Most of us have used the tried...
Most of us have used the tried and true method of reading spark plugs and changing carburetor jets to tune the mixture in our engine.
There’s an old saying in engine tuning that when adjusting the mixture of your engine you can be too rich a bunch of times, but only too lean once. With that in mind, determining the air-fuel ratio (also called the mixture) of your engine can be critical to the power it makes, how economically it runs, and how long it will last. Fortunately, if the engine in your Mopar is stock, you probably don’t have to worry too much about the air/fuel ratio because the factory has taken care of it for you by installing the appropriately sized and tuned carburetor (or fuel injection system). But if your engine has been modified with the addition of an aftermarket carb, intake, cam, heads, or variety of other performance parts, you need to adjust the air/fuel ratio to match your engine’s needs.
Now Innovate Motorsports offers...
Now Innovate Motorsports offers a more accurate method.
Any time you modify your engine, you are changing its efficiency to burn fuel and air and provide horsepower and torque. So when it comes to induction, most of us take an initial educated guess at how big the carb should be, jetting sizes, and ignition timing. Most of us try to jet the carburetor a little rich at first, using conservative timing settings as well and sneaking up on the proper tune from the safe side. When it comes to determining the air/fuel ratio of the engine, we read the spark plugs, but spark plug reading is more of an art than science, and new plugs may need several hundred miles to season, telling you if the mixture is generally lean or generally rich, but not telling you in which phase of engine operation the condition occurs. Fortunately, Innovate Motorsports has several great products to determine air/fuel ratio the most accurate way, electronically.
Determining the proper air/fuel...
Determining the proper air/fuel ratio for your engine can be done the difficult way, by guessing and reading the plugs, or by the use of modern technology. Taking advantage of the latest oxygen sensor technology, Innovate Motorsports offers several electronic instruments that take the guesswork out of engine tuning.
While the ideal ratio of air to fuel in an internal combustion gasoline engine varies somewhat from engine to engine and fuel to fuel, there is a range of what we call normal operation for high-performance applications. Through determining their chemical composition, all fuels are assigned what is called a stoichiometric air to fuel ratio, with 14.7:1 being the perfect value determined for pure gasoline. All gasolines have varying properties and additives, however, varying the ideal ratio of air to fuel necessary to make an engine perform properly and make its peak power. It is commonly accepted that most Mopar V-8 engines respond to an air/fuel ratio somewhere between 12.5 to 13.2 parts air to every one part of fuel, or a ratio of 12.5:1 to 13.2:1, and being able to determine that ratio is the key to optimum performance.
Innovate Motorsports offers several kits and supporting products that will determine, and even record the air/fuel ratio of your engine. These instruments work whether the engine is on the dyno or in your car, and are accurate and easy to install. By installing an oxygen sensor (also known as a lambda sensor) in the exhaust of your car (or dyno exhaust), you can plug into either an Innovate portable handheld meter, data-logger, or permanently mounted gauge, and read the air-fuel ratio in real time. These meters offer LM-2 technology, allowing for fast response and the data-logger models also allow the recording of data for playback, letting you see exactly when the car is in a rich or lean condition throughout its operating range. We used the Innovate handheld model in a recent dyno session and had great results, watching real-time air-fuel ratio data and determining where the engine could be tuned for a better mixture, but could have easily done the same with the engine installed in a car.
Modern fuel-injected engines...
Modern fuel-injected engines are tuned automatically by onboard computers or can be re-tuned through aftermarket downloaders, this same technology allows you to read real-time air/fuel ratio information even if your car is carbureted.
The Innovate air/fuel instruments...
The Innovate air/fuel instruments are easy to use and install, starting with welding an oxygen sensor bung in the exhaust as shown here in the dyno cell. You’ll need to install the same provision in your exhaust by drilling a hole in the header or exhaust pipe, then welding this piece in place. If you don’t have the equipment, an exhaust shop can do this for you in just a few minute.
Using the supplied cord, the...
Using the supplied cord, the oxygen sensor is plugged into a handheld unit, onboard diagnostic unit...
... or simple automotive gauge...
... or simple automotive gauge to read air/fuel information precisely and display it in an easy-to-read method.
We found the Innovate air/fuel...
We found the Innovate air/fuel system to work great on the dyno, allowing us to see exactly where in the rpm range our engine was running rich or lean and make the appropriate adjustment to the mixture. This tool is invaluable for those of us who still use carburetors, as well as useful to monitor a newer car’s fuel injection system.
Innovate Motorsports has several...
Innovate Motorsports has several options when it comes to monitoring the air/fuel ratio of your engine, including data-loggers as well as simple gauges. Check out their website,
innovatemotorsports.com, to see which product would work best for your Mopar or next engine build.