Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods a/f gauge acting weird

thats some really good info stazi, thanks. but i have a question...if i am runnin gutted manifold cats and have fakeys in place, would that make the gauge even more worthless? i have the air/fuel gauge myself, of a different brand but all the same theoretically, and have been watching posts to find the best spot to wire into and now im wondering if all i have is a "lightshow" myself
also, i dont understand tapping into the red/white wire coming off the front bank because you should be reading both signals for accuracy right? or would that need 2 gauges to monitor both banks? and when i did my trans i notced that the water pump wire was red/white so that had me concerned too

Gutted manifolds or not the A/F gauge still works the same way, so long as you tapped the upstream sensor - which by your color description of the wire - you did.

As for running an A/F guage, I suggest you send your gauge to gadgetseller.com and have him modify it so that it's resolution is narrower and thus more useful for you to diagnose your true A/F ratio. Granted, the O2 sensor is not wideband, but nonetheless, at least you will be one step close to seeing what your A/F ratio turly is.

they will actually re-cal the gauge itself
then i will look into it for sure. thanks

Yes, they do or you can buy one already recalibrated directly from them. It then reads from 0.7V to 1.0V with each LED representing 0.1V increments so you can fine tune your A/F ratio more accurately. From Autometer each LED represents 0.5V so the last 3 LED's are the only real useful ones and then that's innaccurate in itself as there is a world of difference between 0.90V and 0.95V for example - especially when you are looking to hit 0.92V at WOT for max power (safely) on the SVT.

ok another question...
i found my red/white wire and traced it back into a bigger wire loom coming out into 3 different plugs by the passenger side firewall. BUT there is one red/white wire in the top plug and one in the bottom plug and i didnt feel like running the wire all the way to the front of the car so i tapped into the top one and im getting full rich at idle which leads me to think that im obviously getting more than a 1volt signal and thats the wrong wire. that would lead me to the next red/white wire but i dont want to be wrong again and have electrical tape everywhere

Just try the other one....