AFR Gauges

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Texas Red

Texas Red

Old Flunky
FABO Gold Member
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Is anyone running A.F.R. Gauges and what brand is working for you?????? Once upon a time I run a Fi-tek on my Duster only to have it fail after a very short time of running it.......(Disaster)........ The Fi-tek only monitored one bank in the engine as reference to the AFR for total engine Air Fuel Ratio control of the fuel injection system ............
To give everyone what my 1/4 of a brain cell is flopping around inside my head is my Engine has the Indy aluminum heads with a matching single plane intake manifold.
I went back to carburation after the Fi-Tek disaster and after plug reading several times have been totally convinced a man does need to be reading both banks for accuracy as the Fi-Tek was monitoring the overall AFR ...Yes I get it but programmed to keep that engine at a 14:1 or the close to that number. Under this condition my plug reading was showing all the outer cylinders were leaner than the inside cylinders .....................
The plugs in the car with the Fi-Tek being run on it in cylinders #1 & #7 and #2 & #8 had a almost brand-new look to them in comparison to the #4 & #6 or #3 & #5 cylinders..........

FAST FORWARD
Now that a new Holley 750 carb is back on the car ...ALL the plugs look much better (Light chocolate color) telling me the AFR is much better with All cylinders in a much better visual inspection and throttle response is much better.
This still does not tell me numbers ........... but does tell me my engine is running more in the 13:1 rather than the 14:1 or leaner the way the i-Tek was controlling it.
I don't want to buy any junk, crap nor R & D everything Summit offers ........... Someday I will tell everyone my Fi-Tek disaster story a HUGE WASTE OF $1200.00 not
including the frustration level that was off the charts. ............Thanks everyone Texas Red.......
 
Yeah, I have one in my '68 F250 (390 and an 1850 Holley), but I don't recall the brand. Pretty sure I bought it at Summit, and as a tuning aid (LH bank only) it allowed me to make the truck run great. Truck is in storage now, but I have to do some winterizing soon (this weekend, possibly), so I'll take a look and re-post/re-respond later.
 
Sorry for the slow response! Not only have I been busier than a one-handed paperhanger, but I also had a helluva time finding this thread so I could respond, as I kept searching for "air fuel", etc. instead of "AFR".

Anyway, I'm running this in my '68 F250:
www.summitracing.com

AutoMeter 3379 AutoMeter Sport-Comp Digital Gauges | Summit Racing

Free Shipping - AutoMeter Sport-Comp Digital Gauges with qualifying orders of $109. Shop Gauges at Summit Racing.
www.summitracing.com www.summitracing.com

No special reason why I chose this one over the others, other than looks (I have a matching vacuum gauge mounted right next to it), and while it helped me dial-in my 1850 Holley, I will freely admit that I stole some of the initial settings (jets, etc) from Roadkill's "Tater Truck" episode to get me in the ballpark, as their 390 seems to be very similar to mine.

 
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I use one... AEM is what I have. I know I'll get blasted for this, but it is much easier for me to tune the car than reading plugs. I look for mid to low 14.0 for idle and cruise which is what I have and at WOT, I want at least in the mid 12.0 range to be safe and then tune from there. ALL newer cars use O2 sensors to run their programming so how wrong can I be... Puts on Kevlar/Nomex shirt...
 
Texas Red said:
Is anyone running A.F.R. Gauges and what brand is working for you?????? Once upon a time I run a Fi-tek on my Duster only to have it fail after a very short time of running it.......(Disaster)........ The Fi-tek only monitored one bank in the engine as reference to the AFR for total engine Air Fuel Ratio control of the fuel injection system ............
To give everyone what my 1/4 of a brain cell is flopping around inside my head is my Engine has the Indy aluminum heads with a matching single plane intake manifold.
I went back to carburation after the Fi-Tek disaster and after plug reading several times have been totally convinced a man does need to be reading both banks for accuracy as the Fi-Tek was monitoring the overall AFR ...Yes I get it but programmed to keep that engine at a 14:1 or the close to that number. Under this condition my plug reading was showing all the outer cylinders were leaner than the inside cylinders .....................
The plugs in the car with the Fi-Tek being run on it in cylinders #1 & #7 and #2 & #8 had a almost brand-new look to them in comparison to the #4 & #6 or #3 & #5 cylinders..........

