Wideband placement?

[cbrown9064]

So, working on my blower project. Found a great place (or so I thought) to mount the Innovate Bosch wideband sensor. About 6" downstream from the stock sensor. Looked good and pulled the off road X apart and brought the pipe out to drill and weld. Drilled the hole and THEN read the directions. Ugghhh. Innovate says to mount 24" from the exhaust port. Do they mean the exhaust port on the head or the end of the exhaust manifold?

I dont know if I could get 24" from the end of the pipe (exhaust manifold) without getting into the next slip joint section.

Thoughts? I could order another bung from Innovate and move it closer to the first slip joint (farther downstream) or just leave it?

 

[mwolson]

The closer you can get it to the exhaust port of the head the better it will work. It depends on the heat from the exhaust to keep the sensor hot enough to work properly. The heater in the sensor is only really intended to get it hot as fast as possible and then it is turned off when the exhaust gas is hot enough to make the sensor work.

If you get the sensor too far from the head, the gasses are too cool to keep the sensor hot enough to work. When that happens, if the circuitry is designed for it, the heater starts going on and off to try to keep it hot enough. But the performance of the sensor degrades when that happens.

This is a particular problem with long tubes, where the collector is so far away from the head. Some racers will compromise by putting the sensor in one of the tubes very close to the head. They only get the gas from one cylinder, but at least it is hot enough to work

I am not sure if your Innovate wideband model has a narrowband output, but if it does (probably) you have the option of doing what I did.

I put the wideband into the stock bung on the driver's side, and then ran the narrowband output to the signal wire of an old O2 sensor connector. When I plug that into the stock O2 sensor connector, the PCM reads the narrowband output of the wideband just as if the wideband were an OEM narrowband sensor. The only other trick you need to do to make that work without generating an O2 heater DTC is to wire a resistor across the heater wires of the old O2 sensor connector. That simulates the heater for when the PCM tests it to see that it is working. It needs to be a 20 ohm, 10 watt resistor: http://www.radioshack.com/10wd20-0-...ype&q=20+ohm&prefv1=10-watt+resistors&start=2

I used one of those metal clamp style paper clips to clamp the resistor to the lip of my crossmember.

I have been running mine that way for years and have even passed CA smog tests every time.

 

[LDC2335]

Your placement sounds like it should work fine. Mine is past the front stock sensors and I think right before the bend...or maybe right after; eitherway yours sounds fine. I'd try it before you go through the work to re-do it.

 

[cbrown9064]

Thanks guys! I wonder why Innovate says 24"? I don't plan on running this at peak EGT. In my carbureted airplane (R182, Lycoming O-540) best power is 125 degrees rich of peak EGT. Best economy is peak EGT. Relating this to cars, we want to be on the rich side of stoich, which you think would be cooler. Anyway...I am going to leave it as is. It is 6" downstream of the front factory sensor. If it fails due to excessive heat, I can worry about it then.

Thanks!
Chris

 

[D2Fresh16]

I have an innovate and used one of the rear ports in my X pipe as I don't use rear 02s. I think a lot of it has to do with the 02 being at the 12 o'clock position or close to it so that condensation doesn't sit on it for long periods of time.

 

[cbrown9064]

I have an innovate and used one of the rear ports in my X pipe as I don't use rear 02s. I think a lot of it has to do with the 02 being at the 12 o'clock position or close to it so that condensation doesn't sit on it for long periods of time.

That, I did do. It is clocked at about 1:30, and where it is located it is also angled downhill. So, a double check against condensation.