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AEM "UEGO" wideband o2 sensor and AFR gauge for carb tuning on modified engines

Chuck78

Forum Sage
Past Site Supporter
AEM "UEGO" wideband o2 sensor and AFR gauge for carb tuning on modified engines

Just wanted to put in a plug for a very helpful $165 tuning tool that I had first read about from BoontonMike's GS550 673cc barebones street racer thread. I decided to forego a lot of the other wideband o2 sensor setups, as they required expensive controllers and/or were not a simple Air-Fuel-Ratio gauge readout, and the price was definitely right on this. It is more tailored for car installations (dash mount gauge with no pod, very long wiring harness), but is a very useful tool in getting your jetting in the ballpark without ever having to do plug chops or even pull your spark plugs to read them (until you get your mains close to 12.8-13.2 AFR, still need to read WOT plug chop then to confirm).

I made a quick aluminum mounting plate for this gauge to clamp to my GS650GT upper triple's elevated handlebar mounts (my stocker would not have had the height to keep the back of the gauge off of the center bolt that goes into the lower triple's steering stem). This worked pretty well, although the gauge being tilted back more would have made the VERY FAST high speed acceleration wide open throttle main jet readings a bit safer and easier.

The only complaint with this is that I had to go to Jeg's High Performance store and get a $6 threaded plug for the weld-in o2 bung, as I didn't want this as a permanent install. Other downside is that I have not looked into a tailpipe inserted clamp on sensor as the LM1 wideband o2 setup has as an option, so I got an extra o2 bung and plug from Jeg's for $9.99 for my spare bike parts pile project or my wife's 550-673cc project with gixxer/katana carbs.

Instantly I was able to determine that I was a slight bit rich at idle, and very rich all across the board, never getting above 11:1 on acceleration or cruising, only decel. This told me I needed a lower fuel level by raising the float heights, lower the needles half or 1 clip slot, reduce my main size a few sizes down, as well as turn in my pilot fuel screws or drop my pilot jet from 17.5 to 15. This was so quick and simple, literally just a 3 minute warm up and then cruise for 3 minutes to determine air fuel mixture at all throttle positions.


In the picture of my just-welded o2 bung, you can see I snapped it immediately after welding, as the bung is still glowing red hot! Due to the exhaust being 16 gauge or so metal and the bung being 1/8" or 3/16" thick, I pre-heated the bung with my oxy-acetylene torches red hot, which made it expand so much that it no longer fit in the loose fitting hole I drilled in my vance and hines muffler's mid-pipe section, so I let it cool slightly, tapped it in the hole, and then heated it red hot again. Then away with the millermatic 185 180amp mig welder set on the recommended settings for 1/8" steel with .023 wire and 75/25 argon co2 mix. I did two quick tac welds 180 apart and then welded it real quickly, focusing the arc puddle mostly on the bung, and just dashing it down to the thinner exhaust real quick and then back, as to not melt a hole through the thinner of the two metals (exhaust). Worked pretty darn well.

Photos:

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The sensor mounted nicely under my swingarm where the center stand used to be, and the weld on the muffler in the center made me not mount it horizontally, so I acidentally mounted it as the instructions (that I did not read!) said, 10 degrees or more up from horizontal - so condensation does not collect on the sensor, but rather drains down and off the end. I wired it off of my Dyna-S power feed wire, so that if my kill switch is in the run position, the sensor and gauge are powered. You must not run the engine with the sensor installed but not powered up, as they have a heating element to keep them to proper temperature, otherwise the sensor would soot up and not function. Therefore I have a small heating element's electrical drain on the system if I leave the kill switch and ignition switch on with the engine not running, but saves me from fouling the expensive Bosch wideband o2 sensor.

Overall I am very happy with this. The only downfall is the welding part, but I am totally capable of welding, and am totally fine with having a bung and threaded plug in my exhaust. I painted it with POR-20 hi-temp exhaust paint, as well as a road rashed area of my used vance and hines muffler. Works AWESOME!

Once warmed up, rough figures for an air cooled carbeureted engine would idle anywhere from 10:1 (hot cams) or for more efficient engines at idle, 12-13.5, for half throttle to 3/4, richer aroun 12-13.4, and high rpm wide open throttle 12.8 (max torque)-13.2 (max hp on mains) (richer for hot running high compression engines on the mains), and in the mid 13's for low throttle cruising. tune the stumbles out of the throttle movements from there. The default display on power up shows 14.8 - the perfect stoichiometric afr, this is not ideal for an air cooled engine, but is closer for a water cooled engine, and more pertinent for a water cooled car engine.