FAST FORWARD
Now that a new Holley 750 carb is back on the car ...ALL the plugs look much better (Light chocolate color) telling me the AFR is much better with All cylinders in a much better visual inspection and throttle response is much better.
This still does not tell me numbers ........... but does tell me my engine is running more in the 13:1 rather than the 14:1 or leaner the way the i-Tek was controlling it.
I don't want to buy any junk, crap nor R & D everything Summit offers ........... Someday I will tell everyone my Fi-Tek disaster story a HUGE WASTE OF $1200.00 not
including the frustration level that was off the charts. ............Thanks everyone Texas Red.......
Click to expand...

Also running the Innovate, and have been running it full time in my daily driver for years with zero problems.
I run a dual plane intake, so I get sort of a overall from one sensor.

IMG_5819.jpeg


IMG_5395.jpeg
 
I'm running an Innovate setup in my Duster. It really should be used as an aid and AFR verified with a plug reading every now and then. Don't get too caught up in the numbers themselves, give the engine what it wants. It was a godsend for me though I learned a lot about tuning once I started using one; since leearning the relationship between AFR and how an engine "feels" I can comfortably tune other vehicles (like my D200) without needing a wideband and AFR gauge. It's also really nice to be able to see instant real-time changes in AFR with changes in ambient conditions and can also be a way to tell if the engine is experiencing an issue. Sudden over-rich readings indicate dead cylinder or misfire, lean readings indicate fuel delivery issues or vacuum leaks etc.

Something I haven't yet done but would like to is data logging so you can see the AFR changes over time. It can be kind of hard (and unsafe) to constantly watch the gauge while doing a WOT run lol.
 
I have AEM. They are a tool or aid to me, not gospel. They don't like rich, you'll be replacing sensors a lot. You have to do both banks, or you only know one side. Having said that, I am running a Sixpack.
 
MopaR&D said:
I'm running an Innovate setup in my Duster. It really should be used as an aid and AFR verified with a plug reading every now and then. Don't get too caught up in the numbers themselves, give the engine what it wants. It was a godsend for me though I learned a lot about tuning once I started using one; since leearning the relationship between AFR and how an engine "feels" I can comfortably tune other vehicles (like my D200) without needing a wideband and AFR gauge. It's also really nice to be able to see instant real-time changes in AFR with changes in ambient conditions and can also be a way to tell if the engine is experiencing an issue. Sudden over-rich readings indicate dead cylinder or misfire, lean readings indicate fuel delivery issues or vacuum leaks etc.

Something I haven't yet done but would like to is data logging so you can see the AFR changes over time. It can be kind of hard (and unsafe) to constantly watch the gauge while doing a WOT run lol.
Click to expand...
If you do data logging, it would be a good idea to daisy-chain it to one of Innovate's other modules, assuming you aren't running EFI (which would have its own logging). You'd at least want throttle position or a MAP sensor and RPM input.
 
I've been thinkin about gettin one for Vixen. Any advice on something affordable for a one bank (slant 6) engine?
 
RustyRatRod said:
I've been thinkin about gettin one for Vixen. Any advice on something affordable for a one bank (slant 6) engine?
Click to expand...
Same recommendations as above. Some of the repop slant six manifolds already have an O2 sensor bung that's OK if you are not running a turbo. If you are using headers or a turbo, you'll need to weld in a bung, no big deal. The biggest "gotcha" is that you'll need to give it a good ground. Don't run the ground wire to the sheet metal; ideally you will want to ground it to the battery, with the block being an OK alternative. And if it has a separate control module and gauge, you must ground them to the same point.
 
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