Building a tuneable O2 sensor????????
My son has a 1988 K5 Blazer with a TBI 350 that is bone stock with the exception that it has an after market duel exhaust system installed with duel cats, crossover pipe, stainless steel mufflers, and all plumbed with alluminized pipe, a very nice system. Like almost everyone that has ventured down this road the Check Engine light comes on ever so often and checking the codes gives a bad O2 sensor which is pretty common with these exhaust conversions from what I understand. It just got a new O2 sensor just to be on the safe side and nothing changed. I have noticed that the harder this engine is run the less the light comes on and it seems to like the heat of the summer better than the cool of the winter because it comes on far less in the summer. I have talked to some one that can write us a custom chip for this situation and they say this would probably fix the problem, but no guarantees. I was driving home from work the other day and grilling myself about how there might be an alternative cure for this problem and that is when it hit me: What if you put a potentiometer in line with this O2 sensor and made it adjustable? Sounds kind of far fetched but the more I thought about the more I think it just might work. I guess the biggest issue would be to know if the O2 sensor gains or looses resistance as it heats up and if so how much and at what point will it flag an alarm and set the check engine light off? Any help from you tech guys would be greatly appreciated........