O2 sensor without drilling and welding Lightning headers
 

I called Lightning this morning about welding a bung in my headers. They said not to do it because welding on the headers will compromise the coating inside the tubing and shorten their lifespan. I came up with an idea of mounting the sensor in a tube approximately 24" long with the wirng running inside the tube. Then remove my flappers and stick the tube inside the exhaust coming in thru the tips at the back of the boat. Then clamp in place and run. Does this sound reasonable?

O2 sensors do not like any moisture.

I plan on making the tube long enough so that the sensor is in the dry portion of the exhaust.

no.

Why not Rookie?

I am still working thru this idea in my head. Ive been looking at some sniffers car guys have fabbed up and am pretty sure I can make this work. My bung will be welded onto a 1" diameter pipe that is approximately 24" long. That will get the forward tip of the pipe up into the dry portion of the exhaust. I will put a 2" S-curve bend at the forward end of the pipe so it will be sniffing from the center of my riser. The bung will be welded in 2" from the back end of the pipe. I will clamp this pipe to the top side of my slash cut tips with the sensor at 12 o clock. 20" of the pipe will be inside the exhaust and the last 4" (including the sensor) will stick out the back. I can easily move this to sample both sides of the motor.

So the o2 is going to be 2" up inside the pipe, which would be right near the end of the tailpipe?

I dont think thats going to work, I think it would still get wet.

We battled this on dads 253 in my description, we had one welded in the collector before the water entry and it still sucked back up on deceleration and we killed 2 of those *****es @ $120 a piece.

Hadley, that is an interesting idea. I assume you are just doing this temporarily to get a reading to dial in your tune on your engine, right? It might work, just wondering if there will be enough "signal" traveling down a small diameter tube for that distance. I would be interested in seeing the articles from car tuners that you reference.

I know others have tried to install O2 bungs in Lightnings with mixed results at best. I think it was EZstriper who had all kinds of problems with his getting wet.

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...g-headers.html

I have Lightnings on my mill too, so I would be real curious if you could get it to work. I think the key would be to take the reading at least 8 inches ahead of where the water is introduced into the exhaust flow. Good luck with it, and let us know how it works out!

Yes, my pipe will be stuck up my exhaust past the flappers and terminate right near the collector. I am guessing about 20" without measuring. I can always adjust it a little fore and aft if necessary. Then maybe I should have my pipe stick out the back of my exhaust further than the 4" I previously mentioned. How about 10" sticking out the back with a 45 degree bend up with the sensor mounted 2" from the end. This will keep the sensor high and dry and keep me from ingesting any water from a wave approaching from the backside.

Yes this would be temporary only. Test one side then switch and check other side.

When I called Lightning about welding on my Headers they guessed they would have a lifespan of 1 year after I disturbed the coating on the inside of the pipes by welding a bung on them.

If this works out it could be real handy for guys to check there AFR's by purchasing a $150 AFR gauge and a $5 piece of pipe. The articles/ pictures I found by googling "O2 sniffer"