Running rich, tuning.

[Peter Serwe]

Interestingly enough, or maybe not as the case may be,
I was running rich for the longest time.  Even with the
stock header intact.  I had gone through everything
I could think of, changed out my o2 sensor, and still
had black sooty stuff coating the inside of my tailpipe.

I had noticed while putting on a catback and the short
shifter I bought so long ago, that there was a broken
ground strap down there.  Rather than try to replace
that, I figured I would just reground the o2 sensor
directly.

After poking around on se-r.net once again, I found
somewhere (which I can no longer remember) where
someone suggested using an oversized ring terminal
to reground the o2 sensor, the only problem with
those, is that they are hard to find, no autoparts store
has one.

I ended up taking a piece of copper sheet,
commonly used for custom gasket material, and with
a pneumatic nibbler, cutting out a fairly rough square
with a 'T' on the end of it.  Took that, drilled a hole
in the middle with a drill press, and cleaned up the
outer edges on a grinder.  I only had a 5/8" bit handy,
so I had to file the hole out to 11/16".

I then folded the ends of the 'T' around some 10 or
12 gauge wire, soldered it, and crimped a small ring
terminal onto the other end.  This all probably took me
35-45 minutes to accomplish, truly a labor of love.

I ended up cutting the o2 sensor gasket off, and putting
the homemade ring terminal in it's place and tightening
it down.  Viola!  No more running rich.  My tailpipe
now has a very healthy brownish hue.

--
Peter Serwe <peter@easytree.net>
Cheaper, Faster, Better, pick any two.
finger peter@easytree.net for public pgp key