Any Wideband will work with E85 I am told?

[John Larkin]

This is probably a tired question or statement but I am told any wideband will read E85 on the same scale as gasoline and you don't need an E85 specific wideband. Apparently all widebands work off "Lambda" or a centralized stoic ratio and read above or below that point based on inputs. So whether you are using E85 or gasoline, 14.7 is stoic. Then you tune the car the same depending on what your car likes or what others have found to work?

I ask because I want to buy a WB and want one that matches the rest of my gauges rather than having an ecletic array. Form and function can work together.

 

[BEATAV8]

Yes. The sensor is measuring oxygen content in the exhaust. The user (you) gets to select which lambda scale that data gets converted back to.

Running stoichiometric on gas or E85 yields the same oxygen content in the exhaust but the air/fuel ratios are vastly different. Lambda is 1.0 in either case

 

[John Larkin]

Cool because I want to use an analog Autometer Phantom gauge and it says it is not compatible with E85. I did not think that was true necessarily. Thanks.

 

[turbo89]

FYI.. Don't tune to a number. ... this is where people SCREW themselves ... and this is why there are tuners and there are GAUGE watchers ... the cars don't perform anywhere near the same just by watching a number ... number on the wideband is a general target that can change and from vehicle to vehicle doesnt mean crap...

Tune for what the car is telling you and what it likes !

 

[jess70502]

I'm still confused, I just switched to a Autometer Phantom 5778 because I made the conversion over to E85. On the instructions it says you can adjust the center point of the scale. 14.7 for gas and basically whatever alternate fuel type. Now I can switch between Lamdba and Air Fuel Ratio, so when I have it set at 14.7 then at idle it bounces around 14.7/1 switch to Lamdba it says 1.00. Here is where I'm stuck, wouldn't I have to set my center point to 9.8 or whatever it is for E85 and not for regular gas? So say I set the center to 9.8 that would mean on the Lamdba scale it would show 1.00 right?

 

[BEATAV8]

Right. 1.0 lambda means stoichiometric regardless of the fuel type. Less than 1.0 means richer than stoich, more than 1.0 means leaner than stoich.

BUT.... it doesn't really matter what you look at / use for AFR scale. It's just a reference number for you to know the ratio between air mass and fuel mass. Most guys still use the gasoline scale when talking about E85 and are just aware that the E85 number is different.

the attached doc is handy and should help you out.