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SVTPerformance's Chain of Restaurants
Tuning À la carte
Just installed AEM failsafe Wideband gauge & Datalogger
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<blockquote data-quote="IUP99snake" data-source="post: 12222906" data-attributes="member: 7060"><p>It was only $100 bucks more expensive than the standard Wideband gauges. $300 is a lot of money, but it's nowhere near the cost of the more intricate dataloggers. I don't have a handheld tuner such as an x-cal 2 or anything like that, so this was my best option for the money, plus the features were right in the ballpark for my setup. Wideband, boost, RPM, live datalogging, plus a failsafe output?! Sweet. Sure, I'd like to have the capability to integrate it with other electronics such as an OBD II datalogger which other gauges from PLX and other manufacturers do, but I don't want to buy all sorts of add on modules. I'm not buying an AEM standalone computer anytime soon, so I don't see that happening. There are tons of options, this isnt the best for everyone, but this just happened to be right for me. </p><p></p><p>I didn't take any installation pics, but I will take a few pics of some important things to consider when installing it. </p><p></p><p>I have a triple a pillar gauge pod that had a fuel pressure and boost and oil pressure gauges already installed. When I originallt installed those gauges, I used a common wiring harness for the power wires and a common harness for all the wires that needed to be run into the engine compartment to the sending units. I accessed the switched 12V, ground, and dash illumination from the radio wiring harness and daisy chained all the gauges together for the power,</p><p>Ground, and illumination. </p><p></p><p>Since I couldn't find anywhere else to mount the AEM gauge, I decided I would sacrifice my oil pressure gauge for now until I can find a new place for it to go. (Im thinking of hiding it in the center console or putting it in a cupholder. I dont want to buy any more gauge pods. By sacrificing the oil pressure gauge, I already had a power source, ground, dash illumination (for the dimmer feature), and for the RPM input, I used the existing oil pressure sender wire that was already wired in the cluster through the firewall. I just connected it to a fuel injector wire instead of the oil pressure sender (so I took the easy way out and repurposed the oil pressure wire so I didn't have to run a new wire through the firewall. I didn't need a tach adapter because it has a programmable tach input. If you hook it up to an injector, set it for .5 pulses per revolution (that's 1 pulse for every two revolutions on a 4 stroke engine). </p><p></p><p>Since I already have a mechanical boost gauge, I just T'd into the hard plastic like using the included T adapter and vacuum tubing. Fortunately the outside diameter of the hard plastic line is the same size as the inside diameter of the vacuum hose included with the gauge. I just slid on a couple inches of hose over the hard plastic line on both sides until it wouldn't go any further to make sure it wouldn't leak. </p><p></p><p>Since the rear 02 sensors are disabled in my tune, I just took out one of the factory 02 sensors and installed the Wideband sensor in its place. Before I weld a dedicated bung closer to the engine, I want to see if I'm getting the same readings from both sides. So, I'll run it for another week or so to get a good idea of how it's reading now, then switch it over to the other side and see if there are any differences. I'll also take the datalogs from both sides during idle, part throttle, and a full throttle run and overlay the data to see if one bank is reading different from the other. If both banks are within the margin of error for the sensor, I'll then find a better location closer to the manifold knowing that it didn't matter which side the sensor is reading from. </p><p></p><p>But in the meantime, the connector at the end Wideband sensor pigtail even has a factory style push plug that snapped right in to the existing holes in my transmission crossmember just like the original narrow band rear 02 sensor I was replacing. I plugged in the extension harness and ran it toward the front of the car next to an existing wiring harness near the transmission for about a foot where I ran it up through the shifter opening. There is a little hole in front of the shifter opening just big enough to fit the small connector that connects with the gauge through. I ran the 02 sensor harness under the radio and next to my existing power harness that I had previously made that taps in behind the radio. There is about 2 feet of slack, so I coiled about a foot of it under the shifter boot, and I coiled the rest of the slack under the dash near the fuse panel. </p><p></p><p>I didn't need the 3 analog signal output wires, so I trimmed them down and taped them up in the harness. </p><p></p><p>I ran the USB wire from the gauge back down the same exact way I had run the 02 sensor harness, under the dash, coming out