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April 29, 2006

Innovate Wideband o2 Gauge

One of the best tools for tuning is a wideband o2 sensor. After dealing with the large Innovate box wedged in the dash I finally decided to get their standalone wideband cable and gauge combo. It installed very easy. Only just a little trimming in the headlight switch hose was needed. It can all be removed with no traces. Since I hardly ever turn off the lights I just left them on and secured the switch back in the dash.

I need to reprogram the led colors but aside from that it is not too distracting. Don't confuse a wideband with the cheaper narrowband gauges that tap into the factory sensor. Maybe one of these days I can get the data-logging box with accelerometers.. You can click on the images to get to a few more in the gallery.

Posted by nick at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2006

Delivery Pipe

A while back I made a stainless delivery pipe for my car.Runs from the intercooler all the way to the throttle. I have not seen or been able to measure any decent gains. Quite disappointing. Sure does look pretty though. On the dyno I recorded much more heat soak than before with the rubber / plastic factory pipe. It is on the pressure side so the restriction is not so bad. Also stainless has much better insulation properties than aluminum. I do run Aquamist on sometimes. On the dyno it seemed to counteract some of the increased charge temp. I plan to make a heat shield of .031" stainless sheet to keep down on radiant heat from the DP especially before it starts getting warm here.

Now the story is a bit different for the T5 cars. They have a 2" aluminum pipe that will have more heat soak than the stainless. So for those cars maybe a 2-1/4" pipe would be good. Plan in to make one and test it to see. Probably will keep the lower rubber portion for now. This will help insulate it from the radiant exhaust heat.

Posted by nick at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)

April 1, 2006

IMG_6505.JPG

Posted by nick at 6:34 PM | Comments (0)