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What air/fuel ratio is considered too lean?

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Old 11-23-2006, 10:15 AM
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Default What air/fuel ratio is considered too lean?

from my post below,

'02 A4 Z28 w/PTB dynoes@298...after SLP lid, dynoes@303...after SSRA2, dynoes@318!,

my air/fuel ratio of 14.1 is considered lean. Is my air/fuel ratio lean enough so that I shouldn't run the car in the quarter without first getting a tune to richen out? or am I okay? If so, then what air/fuel ratio is considered too lean so that there's a risk that the engine can detonate? Thanks in advance for the info.
Old 11-23-2006, 10:46 AM
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14.1 is lean. Is it getting any knock?
Old 11-23-2006, 02:22 PM
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I don't know. When the car was bone stock, the air/fuel ratio was at a factory rich 12:1. The ported throttle body and the SLP lid leaned it out significantly.

Last edited by damon_Z; 11-23-2006 at 02:38 PM.
Old 11-23-2006, 04:09 PM
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Yeah, I was wondering what was too lean. I dynoed 320, 309 at 15.2 AFR!

I thought 14.7:1 is considered perfect.

Last edited by 5550racing; 11-23-2006 at 05:33 PM.
Old 11-23-2006, 04:33 PM
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14.7?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!??! are u serious?
Old 11-23-2006, 04:36 PM
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12.8-13.0 at WOT is your target, 14.1 is way lean. I set the WOT fueling around 12.5 around peak torque and lean it back to 12.8 after that.
Old 11-23-2006, 04:42 PM
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14.7 is idle or your cruise AFR '' Stochiometric ''
Old 11-23-2006, 05:16 PM
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i think you're overreacting. you did all those mods back-to-back, correct? the mods were thrown on and the car immediately hit the dyno, correct? if this is true, the PCM never got a chance to readjust. if you were to hit the dyno now that the car has been driven and has adjusted, i bet your A/F ratio would be significantly richer.
Old 11-23-2006, 05:26 PM
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Originally Posted by sidewayz28
14.7?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!??! are u serious?
My bad. I read It wrong. I Guess I wasn't looking at WOT fueling. Holy ****. My car is wayyy lean at WOT then.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-fuel_ratio
http://www.knfilters.com/airfuelmonitors.htm
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question257.htm
A gasoline engine burns gasoline in the presence of oxygen (see How Car Engines Work for complete details). It turns out that there is a particular ratio of air and gasoline that is "perfect," and that ratio is 14.7:1
Old 11-23-2006, 06:30 PM
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Originally Posted by ChocoTaco369
i think you're overreacting. you did all those mods back-to-back, correct? the mods were thrown on and the car immediately hit the dyno, correct? if this is true, the PCM never got a chance to readjust. if you were to hit the dyno now that the car has been driven and has adjusted, i bet your A/F ratio would be significantly richer.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
Old 11-24-2006, 01:40 PM
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Originally Posted by Rhino79
12.8-13.0 at WOT is your target, 14.1 is way lean. I set the WOT fueling around 12.5 around peak torque and lean it back to 12.8 after that.
This guy is right.12.8-13.0 is your target to get all the power you can.
3.0-5.9, 6.0-8.4, 8.5-13.0, 13.1-17.0, 17.1-19.0
Flooded,Way Rich,[U]Rich-Lean[/U],Way Lean, Engine damage
Old 11-24-2006, 01:43 PM
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Originally Posted by Rhino79
12.8-13.0 at WOT is your target, 14.1 is way lean. I set the WOT fueling around 12.5 around peak torque and lean it back to 12.8 after that.
This guy is right.12.8-13.0 is your target to get all the power you can.
3.0-5.9, 6.0-8.4, 8.5-13.0, 13.1-17.0, 17.1-19.0
Flooded,Way Rich,Rich-Lean,Way Lean, Engine damage
Old 11-24-2006, 01:53 PM
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Originally Posted by ChocoTaco369
i think you're overreacting. you did all those mods back-to-back, correct? the mods were thrown on and the car immediately hit the dyno, correct? if this is true, the PCM never got a chance to readjust. if you were to hit the dyno now that the car has been driven and has adjusted, i bet your A/F ratio would be significantly richer.

