Mark Houghton

Hey guys, call me lazy but I thought I would ask for best practises you've had success with regarding the installation of my new LC-1.

What did you find as the best pathway to route all the cables up to the dash? I will also be installing a G3 gauge. Route somehow beneath the car chasis, or through the firewall and under the seats/carpet snaking up to the dash?

Question #2: The instructions for placement of the sensor indicate that it should be placed after the turbo, which would require me to weld a bung on to the muffler mount (since my Fabspeed mounts directly to the turbo). The stock location for the stock O2 sensor is before the turbo, and...guess what...there's a bung already in place at the same location from a previous owner - probably for the same purposes that I'm looking at.

Question #3: Instructions for ground connections are pretty clear, with the optimum attachment on the engine block vs. somewhere on the chasis/frame. But with the loose wires for ground connection all the way at the end of the cable - the farthest point from the engine - it would seem that attaching at the engine block would not be feasible (unless I ran a separate ground wire back to the engine). Again, your experience as to what worked for you.

Thanks...in advance.

911rudy

I routed mine through the trans hump where the clutch cable goes through and then under the carpet up into the center console. You cannot use the original O2 bung before the turbo. You will have to weld one in at least 4 inches past the turbo. I also made a copper heat sink just for good measure. The ground can be just about anywhere as long as it is solid. The ground strap under the car at the starter is a good one and it isn't as far away as the engine itself. I originally installed the bung at 4 inches past the turbo but it was too hot and would show an error after a few minutes. I dropped it down to the next pipe and it works great.

JFairman

Best place for the wideband oxygen sensor if you have a muffler like a B&B is after the muffler and as close to it as possible so there's no mixing with air at idle. It's too hot in the 5-6" of pipe after the turbo
Mine is off the car at the moment so heres a pic of it.
You have to mount the O2 sensor between 2 and 10 o clock so condensation in the pipe doesn't kill it.

I mounted the LC-1 to the driver side longitudinal below the relay console with 2 large adel clamps arounf the wires on each end.
Then I ran all the wires tie wrapped to the high pressure AC line down through the back left corner of the engine compartment and under the car still tie wrapped to the the AC line until they got to the back lower left corner of the floor pan in front of the rear fuel pump.

On my '87 there is a convenient 1" hole there from the factory with a rubber plug in it already there.
I cut a slit in the plug and ran the wires through it and then along the bottom rear corner of the floor pan under the carpet over to the center tunnel.
Thats where the origonal length of wires attached to the LC-1 end.

You have to solder on new pieces of wire to make the ones you are using longer to reach up towards the front of the car.
Then I continued those wires under the carpet around the passenger side of the auto heat box and then along the left edge of the passenger side floor pan against the side of the tunnel with some of the origonal wires already there on up to the left of the passenger side AC return duct.
From there you can figure out how you want to run the wires for your install.

I took 12 volts from a fuse that has the least amount of stuff running off it to minimize electrical noise. It was the one that the power mirrors and something else come off of.
For 12 volt switched I found a red wire under the dash near the ignition switch that worked well.
All the ground wires are attached to another wire I ran back to the engine compartment and I attached it to an 8mm threaded boss that used to be for mounting the air pump.

hope that helps.

4wheeler

I wonder how this would look if someone had a zork installed also. The sensor might be visible from behind the car. It seems it would be very easy for the exhaust to mix with the outside air at idle too.

Mark Houghton

Thanks guys for the feedback, especially for the routing ideas. I think I had already resolved myself to having to mount the sensor post-turbo, and after reading Rudy's response it would have to be post-muffler...which JFairman confirmed. And I figured I would have to extend the length of the wires after looking at the stock length. As far as ground, I was planning on using the ground strap at the transmission. For power, I'll pull a dedicated line from the fuse box if possible. Any other input would alwasy be appreciated.

So be it, no problemo. Now I just gotta take of the muff and have her drilled and welded with the bung...and spend a few hours crawling around on my back (the fun part).

911rudy

Just one more note of caution and that is the placement of the bung real close to the muff. It is still really hot in that spot and the red hot turbo is right beside it. It is also a devil to remove from this position. A few inches to the left and you solve both problems. I can remove mine from beneath the car. As far as air mixing with the exhaust at idle I can't say that I have noticed or would notice since I don't know what indication it would cause. I never look at it at idle anyway. I still have close to 15 inches to the end of my tail p[ipe.

JFairman

I asked around and it was recommended to mount it after the muffler and as close to it is as possible so I did. Also, the exhaust has cooled off quite a bit after going through that big B&B muffler.
It's been there for 4 months with no problems from the oxygen sensor or heat from the turbo, and I tune my idle AFR to 14.3:1 using the innovate G3 gauge.. anotherwords I look at my AFR gauge at idle when at traffic lights or whatever and want it accurate. Itr also gives me an excellent tuning reference for my adjustable warm up regulator.

Idle AFR readout is very stable with the G3 gauge and I havn't had any reason to remove the oxygen sensor.
I put a small wire clamp on the O2 sensor wire to hold it away from the heat sheild on the rear valence.

If I have to remove it, the bumper comes off pretty easy on these cars giving wide open access to it.

That said, mount it where ever you want it, but 5-6" after the turbo and before the muffler will kill it without a good heatsink installed.

Mark Houghton

My issue is that I'm running with a single outlet Fabspeed muffler which exits out the right side of the car. The exhaust doesn't come out the same side as the turbo is mounted (as in your pictures), but flows straight through. So, the only place to mount the sensor is in the tail pipe after the muffler...a whole muffler-length away from the turbo. In the tail pipe, as close to the muffler as possible to avoid any free air coming in from the tailpipe, is what I think has to happen. Make sense?

02fly

So were does one put it if one was runnig a dual outlet B&B muffler?

911rudy

Mine is a dual outlet and I chose the side nearest the turbo. Who knows what is inside the muff. I might be the fartherest away from the turbo but it seems to work well.

ZX3tuning

don't know where you heard that but from exp and from talking with the guys at Innovate, you can mount the wideband sensors very close to the turbo.. we have ours at about the 10/11 o'clock position pointing rearward just before the muffler. I've have had it there for 3 years now and have had ZERO issues with it.
i check it against my LM-1 and the widebands on the dyno's we use and they all show the exact same numbers.
the key is clocking the sensor properly, like you already said, and having good airflow around the outside of the sensor. you don't need a heat sink but you don't want to bake the sensor either... so having a cutout in the rear heat shield around the sensor helps.

as long as your EGT's don't go over,i think it was, 1300°F for extended periods of time then the sensor wont degrade or fail on you... then again, EGTs of over 1300°F usually mean death for the engine...

911rudy

Canada has different air!!

02fly

It seems to me the left side feels cooler than the right side what up with that I think a call to B&B is in order I'll let you know what I found out.

Metal Guru

Can the LC-1 log RPM? The Innovate web site isn't clear on this.

nathanUK '81 930 G50

http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/p...s/MTS_grid.php

No. You would need to daisy chain another product to pick up rpm.