Lambda Sensor

[nelmo]

While talking to a specialist tuner about getting my Emerald ECU mapped to my Zetec, he said that a Lambda sensor is essential; not necessarily to get the required emissions (although he said it would be much easier) but to protect the cat long-term. He reckoned i'd kill the cat in 'no time' without a sensor.

 

Is this true?

 

I haven't got one fitted at present and I wasn't going to, mainly because I don't understand what it really does or how to set it up. I thought you just had to adjust the map through the Emerald software.

[Guest lotusPaul]

Emerald now do a high spec wide band o2 senser and wiring solution. Just having mine fitted now.

 

To answer the question of its setup correctly then the o2 is just a tool to display your mixture ratio or to allow full closed loop management.

 

A rich mixture will ruin the cat early for sure but any tuner will be able to tune it out for sure.

 

I think he's bluffing his case a but, but on other hand I'd defo get one fitted because you can run the closed loop learning functions

[Bob Tucker]

A guy who ran in Street Eliminator last year had a new ECU in his car....IIRC a MOTEC.

 

He setup his car with a guesstimate of the fueling and ignition. Each run checked

EGT & CO2 & adjusted the map. After 3 runs it had set up an all but perfect map.

 

But the cost was eye watering....

[richyb66]

I would think that a perfect map for an 8 second run down the strip would be quite different to a street drive car where you’re dealing with far more potential throttle load and engine speed conditions. Typical road driving involves mostly lower rpm and light throttle loads compare to balancing maximum power vs available grip on the strip. On the Emerald ECU the adaptive mapping will monitor the AFR via the lambda sensor and compare that value to the AFR stored in the ECU map. It them applies an adaption percentage to the injector timing to bring the actual AFR in line with the stored values. This is done in real time and base map isn’t changed.

 

I’m running Emerald and using an Innovate wideband sensor to provide feedback and the Innovate also displays the AFR figure numerically. It’s interesting to see how the AFR changes under differing load conditions and how the figure settles once a constant load and rpm is reached. Adding the lambda sensor and using it to provide feedback does add cost but at least you have the confidence that if the fueling does start to drift for some reason, the ECU will attempt to correct things before any damage is done.

[theduck]

For the sake of £128 (spartan2 from extra efi)it doesn't make sense not to fit one as having one has.lots of benefits.