AFR Gauges : AEM or Innovate Experience?

[kitcarbp]

I am about to buy an AFR gauge and fine tune my Edelbrock street carb on my engine and wanted to see who has experience tuning a carb with either of these brands of AFR and any lessons learned with either brand ?.. My guess is both brands should get me the results Im looking for but there must be some folks here on CC that have “been there done that” using these AFR gauges tuning your carbs and would like to learn from your experience

Thanks

[bkozlow]

I like the AEM brand and have used them for years. They have improved the product so it now reads in hundreds not tenths at a faster speed. You want the complete kit, check out Summit AUM-30-0334, $239.87 I would suggest you order an extra O2 sensor also, 30-2004 $121.4. When AEM upgrades their gauges they change the connector to the O2 sensor, ask me how I know, and it can be difficult getting the sensor with the proper connector. give AEM a call and make sure the sensor is the correct one for 30-0334.

BilK

[eschaider]

The AFR gauge is just the equivalent of a computer monitor. All the real work is done by the sensor and its associated electronics. The standalone sensor I like is the NTK sensor.

Unllike all the other sensors that begin to drift as they fail, The NTK sensor just stops working altogether. That prevents you from chasing a failing sensor with your tuning efforts and getting upside down and backwards in your tune.

Most gauges work or can be made to work with just about anything. Use electronics that will support an NTK sensor or buy a whole sensor package including sensor and electronics that uses an NTK sensor. Instrument both sides of the engine so you know what is happening everywhere and the impact your tuning changes have everywhere.

Unspoken earlier but important, make sure you get a wideband sensor, not a narrow band sensor.

[kitcarbp]

Thanks this is helpful,

Ed , why go with the NTK sensor equipped gauges compared to the popular Bosch 4.9 LSU wideband sensor gauges used by Innovate and AEM brand gauges? Accuracy? Reliability? Both? I dont plan to keep the AFR gauge and sensor in the car after Im done with tuning the carb , so durability is not paramount for my application , accuracy of course is my goal here. Thanks

[eschaider]

This is not about durability. It is about confidence in the readings, accuracy and repeatability. With brand-new sensors, accuracy and repeatability are not an issue. Confidence might be, but, and this is a relatively big but, you will use the sensor again sometime in the future, and you want to have confidence in the accuracy and consistency of its readings from usage to usage.

If this is a one-time event, have the tuning shop, you wish to use, use their sensor. It is smarter to pay the monies to a shop to use their sensors than buying an expensive one or two-time-use instrument that you will not use again.