I will soon be tuning my 89 GTA using the Autoprom and TunerPro RT. My engine will be putting out around 375 horse so i will definately need to do some tuning. Will I need to use a Wide Band O2 sensor, I will not be using a scanner, just my laptop to datalog, I think that is the way i want to do it, i am new to custom tuning. I know that alot of guys have used a wideband with a gauge to check AFR, but will i need to do that since i am datalogging with tunerpro rt.

 

There has been debate on the accuracy of WB02's, often conflicting with the scan results and narrow band readouts. I believe they are more accurate though, and using them to compare to the NB, and comparing all collected data from scans can only help you get a better end result.

 

For a bigginer a WB is EXTREMELY helpfull. I wouldn't worry about the inacuracy that SBNOVA mentioned. It's really not within the realm of what a beginner needs to worry about.

Your narrow band or stock O2 sensor only reads 14.7 and can't tell you any more than that. Where guys get into trouble is they try to use it to tune WOT at richer mixtures than 14.7 they just can't do it. Thats where a WB comes in. It can read anywhere between 10 to 1 all the way up to 20 to 1. One of the biggest lessons you have to learn when tuning anything is that all sensors can lie and often times they do. You have to learn to look at the big picture and take into acount all the factors. Don't get too wrapped up in exact numbers (ie: 12.8 to 1 AFR) give the motor what it wants. If you have the money for a WB get it, it trully is a powerful tool when used correctly.

As for a scanner/datalogger, tunerpro is awsome, but there are others out there. Most WB's come with their own type of datalogging software. Just choose the one that is going to give you the most info. Tunerpro will tell you everything thats going on in your ecm. If you can get your WB signal in with the rest of the data thats the best way to do it, that way you can correlate certain afr numbers with other sensor readings. As of right now there is no way for my to do this with my particular ecm, so I use my data logger for part throttle tuning and use my WB with it's logging software for WOT and pump shot tuning. You'll have to do some research for your particular ecm.

 

On an '89, aren't you using a 730 ECM? If so (I do on my 91, but it's speed density and you're probably a MAF), it's actually fairly easy to get the WBO2 routed to an unused input on the ECM. Then you can apply a patch and be able to log the WB AFR at the same time as everything else in TunerPro.

I say this from experience, I'm still a relative newbie and even I was able to do it with a little help from these boards. (Thanks Craig and Mangus!!!)

 

My 89 has the stock 165 $6E ecm.

 

Sorry. Don't know much about those ECMs yet or about hooking in the WB output. But I imagine someone on here does....