Hope this helps. It is a HUGE time saver that eliminates so many plug chops and plug readings...
 

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fyi, UEGO Sensor = Universal Exhaust Gas Oxygen Sensor

shopping

https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...8.3&ei=p1HUU9rAMcOhyASJ8ICwCw&ved=0CGIQpiswAA

That's the Innovate brand tailpipe clamp at $70 & up. Looks to me like their setup is pretty much the same as the AEM, and then you buy this venturi-effect tailpipe mount for the same Bosch wideband o2 sensor, and the sensor is just sticking up in the air at the end of the exhaust. The weld-in midpipe location seems to me like it would be more accurate, but this should work with the AEM as well as the Innovate LM1 or LM2 setup (all basically the same style of AFR setup).


Innovate's setups are similar,
G4 analog gauge with Bosch sensor and harness, $200:
shopping

https://www.google.com/shopping/product/13920467280464195771?q=LC-1+G4+Innovate&safe=off&client=ubuntu&hs=vdE&channel=fs&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.71778758,d.aWw,pv.xjs.s.en_US.JrJfHfJxu8c.O&biw=1280&bih=824&tch=1&ech=1&psi=xE_UU7zQA8KjyATJ8IHgBQ.1406422892993.3&ei=z0_UU_DuKMyqyASho4LIAQ&ved=0CHoQpiswAg


Innovate 3844 setup (same price and style as the AEM that I got, $160):
shopping

https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...6.3&ei=lFDUU6HrI8mdyASchICoAg&ved=0CGoQpiswAQ

Innovate 3795 setup, $165:
$T2eC16dHJG!FFmuQ5n)kBRqRuO5f7g~~60_35-500x500.JPG

http://streetrays.com/newstore/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=6222




The first 10 minutes of starting the bike up and taking it for a spin around the neighborhood proved this type of setup to be extremely useful and a huge time saver for carb jetting and tuning on modified engines/intakes&exhausts, so I hope this can help out others as well.
 
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Not even a comparison to a colortune. I agree you can basically change more than one thing t a time because you have AFR measurements ate different throttle positions for the same setup. WB02 Only way to go. I found that a a long up hill was best for a faster bike. It allows the bike to settle down at a given throttle position.
 
Yes, a VERYBIG HILL! I was having a hard enough time doing WOT main jet plug chops up a long hill on the gs850 pistons. As rich as my initial run was, it still pulled faster at WOT from 6000-9000 rpm literally in the blink of an eye, & I think plug chops at WOT would be dangerously fast. The 850 piston'd gs750 was pushing 100mph trying to do an uphill 7-9 second plug chop, and I always felt the bike would do 0-60 less than 4 seconds and 0-90 in about 7 seconds... This 10:1 920cc gs750 setup would definitely be beyond many people's "safe" limits trying to do WOT plug chops. The wideband will let you see a muchquicker reading and not have you trying to hit the kill switch pull in the clutch and close the throttle all exactly simultaneously... Gets tricky at 100mph
 
The color tune was a great $40 used investment, but only works for idle and transitioning to low speed cruising. For $110-125 more, you get readings at all throttle ranges in one quick run, and no worries of doing multiple plug chops at several diffetent throttle positions each... Very good
 
Excellent bit of gear. They've just about halved in price the past couple of years, to the extent I'm now seriously considering one. Actually, I've been wanting one for a while, but the former price put me off.
I bought a cheapy AF gauge and hoped that I could find a WB sensor at a reasonable price - looks like the cost of them must be dropping, although some of the tuning and speed shops continue to charge ripoff money for them.

Interesting; according to Bosch, they're now being fitted to more and more production cars, not just breathed-on ones.
http://www.boschautoparts.com/OxygenSensors/Pages/WidebandOxygenSensors.aspx#overview
Quantities of production means the cost will come down, and there's bound to be a few in breakers with plenty of life in them for cheap, if not now, then soon.
 
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Excellent bit of gear. They've just about halved in price the past couple of years, to the extent I'm now seriously considering one. Actually, I've been wanting one for a while, but the former price put me off.
I bought a cheapy AF gauge and hoped that I could find a WB sensor at a reasonable price - looks like the cost of them must be dropping, although some of the tuning and speed shops continue to charge ripoff money for them.

