I've been dreaming of building a good mixture meter using one of several plans that implement a wideband oxygen sensor. The stumbling block is the high price of the sensor -- a five wire type -- so I've been trying to recognize in the boneyards the later model Hondas known to use these, without any luck so far.

If you're interested, do some googling for UEGO, air-fuel meters, or search on the EFI-DIY list. Even if you bought the stuff new you'd be way under the commercial gear within reach of hobbyists.

How else am I going to set the mixture on my non-lambda k-jet;)
--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

I suppose it depends on where you are. I had no problem asking the shop that smogged my wagon to do a pre-test first. He didn't seem all that inclined to charge me for it either.

In Nevada, at least in Reno/Sparks, Jiffy Lube gives away free smog checks with an oil change. You could probably make friends with one of the employees there and get them to test your stuff for free. If they still use BG44K for their fuel system flush, it might be worth it to pay for a fuel system flush and see if they'll then smog check your car.

- alex

'85 244 Turbo
'84 245 Turbo

Teh gas analysis equipment is still pretty pricey (I would be surprised if even crude stuff is under $10K). Do some web surfing and see what Sun offers for professional test equipment.

Back in college (early 70's) we had a gearhead for a thermodynamics prof, so we did a lot of exhaust gas analysis. We used both the dry Orsat analysis rig which couldn't cost more than a few hundred bucks, but it's a "static" analysis only and won't relate well to the type of tests the states run. We also used a gas chromatograph, the forerunner of today's commercially available gas analysis gear. I remember we put one teacher's Buick Skylark with the 250-inch straight six and a 3-speed manual trans up on the dyno and dialed in an appropriate load. We analyzed the exhaust emissions at a few different speeds. To prove a point, I back-calculated the gas mileage from the gas analysis and came up with something in the low 30's for mpg. No one believed me because the teacher reported average gas mileage in the high teens - the difference of course being in steady-state versus accelerating, braking, and squirting raw gas in with each stroke of the accelerator pump on the carb such as would happen in real road use.