How useful is an air/fuel gauge? A-pillar gauges

[Balzer]

I converted to a carb on my 94 due to the engine build is too much for the TBI.

Anyway I still have an O2 in the exhaust so I thought about adding an air/fuel gauge on the a-pillar. I really want a trans temp gauge on the a-pillar to keep an eye on my TH700R4. I also thought about a vaccume gauge for fuel milage.

 

[DRAGGIN95]

I think an AF ratio gauge is very important, and with a carb it could help you dial in the AF ratio too!

 

[Aloicious]

a real AFR gauge with a wideband O2 sensor would be very useful...an AFR gauge that just reads off a stock narrowband wouldn't be.

 

[1997chevydriver]

Well if you want a A/F guage you will need to get a wideband o2 sensor for the guage to operate properly.


Damn ya beat me to it

 

[Aloicious]

heh, yeah, I've seen ones that are made to try and run off the narrowbands and they're pretty much useless.

 

[Balzer]

Would it be redundant to run a vac gauge and a AF gauge? I mean what are some reasons to monitor the AF mixture? I can see it being useful for intial tuning. I would imagine with both vac and AF gauges, a guy could see where he was running at the most vac and a bit lean and that would most likely be where youor going to get the best MPG on a long trip. Am I correct?

I would also think that, say your getting a missfire, would that show up on the AF meter as a rich condition? Would the fuel filter getting dirty show up as a lean condition?

I have never run one. I have had friends that ran them and thats what they used to know when it was best/safe to use NO2. But to me they seamed like just a flickering light gizmo... From what I have read a wide band is a lot more accurate, does that mean it would flicker less or more?

Sorry if I sound dumb, I just dont know the usefulness of this gauge, after initial tuning that is.

I would also like to point out this trucks engine is the highest performance engine I have ever tried to use as a daily driver, so i would like to keep my eye on as much as possible, as long as its useful info and not just a flickering light for ricers to oogle at. Im not trying to down play the gauge I am just assuming the ones I have seen are narrow band and less than useful as they flickered all over the gauge face from lean to rich.

 

[Aloicious]

the flickering light ones are the useless ones, they run off the stock narrowband sensors, which don't tell you much...you want a wideband sensor and gauge which is a regular gauge and shows you an actual value.
something like this, which reads out an actual value run from a wideband:

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it is extremely useful in tuning to make sure that the fuel that is being given is the correct amount, vacuum gauge can be helpful, probably moreso with carb than EFI...with efi, a AFR gauge isn't really needed either, since the wideband data can be logged directly. so, since you're carb, you may get more use from the gauges than I do.

I run 3 external gauges, AFR, Boost/vac, and fuel pressure...since I can log most anything on my laptop, the most useful gauge out of the 3 for me is the fuel pressure.

 

[woody80z28]

I put a narrowband o2 on my Camaro back when I was young & dumb, and it doesn't do much because it's only accurate around 14.7:1. It is better than nothing though. If you have any tip in problems or want to adjust cruise it is still useful. I had a hesitation that I was sure was a rich condition that was actually a quick lean spike...visible even with a NBo2.

I have used a wideband for my other two and it is far superior to the NBo2, but I wouldn't call the NBo2 useless. And since you already have it and the gauges are cheap, go for it. A WBo2 is a couple hundred that you might not need to spend if you're happy with WOT and want to tune the cruise circuit.

 

[Chris]

Honestly I wouldn't bother. Running a WBO2 on a carb engine will drive you to the point of insanity, because it will swing all over the place.

 

[Aloicious]

I put a narrowband o2 on my Camaro back when I was young & dumb, and it doesn't do much because it's only accurate around 14.7:1. It is better than nothing though. If you have any tip in problems or want to adjust cruise it is still useful. I had a hesitation that I was sure was a rich condition that was actually a quick lean spike...visible even with a NBo2.

I have used a wideband for my other two and it is far superior to the NBo2, but I wouldn't call the NBo2 useless. And since you already have it and the gauges are cheap, go for it. A WBo2 is a couple hundred that you might not need to spend if you're happy with WOT and want to tune the cruise circuit.

for tuning or really anything requiring some precision, a NBO2 gauge is pretty much useless. however, if you just wanted to monitor general trends like your re-occuring lean splike, then it would be better than nothing. so maybe 'useless' is a bit harsh, but still, I wouldn't recommed them to anyone.

Honestly I wouldn't bother. Running a WBO2 on a carb engine will drive you to the point of insanity, because it will swing all over the place.

yeah on a carb you're probably right, it would still be a useful tool, but for a carb, the cost may not be worth it. for EFI and tuning, its by far one of the best tools you can get....but nowadays I only work with EFI, so that's what I deal with all the time, I haven't played with a carb in a decade or so.