dual exhaust gas temp sensor would be better. That would allow you to monitor the exhaust gas temps on both banks.

ZLover4Life

I even think that's useless, but that's just me. So you can watch EGT temps rise or fall.... what does that mean... that you're leaning or richening out? If you're leaning or richening out to a point that it'll affect the EGT, you're probably misfiring. If you're misfiring, I'd hope you don't need an EGT to know it. I can't see that expensive gauge telling you anything other than you have a sparkplug of fuel injector out, and which side of the engine it's on (which can be determined by pulling coil pack connectors).

I don't know... maybe I've just been around Z's too long to need a gauge to tell me what's wrong with my car. I guess if you aren't confident in your diagnosis skills, it might be usefull, but you won't find those gauges in my car.

Just my $0.02

Riz Z Speed

So what aftermarket gauges would be most useful to have in a TT besides the obvious boost gauge?

and don't tell me really large tach with a shift light!

entropy31

dOOd, a db guage for your stereo would pwn lol. j/k

Riz Z Speed

I wouldn't mind an RTA which has a built in db meter. But I don't compete in sound competitions so that's not worth my time or money to buy n install.

emo236

EGT guages are neccessary IMO for any high hp car! unless you like blowing them up. Take a few runs at the track over and over agian and you will watch them go up. As they go up, they burn things up....it's something useful.

91zxtt

Interesting. Now I feel better that I didn't invest in one.