ok guys i recently put an air fuel guage in my 87 gta and it jumps around like crazy, upon research ive learned that this is because the o2 sensor is a narrow guage, my question is can you put a wide band on a stock ecm without promlems or do you have to do ecm mods and if you do what kind and how hard, and what would be the purpose as far as preformance goes, and one last thing if i were to put a wide band sensor for my guage only what would be a cheap one to use any part numbers would be great
thanks guys

 

you can use Innovate LC1 as a wide band and a narrow band simulator.

 

what is that and what does it do sorry im not trying to be difficult just trying to learn i have no rom burnning experence at all just wrench turning, if you have to program your own rom im not ready for that yet. Let me add i also have noticed when the guage drops to lean or jumps to rich the car idles rough like its not recieving a constant signal like if there is an air gap between the o2 sensor and an exulst stroke the engine is trying to compensate and goes rich trying to correct it self and then drops down lean because it has over compensated.OK heres another thought when you run voltage in parell for instance wiring up two batteries if you hook up the positive to the positive and neg to neg the voltage doesn't change but if you run them in series the voltage goes from 12 to 24. What if you hooked up two narrow o2 sersors one in each side of the motor and run them in parell to the ecm. sense the o2 sensor changes small voltages form like .1 to .9 or something like that and sends them to the ecm. So there for if you run 2 in parell the voltage shouldn't increse there should be a more constant signal to the ecm, and also the guage. Am i crazy or does this make sense because if you think about it the engine is only controling one side of the motor now lets i don't remember the firing order but if 1234 cylinders are on the driver side where the o2 sensor is, when 1 and 3 fire you will get a reading then 2 and 4 but if you had one on each side 1234 5678 you would get a reading when 1 3 5 and 7 fired then 2 4 6 and 8 which to me means the ecu gets better information to make a fuel decision

 

Jstuart, if your O2 gauge you bought is under a 150 bux then you most likely have a narrow band guage. You MIGHT be able to purchase the LC-1 and use its narrow band output to tie into your narrow band guage but that would be a waste of money really. A wide band 02 is best used for DIY tuning or even dyno tuning...but certianly overkill and money wasted just to drive an 02 guage (my )

BTW, most narrow band o2 gauges jump around....my autometer NB guage has been sitting in a spare toolbox for years now because of that.

 

Does this make sense to anybody pleas let me know

 

is your gauge for wide band or narrow band??

 

Its probably like 90% of narrow band guages..a LED "spectrum" that bounces around never really coming to a rest. If it was a wide band guage (most) are better part of 300 bux like the autometer wb's. Yes, you can get a wide band guage with simple LED # read out for under 100 I believe...but you would still need a wide band O2.

 

To explain a bit,
The o2 gauge will bounce because that is how the system works.
The ECM makes the system toggle between rich then lean to try and "average" the correct mixture. If your o2 sensor was to stay at a constant reading (at part throttle driving) it would throw an error code indicating a bad sensor.
For several reasons it is not possible to tie two narrow band sensors into the same input. Not an EE but I'm pretty confident it just won't work due to the level of the signal and the components that read it.
At wide open throttle conditions the o2 sensor may stabilize a bit better but the indication can not be trusted as accurrate. Lots of info on that subject around.
You can add a WB to many ECMs but you need to have the software "code" modified to use it unless you just use it as a substitute for the NB sensor.
Most common ECMs and mask ID's already have a patch or code work done to allow you to see the full range of AFR reading. Like stated above, the WB is a tuning tool, not much good if your not going to be making tuning changes.