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Narrow Band Sensor On A CARB car?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Blown331LX
  • Start date Start date Jul 12, 2007

Blown331LX

Member
Apr 5, 2005
227
0
16
Chapel Hill, NC
Jul 12, 2007
#1
  • Jul 12, 2007
  • #1
Ive already started a thread on this as titled Air/Fuel gauge....I thank you all for your replys alot of good info. But my main unanswered question...Will a narrow band 02 sensor read correctly on a carburated car????? I know a wide band has much more precision because of the massive voltage range it can read. But think of it this way, stoic is stoic and these gauges pick this up regardless of band width. So narrow band may not be 100% accurate but it will at least show if theres a lean condition, especially if I have one on each bank. LAstly.....Will the stock 02 sensors feed the narrow band gauges?????? Thx Chris
 

millhouse

Founding Member
May 14, 2002
1,985
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46
Simpsonville, SC
Jul 12, 2007
#2
  • Jul 12, 2007
  • #2
You can tune with a narrow band on a carb'ed setup…but only for low load conditions (Idle, cruse etc.). Because it's really only good for getting close to stoich, it will do you no good for tuning WOT or any other heavy load condition. Think of it this way…when your tuning with the narrowband, everything under 14.7 will simply read rich and over will read lean.
 
8

865.0HO

Member
Jun 26, 2004
65
0
7
Goldendale, WA
Jul 12, 2007
#3
  • Jul 12, 2007
  • #3
My Edlebrock, reads from approx 12.5:1 to 15:1. There are 7 LED's.

From my experience a narrow band works great on a carbed vehicle and is worth every penny. I picked up my edelbrock new off Ebay for 72 bones. Whether or not a OE O2 sensor will work or not, I don't know.

The O2 sensor in my Edelbrock kit has three wires, most O2's I've seen have three wires as well. I don't see any reason why a OE O2 sensor wouldn't work, or couldn't be made to work.
 
D

Daggar

New Member
Jul 19, 2004
3,902
5
0
Jul 12, 2007
#4
  • Jul 12, 2007
  • #4
865.0HO said:
My Edlebrock, reads from approx 12.5:1 to 15:1. There are 7 LED's.

From my experience a narrow band works great on a carbed vehicle and is worth every penny. I picked up my edelbrock new off Ebay for 72 bones. Whether or not a OE O2 sensor will work or not, I don't know.

The O2 sensor in my Edelbrock kit has three wires, most O2's I've seen have three wires as well. I don't see any reason why a OE O2 sensor wouldn't work, or couldn't be made to work.
Click to expand...

The number of wires actually has nothing to do with whether a sensor is wide or narrow. Typically there is a sensing wire, a ground wire, and a sensor heat wire. Wide band/Narrow band is determined by the internal contruction of the sensor. Narrow bands act as more of a switch than a sensor because the voltage sensing range is very small. Widebands are able to provide a much larger and greatly varied voltage output in response to the amount of free air remaining in the exhaust.

On a side note: Wideband sensors are not more "accurate" than narrow band sensors. Quality varies by brand and manufacturer, not by type. You can have a very accurate narrow band sensor as well as a very innacurate wide band sensor. The difference between the two type is the "kind" of information they send out on the sensing wire.

Combining a narrow band sensor with a display is pretty much useless. You also have a pretty good chance of a narrow band pegging either so low, or so high, in such a quick manner as to cause a gauge or display meter to read in the opposite direction that it should (usually this occures with analog displays and not so much with digital ones).
 

millhouse

Founding Member
May 14, 2002
1,985
0
46
Simpsonville, SC
Jul 13, 2007
#5
  • Jul 13, 2007
  • #5
865.0HO said:
My Edlebrock, reads from approx 12.5:1 to 15:1. There are 7 LED's.

From my experience a narrow band works great on a carbed vehicle and is worth every penny. I picked up my edelbrock new off Ebay for 72 bones. Whether or not a OE O2 sensor will work or not, I don't know.

The O2 sensor in my Edelbrock kit has three wires, most O2's I've seen have three wires as well. I don't see any reason why a OE O2 sensor wouldn't work, or couldn't be made to work.
Click to expand...

Judging by the picture of the Edelbrock sensor…it is a narrowband and as previously stated will only be good for monitoring low load areas. They claim to be able to read 12.5:1 to 15:1, but it simply is not possible to do accurately with a narrowband. The curve the narrowband sensor put out is so steep (and limited to 0-1v) that the only good reading your going to get is stoich. Keep in mind too that narrowbands require a heat source to operate properly…and the farther away from the heat source you are…the less accurate they are going to be.
 
8

865.0HO

Member
Jun 26, 2004
65
0
7
Goldendale, WA
Jul 13, 2007
#6
  • Jul 13, 2007
  • #6
Daggar said:
The number of wires actually has nothing to do with whether a sensor is wide or narrow.
Click to expand...

I wasn't implying that it did. I mentioned the wire number count simply for reference and the possibility that a OE O2 sensor might work with this guage.
 
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