Wideband reviews?
Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 12:44 pm
It was recently brought to my attention on the SCT tuning forums that Zeitronix makes the most accurate wideband for the average hot rodder. Asides form the lab grade units which cost several thousand dollars. This was posted by Don Lasota who claims to have tested and used just about every brand there is on his dyno along side the lab grade units and says nothing is nearly as good as Zeitronix.
One important aspect is pressure in the exhaust manifold as it greatly affects what reading your wideband will give. For example the higher pressures at WOT (depending on your particular engine/exhaust setup) may make your sensor read 11.5 AFR but you may in fact only be 11.8. A tuner could then lean out he AF a little to get to what he thinks is 11.8 but has unexpectedly caused a lean condition and a motor that may well blow up. I don't doubt that theory as I read that in my tuning manuals by Greg Banish who's a very accomplished tuner with a very impressive resume including his day job as an OEM EFI calibrator for GM.
One interesting feature available to the Zeitronix is a pressure sensor that you install into the exhaust as well so it can take into consideration the pressure changes and deliver very accurate AF.
Now pressure sensor aside I'm curious as to Don's claims on how much superior it is. I have a lot at stake here so it's definitely perked my interest. I was very busy this winter.
I built up my 03 Cobra. Did a full return fuel system with twin 405 walbro fuel pumps, 80 lb injectors, 2.9 whipple crusher and all supporting mods (TB, mass air etc. etc.) Water/meth injection & nitrous, J&S Vampire anti-knock box etc.. I'm tuning the car myself with SCT's pro racers package and have it very drivable but have not tuned WOT properly yet as it's a handful to drive and attempt to tune. I need an actual dyno since it's somewhere around 650+ whp without the nitrous.
I also built up my buddies 2011 GT 500. I'm actually still wrapping this one up and almost done. Posi port on the blower, smaller pulley, full exhaust including full length headers, had the tranny rebuilt with carbon fiber syncros, twin disk RXT McLeod clutch, water meth injection, nitrous, gauges, Vampire anti-knock and all the misc stuff that goes with it. Also tuning this car myself with SCT's PRP when it's done.
And last but not least I built a turbo'd civic which I'm using as my daily driver. Everything on it is custom built by me pretty much. Running a Precision 53mm turbo. I tuned this one myself using Hondata S300.
Anyhow all three cars above I built this winter are all using dyno jet wideband 2 units. There are claims these units that do not require calibration just use an internal resistor to compensate for certain conditions and sensor age. This worries me. A lot of hard work and money tied up in the above vehicles.
I've asked Don the SCT forums to please shed more light on his claims of how superior the Zeitronix is and how far off these others are? I've also emailed him directly and he just doesn't respond. So I've tried googling around for more info and failing to find any reviews or info that backup what he says.
Anyone have anything to help? links to wideband reviews or otherwise useful info on widebands? Maybe I'm worrying for nothing... maybe not?
Thanks
Malcolm
One important aspect is pressure in the exhaust manifold as it greatly affects what reading your wideband will give. For example the higher pressures at WOT (depending on your particular engine/exhaust setup) may make your sensor read 11.5 AFR but you may in fact only be 11.8. A tuner could then lean out he AF a little to get to what he thinks is 11.8 but has unexpectedly caused a lean condition and a motor that may well blow up. I don't doubt that theory as I read that in my tuning manuals by Greg Banish who's a very accomplished tuner with a very impressive resume including his day job as an OEM EFI calibrator for GM.
One interesting feature available to the Zeitronix is a pressure sensor that you install into the exhaust as well so it can take into consideration the pressure changes and deliver very accurate AF.
Now pressure sensor aside I'm curious as to Don's claims on how much superior it is. I have a lot at stake here so it's definitely perked my interest. I was very busy this winter.
I built up my 03 Cobra. Did a full return fuel system with twin 405 walbro fuel pumps, 80 lb injectors, 2.9 whipple crusher and all supporting mods (TB, mass air etc. etc.) Water/meth injection & nitrous, J&S Vampire anti-knock box etc.. I'm tuning the car myself with SCT's pro racers package and have it very drivable but have not tuned WOT properly yet as it's a handful to drive and attempt to tune. I need an actual dyno since it's somewhere around 650+ whp without the nitrous.
I also built up my buddies 2011 GT 500. I'm actually still wrapping this one up and almost done. Posi port on the blower, smaller pulley, full exhaust including full length headers, had the tranny rebuilt with carbon fiber syncros, twin disk RXT McLeod clutch, water meth injection, nitrous, gauges, Vampire anti-knock and all the misc stuff that goes with it. Also tuning this car myself with SCT's PRP when it's done.
And last but not least I built a turbo'd civic which I'm using as my daily driver. Everything on it is custom built by me pretty much. Running a Precision 53mm turbo. I tuned this one myself using Hondata S300.
Anyhow all three cars above I built this winter are all using dyno jet wideband 2 units. There are claims these units that do not require calibration just use an internal resistor to compensate for certain conditions and sensor age. This worries me. A lot of hard work and money tied up in the above vehicles.
I've asked Don the SCT forums to please shed more light on his claims of how superior the Zeitronix is and how far off these others are? I've also emailed him directly and he just doesn't respond. So I've tried googling around for more info and failing to find any reviews or info that backup what he says.
Anyone have anything to help? links to wideband reviews or otherwise useful info on widebands? Maybe I'm worrying for nothing... maybe not?
Thanks
Malcolm