Craig Williams wrote: >> I am putting an oxygen sensor in the Smith. I am leaning (no pun intended) >> twords the LED bar meter because I think it would require less thought. Just >> pull the mixture until you're in the green. Any real reason to have numbers >> or >> a needle gauge?
Assuming it's a gauge with green in the middle and yellow/orange LEDs and then red on the ends (something like a 10-element display), it'll be fine. You'll find that as the sensor ages, the AFR ratio will climb (or sometimes decrease), so the center point will not be green forever, more than likely. The numbers will be useless. So I agree...it requires far less thought. After a hundred hours or so (if running 100LL) you'll start wondering why it seems to be running lean (RPM drop) but the meter will still be reading rich, and that's your clue that you need a new sensor. If you're like me, you'll lean based on a combination of RPM drop and hitting the "correct" GPH level on the fuel totalizer, set at your usual cruise RPM. Once the get the engine dialed in and know exactly what to expect to get optimium mileage, you'll automatically do all of this without even thinking about it. The beauty of the mixture meter is that one glance can tell you in general "rich or lean". That has saved my butt more than once on takeoff when the engine stumbled and one glance said "go full rich dummy!". And if you're already full rich, vapor lock is setting in, and it's time to pull the throttle back and cool the engine off... Mark Langford ML at N56ML.com http://www.n56ml.com