Interesting; according to Bosch, they're now being fitted to more and more production cars, not just breathed-on ones.
http://www.boschautoparts.com/OxygenSensors/Pages/WidebandOxygenSensors.aspx#overview
Quantities of production means the cost will come down, and there's bound to be a few in breakers with plenty of life in them for cheap, if not now, then soon.

WB02 sensor (the thing you stick into the exhaust) themselves are a commodity item(they are being produced in such volume by Bosch for example they are all over the Web). The controllers that allows the AFR to be read out are still a bit of tricky tech, but there are many examples. The but is, they are mainly built into a OEM ECU. There are aftermarket controllers, but they tend to be partial to full data loggers as well which is what drives the cost up. As more people use them for tune up, the market expands and price drops.

As Chuck has discovered having a data logging capability is quite handy, but can add significantly the to the price. On my set up I had AFR,Speed,RPM,MAP,Temp,Acceleration all logged v.s. time. I used Innovate parts and it was a challenge and this is my business to know.
 
Just a tip. You can cut the end off a spark plug anti fouler and use it as a weld in bung. They're $5-6 for a couple of them at auto zone, advanced, etc.
 
I picked up a Bosch #17014 oxygen sensor for $49.99 from Autozone.
 
Yes, you can do it on the cheap like that with figiring out your own wiring for the heating element & sensor wires, but using a digital multimeter measuring voltage & converting in your head the approximate AFR while riding at wide open throttle presents a dangerous challenge.
 
Yes, you can do it on the cheap like that with figiring out your own wiring for the heating element & sensor wires, but using a digital multimeter measuring voltage & converting in your head the approximate AFR while riding at wide open throttle presents a dangerous challenge.
How do you use a volt meter to measure afr off of a WBO2 sensor?
 
Once wired up right, you have one or two wires for the sensor's heating element, & then I am assuming 12v going into sensor & a vaariable amount coming out. It would make more sense to me that you would just measure resistance through the sensor.

The wbo2 setups are all individually calibrated per sensor with resistors added in the harness or plug based exclusively on that sensor, so I would really be doubtful of the accuracy of the readings on a bare sensor and digital multimeter.


You definitely don't want to be too lean by a point or more under the wrong weather conditions & hole a piston or score your cylinders, or worse - being too lean on the needle/needle jet, and dial your pilots leaner, and then heat it up to the point of seizing your pistons/rings on a long hot day highway cruise. This just happened to a fridnd who was having trouble dialing in his new big bore 810cc with Mikuni RS34 (nonstock performance models) carbs... Talk about being really bummed. Now he's willing to weld a bung onto his pristine Supertrapp exhaust...
 
When the notion of buying a bare sensor was brought up, I posted that a controller was required. I did not mean a volt meter . It is much more complex than that. So much more
complex it is not even worth discussing here.

Example of "More than just a voltmeter"

http://www.waltech.com/open-source-designs/wbo2_report/
 
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I've been offered an LSU 4.9 for free - now wondering what car ECU I can gut for functionality. Back burner for now - I'll use a simple controllerless 4-wire to start with.
 
fyi, UEGO Sensor = Universal Exhaust Gas Oxygen Sensor


Innovate 3795 setup, $165:
$T2eC16dHJG!FFmuQ5n)kBRqRuO5f7g~~60_35-500x500.JPG

http://streetrays.com/newstore/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=6222




The first 10 minutes of starting the bike up and taking it for a spin around the neighborhood proved this type of setup to be extremely useful and a huge time saver for carb jetting and tuning on modified engines/intakes&exhausts, so I hope this can help out others as well.

The thing I don't like about this setup is that digital gauge is using the analog output, not the digital. For the one I bought, there is a bit of an offset and gain difference between the gauge and what is reported on the digital output. I have two of the Innovate widebands and both have held up very well.

jig1.jpg
 
I have been using the AEM failsafe wide band on the turbokat and only recently downloaded the software to retrieve the data. Also configured the Guage to read boost, vacuum in center and air fuel on outside led,s. My only complaint is the failsafe Guage has a different display than the ones pictured and is very difficult to read in daylight. My AEM oil press Guage has a bright display that does not match. Also setup failsafe to retard timing on my dyna 2000 on a lean condition. Works well.
 
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