Air / Fuel Meter Recommendations

[Captain Obvious]

LOL. Well that took a turn quick!

 

9 hours ago, AK260 said:

You won’t regret it!

I'm sure I wont.  Only thing that has me a tiny bit worried is I bought it off ebay from the cheapest guy I could find. He's head and shoulders cheaper than the next guy and because he's so much cheaper than everyone else (and the MSRP of the device) that it sets off my scam danger alarm a tiny bit. Hoping it's all legit and I'll have it soon.

[Mark Maras]

2 hours ago, grannyknot said:

Rich women have to have something to spend their money on.

 They can sit in front of their Vanity mirror and ask "Who's the fairest of them all"? It's a wonder they never thought of driving a Furrari.

[Jeff Berk]

13 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

What I don't know anything at all about is how to deal with the heating element.

If you are talking about the heating element on O2 sensors, that's there just to get them up to operating temperature (~600F http://www.autotap.com/techlibrary/understanding_oxygen_sensors.asp). After a few minutes, I don't think you don't need it. 

A good discussion of O2 placement can be found here. 

My original idea for including a Rraspberry Pi was to add a G-meter. Not because it adds any diagnostics, but it's cool. My son's 2020 Type N has a factory one in his dash.

[siteunseen]

I wonder how much money has been spent because that heating element went bad causing a replacement installed? Everyone I've ever heard of going bad was because of that.

[AK260]

I wonder how much money has been spent because that heating element went bad causing a replacement installed? Everyone I've ever heard of going bad was because of that.

Not mine! (Yet!)

I know people who replaced their o2 sensors with cheap ones on their Audis and then came to Uncle Ali to get me to run diagnostics for them a few months later. (I have full VCDS for those who know what it is).

But once replaced with the Bosch ones that cost 3 times as much, they never needed to come back. Incidentally, the Bosch one is what came with my Innovate!

I’ve also seen YouTube videos of people reviving old ones by using a blow torch to heat them to glowing hot temps. Can’t be sure how long that would last but apparently it makes the carbon build up on the heating element let go.

As for your eBay seller, I’ve had a few bad experiences on eBay but most of the time they have been very good at stepping in and resolving!

[240260280]

4 hours ago, Jeff Berk said:

If you are talking about the heating element on O2 sensors, that's there just to get them up to operating temperature (~600F http://www.autotap.com/techlibrary/understanding_oxygen_sensors.asp). After a few minutes, I don't think you don't need it. 

A good discussion of O2 placement can be found here. 

My original idea for including a Rraspberry Pi was to add a G-meter. Not because it adds any diagnostics, but it's cool. My son's 2020 Type N has a factory one in his dash.

One more useful tip:

 

[AK260]

One more useful tip:

 

 

You know, I strongly suspect that many a girl has at some point explained that diagram to some guy! ;)

 

On a serious note though, that’s a GREAT tip - i assume its to it keep the water droplets from staying inside and messing with things. But I don’t get the not totally vertical orientation. Any thoughts?

[Zed Head]

On 11/6/2020 at 6:22 PM, Captain Obvious said:

 I was hoping to get away cheaper than that.

I wanted to have AFR readings at one time and was also thinking cheap.  I had pondered buying a voltmeter and painting new numbers/colors on the dial based on wideband sensor output tables, then connecting it to a wideband sensor. Red, yellow and green zones was my thought.  Accuracy not really necessary.

If you focus on data acquisition of voltage instead of already processed AFR readings, it might open up some possibilities. Collect, run it through a spreadsheet, and you have what you want.

Example stuff from the interweb:

http://techedge.com.au/vehicle/wbo2/wbntk.htm

http://techedge.com.au/vehicle/wbo2/wblambda.htm

https://www.dataq.com/

[Captain Obvious]

9 hours ago, Jeff Berk said:

If you are talking about the heating element on O2 sensors, that's there just to get them up to operating temperature (~600F http://www.autotap.com/techlibrary/understanding_oxygen_sensors.asp). After a few minutes, I don't think you don't need it. 

I thought it was more complicated than that. I haven't really looked into it, but I guess I should dig around a little and get some learning.

[Captain Obvious]

4 hours ago, AK260 said:

You know, I strongly suspect that many a girl has at some point explained that diagram to some guy!

On a serious note though, that’s a GREAT tip - i assume its to it keep the water droplets from staying inside and messing with things. But I don’t get the not totally vertical orientation. Any thoughts?

LOL! 

So I saw a note (probably on Innovate's website) about sensor mounting. They said that if the sensor gets wet it can cool too quickly and crack some ceramic portion. For that reason, I think they recommended 3:00 or 9:00 with 6:00 being the worst not only from the standpoint of ripping the sensor off on a speedbump, but also for potential water damage.

[AK260]

! 
So I saw a note (probably on Innovate's website) about sensor mounting. They said that if the sensor gets wet it can cool too quickly and crack some ceramic portion. For that reason, I think they recommended 3:00 or 9:00 with 6:00 being the worst not only from the standpoint of ripping the sensor off on a speedbump, but also for potential water damage.

Thank you sir, I’d forgotten that thing about rapid cooling. On that note I recall something about not leaving the ignition on for too long before starting a cold engine.

But I still don’t get the not at 12 o’clock bit. If in theory you have the space for mounting it straight up, then why does it need to be a minimum of 15 degrees off vertical!?

[dutchzcarguy]

8 hours ago, AK260 said:

If in theory you have the space for mounting it straight up, then why does it need to be a minimum of 15 degrees off vertical!?

Get yourself a glas.. rinse it with water..  hold it upside down.. now after 30 sec hold it on 15 degree.. what happens the last drops fall off.. I think that's best.. can't think of any other reason.