The Air Fuel Gauge
The air fuel gauge is a simple one-wire hook-up to the sensor, with +12V and ground wires used for gauge illumination. You should power your gauge from a switched power supply, otherwise the gauge will be lit even when you turn your car off. There are two very important gauges to make sure your car is equipped with, they are an accurate Boost gauge and an Air Fuel Gauge.
With the addition of Boost gauge and air fuel gauge one can measure the boost and fuel requirement of one’s car before any changes are made. Therefore one has an idea of what upgrades have to be made to allow the fuel system to deliver the extra fuel to support the higher planned boost levels or a better flowing intake system. Let us discuss the boost gauge briefly and then we will get in to the details of air fuel gauge.
Apart from the air fuel gauge, boost gauge is another type. The boost gauge is needed because most factory boost gauges are not exact or derive their readings from other methods other than direct manifold pressure. When making changes to the engine, such as intake or exhaust work, that can increase the boost levels it is very important to have an accurate boost gauge because one or two psi beyond what the factory fuel system can supply can cause serious damage to the internals of your engine especially if you have the factory boost cut out defeated. When installing the after market boost gauge in an intercooled car it is commonly agreed that it should get its source of pressure from the intake manifold itself. On a non-intercooled car the source can be from an output source on the compressor side of the turbo or an intake manifold source. Both of these methods will give your accurate readings of boost pressure in the intake manifold. Now with the accurate boost gauge you can tell exactly what your boost level.Now let us consider the air fuel gauge.
The next gauge that every turbo enthusiast should have is an air fuel ratio gauge. An air fuel ratio gauge will tell you what fuel ratio your motor is running at the various boost levels. This is very important because without adequate fuel, higher boost levels will destroy the internals of your motor. The damage occurs when not enough fuel is being delivered therefore causing the motor to run lean which in turn causes detonation and extremely high combustion chamber temperatures. The detonation alone can cause pistons to crack and apply undo stress to the rods and crank and so on. The high combustion temperatures can actually melt pistons. Usually the top of the pistons as well as the ring lands will melt away causing extreme blow by and excessive crankcase pressures which can blow seals out of the motor and the end result will be lose of oil and oil pressure. Normally detonation and extreme combustion temperatures occur together during a lean condition, so you can imagine the damage that can occur. The air fuel ratio gauge should be installed before any changes are made so that a baseline in regards to fuel delivery can be established.
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