Ford Mustang FAQs

It is always important to understand the different chemicals that you are putting into your engine. There are so many things that you can put into your engine that you think would help, but will in fact ruin it beyond repair.

With the popularity of chassis dynamometers ever increasing, optional wide-band air/fuel meters provide a great way to optimize a tune-up, whether its through jets and spark plugs, or air, fuel, and spark tables within tuning software. Dyno time can be hard to come by, though, and it’s expensive if you frequently tweak your tune-up or just like to take your time with it. Many dynamometers cannot provide real-world street driving dynamics either, so if you’re tuning your combination from scratch, it’s harder to tune for driveability.

Aftermarket wide-band oxygen sensors have been available for some time now, and one of the leaders in wide-band tuning is Irvine, California-based Innovate Motorsports. The company’s LM-1 wide-band meter led the way and evolved into a modular tuning system that includes stand-alone gauges, oxygen sensors, data loggers, and much more. Innovate also has great technical support for its products using its Web forum, dealers, installers, and end users.

For this test, a supercharged, ‘04 Two-Valve Mustang GT was used. Ninety percent of the time, the Pony is used for drag racing, and it puts down over 400 hp to the wheels. The stand-alone gauge kit comes with the LC-1 wide-band controller, an XD-16 gauge, a Bosch five-wire wide-band 02 sensor, a bung/plug kit, a software CD, and a quick-start guide.

According to Innovate, the LC-1 is more accurate than conventional designs, and its self-calibrating circuitry can compensate for changes in temperature, altitude, and sensor condition. The LC-1 is ideal for applications such as dynos, data acquisition, stand-alone ECUs, piggyback fuel controllers, OBD-II software or chip programmers, and gauges. The LC-1 Lambda cable is a complete wide-band controller built into a sealed cable and offers a digital input, output, and two user-programmable analog outputs.

While the LC-1 is reading the exhaust gases, the XD-16 tells you what’s going on. The XD-16 ships as an air/fuel ratio gauge, but it can also be configured to display any channel in the modular tuning system chain, or it can be connected to the LM-1. The XD-16 features programmable LED colors and a remote-control button to start and stop log sessions, initiate calibrations, or view min/max values.

The XD-1 can be customized via a Web-based print, too. You can choose any unit of measurement, various fonts, upload a logo (or other graphic), and then print the high-resolution scaled image directly onto transparency paper. Use your included blank faces, overlay the clear cut-out, and you’ve got a custom gauge face.

Using the XD-16’s serial ports, you can daisy-chain other Innovate devices such as the LC-1, the AuxBox (LMA-3), the DL-32, the TC-4, and the SSI-4. And speaking of the DL-32, Innovate sent us one of those to try out as well. The DL-32 data logger and sensor controller is a complete vehicle-mounted data-logging system for advanced engine tuning, and is capable of reading input from all sorts of sensors, including rpm, MAP, temperature, duty cycle, and analog inputs. There are 32 channels of data recording and 17 minutes of recording per MB of the included SD flash memory card, along with a built-in one-bar to three-bar pressure sensor (MAP, vacuum, boost, and so on).

The majority of your time for installation will be dedicated to deciding where to mount and route the various pieces of the modular tuning system. We spent a couple of hours on the install and were up and data logging in no time. Make sure you have your LC-1 oxygen sensor operating before you run your engine, otherwise the hot exhaust gases can damage it.

Innovate also warns against using leaded gasoline, as the wide-band sensors were designed for unleaded. Using them with leaded gasoline significantly reduces the lifespan of the sensor. In most cases, a wide-band sensor provides accurate measurements somewhere between 50 and 500 hours with leaded fuel. With that said, you’ll have a lot of fun being more informed about what’s going on in the combustion chambers, and the data-logging capability will help you nail down that tune-up every time.