Introduction to Oxygen Sensors

This is a basic introduction to oxygen sensors. You have probably heard the term 'O2 sensor' when talking about getting a turbocharger or getting a nitrous kit. You may wonder what the big deal is and what does it have to do with you?

The job of O2 sensor, or oxygen sensor, is to cut down on the amount of emissions coming out of your car. Its other job is to help your engine run as efficiently as possible. This is what you want when tuning your engine.

The O2 sensor is about the size of a spark plug. It is located in the exhaust manifold of your engine. Your exhaust manifold, or exhaust header, collects the exhaust gases from all of your cylinders and sends it into one pipe.

The oxygen sensor helps your engine to know how much oxygen to pull in. There are so many things that affect how much oxygen you engine needs to pull in at any given time. For example, the outside air temperature, having a nitrous setup, the altitude where you are, having a turbocharger, the inside temperature of your engine, the barometric pressure, and how hard you are working your engine.

If you have a basic idea of what goes on in your car's combustion chamber, you will know that your car needs air and fuel to work. The ideal air-to-fuel ratio is called stoichiometric fuel mixture and is considered to be 14.7:1.

O2 Sensors and Engine Tuning

If you have less air than this ideal ratio, then you will have fuel left over after combustion, which creates pollution. This scenario is called a rich mixture.

If you have more air than this ideal ratio, then you have too much oxygen. This is called a lean mixture and tends to pollute, cause poor engine performance, and even engine damage. This is especially important to you as a sport compact enthusiast because of the amount of time and money you spend on modifying your engine.

Oxygen sensors, or O2 sensors, are especially useful for tuning engines with turbo setups or nitrous kits. It sends information to the engine management computer, which adjusts the air-to-fuel mixture according to whether it is running too rich or too lean. This helps you to get maximum power and boost from your turbo or nitrous setup.

There are many popular ways to increase horsepower.

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