what is the difference between a narrowband and a wideband air/fuel gauge?

what is the difference between a narrowband and a wideband air/fuel gauge?

a narrowband is what the factory uses on most vehicles; very accurate around 14.7:1 a/f and inaccurate richer or leaner than that. They work fine for most vehicles as most go "open loop" under acceleration and wide open throttle and use the ve or maf tables for fueling, ignoring the O2 at that point.

A wideband is accurate from 9.9-16:1 a/f usually, so is a much better way to go if you're using it as a tuning tool. Getting the wide open throttle a/f is critical since it requires a richer a/f and a narrowband is guessing at that point; a wideband will read these areas accurately.

Jody

^^^ Ya. Basically, a narrow band can only really tell you if you're stoich, whereas a true wideband will tell you exactly what your AFR is. The narrow bands are a good deal cheaper and work well if you're tuning for fuel economy and don't care about getting your fueling dialed in for max power. If you're looking to tune for best torque/power, you really need a wideband. I'm guessing with a supercharged 454, fuel economy is not all that important...

Wide bands require a driver or amplifier module also. A wide-band sensor is very much like a narrow band in that it makes an abrupt transition from a high to low output signal near the 14.7:1 mixture mark. What the driver amplifier does is apply a voltage to another terminal inside the sensor to effectively shift the stoich mark +/- the 14.7:1 mark. Wide band sensors are more expensive and the driver amplifier is fairly expensive as well. Overall though, if you want an O2 monitor, there is no reason to use anything but a wideband. The narrow band sensors are nothing more than a light show which usually remain pegged and rarely give you a useful indication.

I think I'll be getting one in a couple of weeks. I'm currently using Auto Meter gauges and I thought about staying with them. Any Pros or Cons to this brand? Other brand suggestions?