i put in a air/fuel guage this past weekend because i am wanting to fine tune my engine and it is running in the middle of the rich section of the gauge. What are ways to bring down the amount of fuel into the engine, other than reseting the ecu. if i were to advance the timing would that have any effect? <–i am going to do that anyway
Does anyone know how to lean out the car a bit? Is there an adjustment? I think I’m running rich too.
I too
I too am running too damn rich. Super Street had an article on air/fuel systems and they said its better to run rich than lean for combustion purposes. Running lean could make your engine blow up. BUt running oo rich makes engine components dirty due to the large amount of fuel left in the combustion chamber.But our problem is that we’re always rich. As loong as I had my air/fuel gauge, I never seen it go lean (in the red) at all. NEVER…Worried me for a sec. My friend has a 99 Civic and his guage reads perfect, from lean to rich. When he comes off the gas it goes to lean, and steps on it goes to rich. To solve this problem, I’ve heard to check your fuel pressure.
Re: I too
Originally posted by groc97
I too am running too damn rich. Super Street had an article on air/fuel systems and they said its better to run rich than lean for combustion purposes. Running lean could make your engine blow up. BUt running oo rich makes engine components dirty due to the large amount of fuel left in the combustion chamber.But our problem is that we’re always rich. As loong as I had my air/fuel gauge, I never seen it go lean (in the red) at all. NEVER…Worried me for a sec. My friend has a 99 Civic and his guage reads perfect, from lean to rich. When he comes off the gas it goes to lean, and steps on it goes to rich. To solve this problem, I’ve heard to check your fuel pressure.
hey, thanks for the info. checking the fuel pressure was my first thought but i dont think i have an adjustable fuel pressure regulator (at least i dont think they came stock on the tegs). so my next thought was to spark sooner in the combustion chamber, but then i realized that wouldnt make a difference because the same amount of fuel would still be introduced into the chamber.
also you said you have an a/f gauge, is it common for the gauge to go from all the way off the lean to the upper stoich at a constant rythm? like the engine starts to put too much fuel and then almost cuts all fuel off?
cool, I’ll check my fuel pressure too. I started noticing the car running a little sluggish and more black deposits on the exhaust tip and bumper.
Skandalous,
yes its normal… when it bounces back and forth, you’re just seeing the ecu making changes to your a/f mixture to keep the correct a/f ratio.
theres a few ways to change your a/f ratio…to be a little leaner…
first and probably the cheapest is the adjustable fuel pressure regulator… (B&M command flo fuel pressure regulator modifier costs approx $60)
by lowering your fuel pressure, you’ll lean out your ratio… but, in doing so, you also lean it out throughout your whole rpm range. this isnt always a good idea.
the other ways are a bit more expensive…
Super Air fuel Controller (S-AFC)… they cost about $320 or so…
from what i understand about the safc is that you can change your a/f ratio at any given rpm.
Hondata stage II ecu upgrade. cost about $260 and you’ll have someone with a hondata stage 4 to tune your stage II ecu… (tuning will definately cost you more money)
the best way is just get a hondata stage 4 system… but you’re gonna pay about $850 for it. but then you’ll be able to completely tune your car.
its all on how much you want to spend.
another thing… MoteC with wide band o2 sensor these cost about $1300… but will give you much more accurate readings of your air fuel ratio.
… i really dont know much about the MoTeC yet. or the safc for that matter. i’m in the process of researching this as i’m in need of something to lean out my car at idle with these agressive cams i have.
maybe someone here with experience on the safc and/or motec can shed some more light on the topic.
thanks for some more info 93integraRS, you have given me some ideas to go on.
Thanks 93.
Do you guys think a old fuel pump could be contributing to this problem?
If not, I’m going with a S-AFC. My brother has on in his DSM he might not be needing soon!
if it were your fuel pump, most likely it wouldnt be putting out as much pressure which would mean you would be running Lean…
also your fuel pressure regulator tries to keep your fuel pressure constant… the only way it wouldnt , is if it were defective or the fuel pump wasnt making enuf pressure…
another interesting thought…
i’m finding out right now, but i think if i were to go with a Safc, i wouldnt need a FPR.
Re: I too
Originally posted by groc97
But our problem is that we’re always rich. As loong as I had my air/fuel gauge, I never seen it go lean (in the red) at all. NEVER … To solve this problem, I’ve heard to check your fuel pressure.
You have an issue on your hands. Either you didn’t install the A/F guage sender wire on the right O2 wire, your fuel pressure is high, or your O2 sensor needs replacing. Are you throughing any CEL/MIL codes?
To Skandalous, is your gauge showing lean as you decelerate? If it does this is normal. Do you have the Autometer variety A/F gauge? They are not terribly accurate, and will most likely show gross lean and rich the majority of the time and as such, unfortunately don’t show how rich you might be. It will always show rich on your gauge upon acceleration. A more acurate gauge would be the MoTec/Lambda varaity, although as pointed out by 93integraRS, are rather expesive for the average person.
Lean, yeah right!
When I decelerate, it doesnt go all the way down to lean but does go to Stoich. I was thinking about my O2 sensor also. I hate to do some of these thing and it not be the problem so what do I do first? O2, Fuel Pressure?
my personal opinion is new o2 sensor… you can get a bosch o2 sensor for reasonable ,78$ from schucks, for 93 teg (remember obd1)
if u have bad o2 sensor, no matter what, ur gonna have problems.