Wide band for street use/tuning?

[SuperSix]

Is a good wideband a valuable tool for tuning a new engine install? Or are they best suited for cars that see mostly track time?

[earlbrown]

It's good to have PERIOD!


They aren't just for track tuning, they can also help with gas mileage, watching trends for anomalies, making cool looking graphs on powerlogger, and dragging in bitches.



Bitches love widebands.

[SuperSix]

Bitches love them?

* SuperSix clicks "Order Now" button.

[Steve Wood]

The more I play with them...the less use I find for them

If I were tuning something that could be adjusted throughout the rpm band for all loads, then yes. 

[Shimy87]

The more I play with them...the less use I find for them

If I were tuning something that could be adjusted throughout the rpm band for all loads, then yes. 

Widebands or bitches?

[Steve Wood]

both

[SuperSix]

Steve has 99 problems, but a bitch ain't one.

[Steve Wood]

Not any more...got the bitches out of my life but I have a couple of damn nice friends

[SuperSix]

Whoooooooooooo!  Weeded out the riff-raff.

[tb3]

The more I play with them...the less use I find for them

If I were tuning something that could be adjusted throughout the rpm band for all loads, then yes. 

Do you say that because the performance and efficiancy gains are generally very minimal or not enough to usually amount to anything, in (most) our applications?

[Steve Wood]

non existant as far as I am concerned...th ink about it...how do you tune for max performance... there are no magic numbers that are "right"

You tune til you see some knock retard and then add a little fuel beyond the point where it goes away for safety.

How do you tune for maximum mpg?  You keep leaning it out until it surges lightly going up a hill.  Then you add some fuel until the surge goes away plus a little more to account for ambient conditions.

Now if you have  a programmable system with a 3d fueling map, a wideband can help you fill in the blanks between specific points, but on the average car with the factory ecm....nope

[tb3]

but what about when running at higher boost with alky or race gas? 
at higher boost levels, when margin of error gets more and more critical.... any ability to adjust the fuel equation (tt or similiar chip, adj fpr, maf translator, nozzles, injector sizes, etc.... could be aided by a wideband that is showing you much more finite info than a 02 sensor?
or am I going way overboard with my logic?  lol!
You may end up causing me to sell my wide band from my 84 instead of transferring it to my 87.  lol   
 
 

[Steve Wood]

You are going to drown in that logic/

Alky actually gives you more tolerance from my experience and if you add 2% more fuel with a programmable chip...that is close to  0.2 A/F

Again, there are no magic numbers!  You tune to the edge of detonation and then add a little bit back in...say 2-3% on the street and 1-2% on the strip where ambient conditions are generally more constant.

The street covers a lot more varying conditions so the margin should be larger, imo.

I have seen a couple of cases in the past year where the fuel pump was failing but the owners were just adding more alky without wondering why they needed more alky and were looking at the wb and calling it good.  I noticed the factory o2s were looking strange even tho the wb was saying it was the same a/f as before.

[motorhead]

Unlike most people I do have accessible fuel maps (aka VE tables) in all of my cars so a WB02 is a must for dialing in the needs of an engine.

For the casual guy who doesn't have any interest in being a mad scientist it isn't required past the point of initial tune setup as Steve indicated.  A WBO2 is a tool, and like any tool it is only as useful as the guy using it.

Same deal with pressure transducers.

[Scoobum]

Grudge racing my car I set it up to run 11.5...and for bracket racing 7.1 for the Sportsman class. All I use is narrow band. WB isn't a magic elixir. This is what I've witnessed over the years. Most are tuning only for high gear...and at the top of the track is where most engines let go cuz they're at their leanest. If you're not tuning for low gear...then you're leaving a shitload on the table. This is my thot. Let the turbo/boost and the 3.42's haul you down the track for high gear. Leave Erics chip on the default settings...and make a run with PL. Come back to the pits and have a look at the 02's for low gear...1st and 2nd. What you'll see...is pig rich. Pull the 02's down below 800 for low gear...and watch the car haul it's ass through the 1/8th. Add a little timing to low gear...and then make a run. It'll sink your eyes in the back of your head. The other thing...is get some seat time practising launching.