under the radio and center console, with the plug coming out of the side of the center console right in front of the passenger seat. That way, I can just pull out the slack from under the console and hook it up to a laptop sitting on the seat. The problem is that it's a male plug, so it's not like you can just terminate it with a USB input jack. </p><p></p><p>Since I haven't figured out what to do with the failsafe wire yet, that was the only wire in the gauge harness I didn't cut or tap into an existing source in my cluster. For now, I ran it down to the bottom of the dash with the rest of the wires, but I coiled it up and hid it behind the driver side kick panel for now. </p><p></p><p>Ive been experimenting with the failsafe limits and it's touchy! I'll trigger it when I'm downshifting most of the time. So, I've still got some tweaking to do. I only want the failsafe upper and lower limits to take effect when there is boost. I was half tempted to wire up some relays to get it to shut off the ECU, but to do that, I'll need to have the limits "finely tuned". I don't want it shutting off the motor by accident when Im downshifting or blipping the gas. </p><p></p><p>If anyone has any ideas on how to use the failsafe feature without having to buy anything more expensive than an couple relays or solenoids, let me know. I was trying to think of a way of using a couple solenoids and check valves to electronically actuate the blowoff valve under boost by closing off the boost reference signal to the valve and opening up a vacuum reference from a small vacuum reserve tank that uses check valves to keep a vacuum stored up in it for when the failsafe solenoid opens up. That will bleed off boost temporarily. What do you think?</p><p></p><p>Ideally, I'd rather have a two step, or ignition box that engages a rev limiter or timing retard. That's the safest way to prevent detonation in the event of something such as a fuel system failure without shutting off the engine completely and having to restart it for false alarms. </p><p></p><p>Regardless of how I connect the failsafe, I'm going to wire in an "override" switch for daily driving. I don't have to worry about catastrophically destroying anything during normal driving. It's just for dyno pulls and drag races where I really need the failsafe feature. Maybe I'll wire it into the traction control switch, so when the TC is off, the failsafe is active. </p><p></p><p>Anyway, I'll post up some more pics and videos when I get around to it later this weekend. Please share some ideas or thoughts! I installed it one way out out of hundreds of right ways to install it..</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="IUP99snake, post: 12222906, member: 7060"] It was only $100 bucks more expensive than the standard Wideband gauges. $300 is a lot of money, but it's nowhere near the cost of the more intricate dataloggers. I don't have a handheld tuner such as an x-cal 2 or anything like that, so this was my best option for the money, plus the features were right in the ballpark for my setup. Wideband, boost, RPM, live datalogging, plus a failsafe output?! Sweet. Sure, I'd like to have the capability to integrate it with other electronics such as an OBD II datalogger which other gauges from PLX and other manufacturers do, but I don't want to buy all sorts of add on modules. I'm not buying an AEM standalone computer anytime soon, so I don't see that happening. There are tons of options, this isnt the best for everyone, but this just happened to be right for me. I didn't take any installation pics, but I will take a few pics of some important things to consider when installing it. I have a triple a pillar gauge pod that had a fuel pressure and boost and oil pressure gauges already installed. When I originallt installed those gauges, I used a common wiring harness for the power wires and a common harness for all the wires that needed to be run into the engine compartment to the sending units. I accessed the switched 12V, ground, and dash illumination from the radio wiring harness and daisy chained all the gauges together for the power, Ground, and illumination. Since I couldn't find anywhere else to mount the AEM gauge, I decided I would sacrifice my oil pressure gauge for now until I can find a new place for it to go. (Im thinking of hiding it in the center console or putting it in a cupholder. I dont want to buy any more gauge pods. By sacrificing the oil pressure gauge, I already had a power source, ground, dash illumination (for the dimmer feature), and for the RPM input, I used the existing oil pressure sender wire that was already wired in the cluster through the firewall. I just connected it to a fuel injector wire instead of the oil pressure sender (so I took the easy way out and repurposed the oil pressure wire so I didn't have to run a new wire through the firewall. I didn't need a tach adapter because it has a programmable tach input. If you hook it up to an injector, set it for .5 pulses per revolution (that's 1 pulse for every two revolutions on a 4 stroke