thta is a good point anthony!
Old 11-24-2006, 04:31 PM
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choco is probably right sinc ethe ecu will learn after mods, but I'd get the car dynoed again, or some how figure out what the a/f is just in case, it'll probably be cheaper than killing the engine.
Old 11-24-2006, 04:33 PM
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Originally Posted by Black Z28 M6
This guy is right.12.8-13.0 is your target to get all the power you can.
3.0-5.9, 6.0-8.4, 8.5-13.0, 13.1-17.0, 17.1-19.0
Flooded,Way Rich,Rich-Lean,Way Lean, Engine damage
Thanks for the range. It'll make me feel better when I'm at wide open throttle on the dragstrip.
Old 11-24-2006, 04:37 PM
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Originally Posted by BrandonDrecksage
choco is probably right sinc ethe ecu will learn after mods, but I'd get the car dynoed again, or some how figure out what the a/f is just in case, it'll probably be cheaper than killing the engine.
I know there is a risk of damaging the engine, but I also know that there are plenty of people out there who never gets dynoed, but just run with whatever mods they have on the dragstrip. I mean, have you ever heard of anybody damaging their engine just from running WOT with a ported throttle body, SLP lid, and an SSRA2? I'm going to take the risk tomorrow at Atco's annual winter wonderland.
Old 11-24-2006, 11:07 PM
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Originally Posted by damon_Z
I know there is a risk of damaging the engine, but I also know that there are plenty of people out there who never gets dynoed, but just run with whatever mods they have on the dragstrip. I mean, have you ever heard of anybody damaging their engine just from running WOT with a ported throttle body, SLP lid, and an SSRA2? I'm going to take the risk tomorrow at Atco's annual winter wonderland.
i've heard of peopel blowing their engines with bullshit mods. its a rish. My friend had a mazdaspeed protege with jsut a coldair intake. Apparently the factory tuning was a little to lean and the intake killed it off. He blew the engine at the strip. It was under warranty and he took off the cai. friend in a 1g talon tsi awd maxing out the stock injectors ran to lean too because he was an idiot. Everyone takes a risk though(**** the guy in the next lane could spin out and hit you and insurance wouldn't cover it), i've raced my car with a lid and catback without know my a/f though, but i know my car is running rich because of the smell and slight cloud of black smoke in the upper rpm range. Whatever floats your boat though..its your car only difference between you and I is taht you know your way to lean.

either way, good luck, hope you trap that 110mph
Old 11-25-2006, 03:13 PM
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Originally Posted by Rhino79
12.8-13.0 at WOT is your target, 14.1 is way lean. I set the WOT fueling around 12.5 around peak torque and lean it back to 12.8 after that.
and what are you using to do it?
Old 11-25-2006, 08:41 PM
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Originally Posted by 5550racing
Yeah, I was wondering what was too lean. I dynoed 320, 309 at 15.2 AFR!

I thought 14.7:1 is considered perfect.
14.7:1 is considered chemically perfect under the right circumstances.

This is rarely (if ever) perfect for peak performance.
Old 11-26-2006, 02:55 AM
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12.8-13.0 is correct for WOT. 14.7 is correct for normal operation.

Your car is constantly trying to shoot for 14.7, to burn all the gasoline and recover all the energy, for maximum fuel economy. This, however, does not produce the most power. When the car senses over a certain throttle percentage at a certain RPM, it enters PE territory. PE stands for "Power Enrichment", which is simply a number that 14.7 is divided by and the computer then shoots for as the commanded AFR.

Technically, PE should be about 1.14, which would command us a 12.9 AFR, but we usually have to tweak it untill it's right.

14.7 is as lean as I'd go. Anything richer than that is "safe".

Damn I'm going off here....

And that's all I have to say about that.....

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