I'm still dialing in my '86 Power Ram but I just rebuilt the 2.6l motor and it has the bigger 38 Weber carb AND some junkyard special Hooker Headers. When I had the headers at the weld shop I asked them to weld in an O2 sensor bung so that I can add an O2 sensor and Air/Fuel combustion gauge. Is it worth messing with?
I already ordered a cheap gauge and O2 sensor from Amazon, $12 for the sensor and $18 for the gauge. I didn't spring for a wide band sensor partially because both sensor and gauge are quite a bit more money for the increased sensitivity, but also a lot of folks were complaining on the internet that the sensors often don't hold up to daily use over the longer haul. Mostly only serious hotrodders seemed to mess with them.
(I'm just a few more hours from firing up my motor from this major rebuild so I don't yet have the motor running or even the gauge installed but now is the time to go ahead and finish adding in the gauge if I'm going to use it.)
I like the idea of a crude mixture gauge because when I swapped the original carb to the big Weber I was very unimpressed with the tuning process that Weber's customer service and literature offered. I can't remember what all they had me do and how we determined what rejetting I needed to do, but it left me really kind of uncertain that my idle, midrange, or top end were actually dialed in and I needn't worry about the motor leaning out under certain scenarios???
Anybody out there have any experience with both the narrow or wide band O2 sensors and Air Fuel mixture gauges set ups? Do the less expensive narrow band sensors and gauges really give you any sort of an accurate picture that your carb is jetted in the ballpark? Or will this only give me a false sense of security? I do plan to pull a spark plug from time to time to get an idea if I'm too lean but I like the idea of a gauge that can tell me if its running lean through any portion of the power range idle through full...
Any comments/ idea / suggestion welcome!
Bill
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