engine). Since I already have a mechanical boost gauge, I just T'd into the hard plastic like using the included T adapter and vacuum tubing. Fortunately the outside diameter of the hard plastic line is the same size as the inside diameter of the vacuum hose included with the gauge. I just slid on a couple inches of hose over the hard plastic line on both sides until it wouldn't go any further to make sure it wouldn't leak. Since the rear 02 sensors are disabled in my tune, I just took out one of the factory 02 sensors and installed the Wideband sensor in its place. Before I weld a dedicated bung closer to the engine, I want to see if I'm getting the same readings from both sides. So, I'll run it for another week or so to get a good idea of how it's reading now, then switch it over to the other side and see if there are any differences. I'll also take the datalogs from both sides during idle, part throttle, and a full throttle run and overlay the data to see if one bank is reading different from the other. If both banks are within the margin of error for the sensor, I'll then find a better location closer to the manifold knowing that it didn't matter which side the sensor is reading from. But in the meantime, the connector at the end Wideband sensor pigtail even has a factory style push plug that snapped right in to the existing holes in my transmission crossmember just like the original narrow band rear 02 sensor I was replacing. I plugged in the extension harness and ran it toward the front of the car next to an existing wiring harness near the transmission for about a foot where I ran it up through the shifter opening. There is a little hole in front of the shifter opening just big enough to fit the small connector that connects with the gauge through. I ran the 02 sensor harness under the radio and next to my existing power harness that I had previously made that taps in behind the radio. There is about 2 feet of slack, so I coiled about a foot of it under the shifter boot, and I coiled the rest of the slack under the dash near the fuse panel. I didn't need the 3 analog signal output wires, so I trimmed them down and taped them up in the harness. I ran the USB wire from the gauge back down the same exact way I had run the 02 sensor harness, under the dash, coming out under the radio and center console, with the plug coming out of the side of the center console right in front of the passenger seat. That way, I can just pull out the slack from under the console and hook it up to a laptop sitting on the seat. The problem is that it's a male plug, so it's not like you can just terminate it with a USB input jack. Since I haven't figured out what to do with the failsafe wire yet, that was the only wire in the gauge harness I didn't cut or tap into an existing source in my cluster. For now, I ran it down to the bottom of the dash with the rest of the wires, but I coiled it up and hid it behind the driver side kick panel for now. Ive been experimenting with the failsafe limits and it's touchy! I'll trigger it when I'm downshifting most of the time. So, I've still got some tweaking to do. I only want the failsafe upper and lower limits to take effect when there is boost. I was half tempted to wire up some relays to get it to shut off the ECU, but to do that, I'll need to have the limits "finely tuned". I don't want it shutting off the motor by accident when Im downshifting or blipping the gas. If anyone has any ideas on how to use the failsafe feature without having to buy anything more expensive than an couple relays or solenoids, let me know. I was trying to think of a way of using a couple solenoids and check valves to electronically actuate the blowoff valve under boost by closing off the boost reference signal to the valve and opening up a vacuum reference from a small vacuum reserve tank that uses check valves to keep a vacuum stored up in it for when the failsafe solenoid opens up. That will bleed off boost temporarily. What do you think? Ideally, I'd rather have a two step, or ignition box that engages a rev limiter or timing retard. That's the safest way to prevent detonation in the event of something such as a fuel system failure without shutting off the engine completely and having to restart it for false alarms. Regardless of how I connect the failsafe, I'm going to wire in an "override" switch for daily driving. I don't have to worry about catastrophically destroying anything during normal driving. It's just for dyno pulls and drag races where I really need the failsafe feature. Maybe I'll wire it into the traction control switch, so when the TC is off, the failsafe is active. Anyway, I'll post up some more pics and videos when I get around to it later this weekend. Please share some ideas or thoughts! I installed it one way out out of hundreds of right ways to install it.. [/QUOTE]
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SVTPerformance's Chain of Restaurants
Tuning À la carte
Just installed AEM failsafe Wideband gauge & Datalogger
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