PAZee

iTrader: (2)

I have a NA 2003 performance 350z. I haven't had much success with my searches on this topic.

I put headers on and someday might consider a tune. So I looking into the instal of a wideband 02 sensor. In particular I was reading about the Innovate LC-1 For ease of install, I was wondering if anyone has replaced the stock narrowband sensor with the wideband, to "convert" the narrowband. Any comments on your success and wiring? Thanks for the comments!

damojo2003

The LC-1 is far from the easiest to install. I highly recommend a seperate installation and maintain the stock narrowband. Every car that I heard installed the LC-1 and replaced the narrowband had idle issues and general fueling issues. IMHO....the stock narrow band system is not broken, so why fix it.

PAZee

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the advice, I haven't read much about any owners doign it this way. Welding a bung sounds like the way to go.

damojo2003

yh, only wiring advice i can give is to follow the instructions exactly. If you are connecting the WB to a tuner or any other monitor device, they must share the same ground to avoid ground offset. There is a thread on innovates forum explaining exactly what that is and how to avoid it. In a nut shell, grounds have to share the same metal, but on different bolts on that metal.

HTH
Mike

Ziggyrama

iTrader: (15)

I would highly recommend against replacing your stock O2 with a wideband. ECU is programmed with an assumption that the O2 sensor goes through the usual narrowband sensor signal oscillation cycle. Replacing it with a WB will only give you headaches and has no performance benefit. Remember, when you go WOT, the ECU goes into open loop anyways so your O2 feedback is ignored anyways.

If you're looking for a place to put it for tuning purposes, have a bung welded reasonably far away from the engine. The further you go down stream, the lower the EGTs will be and your sensor longevity will be better. It's a heated sensor and if it overheats, that really shortens its life span and makes it inaccurate. Put it before the CATs. Or if you're CATless, then you have your choice. Just be sure to stay far enough away from the tail pipe to prevent regular air backwash from messing up your readings.

For installation, LC-1 is simple. Run the harness inside, hardwire the power so that when you turn the car on, the sensor will be powered automatically, and then feed your signal into your device of choice. That's pretty simple. What I've done in the past is find a fairly useless sensor on the car in the ECU harness, like fuel level sensor feed, and tap into that line. Scale the voltage on LC-1 to match the sensor vlotage ranges and log the voltages for that sensor through a logger. That gave me inlile AFR logging along with everything else. Pretty powerful. You can even add a toggle switch so that when you're done, you flip the switch and the ECU gets the sensor output as normal.

mthreat

iTrader: (16)

That ... is the smartest thing I've read all day I also like your tap-into-fluid-sensor idea.. nifty

PAZee

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the advice. I finally paid off my car, so I'm hoping to invest (waste) some money on some tuning and handling mods. I thought the wideband would be a good the first step. I'm planning on some autoX this summer. I appreciate the help!