jimi87-t said:
Can't be too safe:bigthumb:
Lol yeah, I get the distinct impression you don't have nearly the problems with your car others do. That intake setup of yours also proves you're a stickler for detail
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mkiii: EGT is Exhaust Gas Temperature. It's usually measured with a type K thermocouple. There is a direct corelation between EGT and mixture so it can be helpful for tuning as long as you understand the relationship. It's simply looking at another way to determine mixture but also has limitations. You need to search around this site or Google some of this stuff to gain an understanding of the basics.
EGT rises as you approach stoich and then falls so you can be either on the rich or lean side of "peak". About 200 degrees or so on the rich side is best power while 100 or so on the lean side is best economy. There is also a limit you don't want to exceed. The problem with EGT is it's an aggregate of all cylinders unless you have a probe in each exhaust runner. Course, that's also true of an O2 sensor.
Most car guys use a single EGT but in airplanes we use what's called an engine analyzer. A neat gadget that displays and tracks EGT in each cylinder in bar or digital form. Google JPI Instruments or Electronics International to see examples of these things. They're not cheap but you can get them used. I had one on a car of mine for several years. I use lots of aerospace stuff on my cars since I have it laying around.
You guys are all about making power and fuel be damned but as long as the induction and fuel delivery systems are designed properly (to minimize the spread between mixture, and thus EGT) in each cylinder it's possible to go in the other direction.
Your stock O2 sensor is designed to keep the mixture at stoich during cruise right? What if you could change that? What if you could have the engine run 100 degrees or more lean of peak EGT? Your fuel economy would dramatically increase and the engine would run cleaner and cooler. Since the throttle and mixture are independent in piston powered aircraft these are the same techniques taught to every pilot that flies them. Jets are different (although EGT is still critical) but running the mixture lean of peak EGT, even at 75% power, in piston aircraft is a common and correct procedure and woe be the pilot who forgets to do it.
I did this to a car. Since a car engine loafs at around 20-30% power on the highway it's not dangerous to lean it past peak EGT. The car I used had a simple engine ecu so I modified it to provide an offset from controlling at stoich. This gave me a "dail a mixture" knob on the dash. By measuring all 6 EGTs using an aircraft engine analyzer (a simple 6 point EGT probe would've also worked) I could set that puppy well lean of peak and get 25-30% better highway mileage than stock. The trick is it only works as long as you're steady state but for long stretches of highway under crusie control it works as well as it does in airplanes. In fact, if you really want to understand mixture and it's effects on an engine study the stuff pilots are taught or read the tech articles on those websites.