I'm pretty new to diy auto repair, and I'm doing a head gasket replacement on a carb'd 87 civic. I broke off the wire at the o2 sensor in the exhaust manifold. Once I'm done putting the engine back together, will it be safe to try and start the engine without the o2 sensor? Could I drive it to the auto parts store to fix/replace the sensor? Or, could I just solder the wire back to the strands sticking out of the sensor housing and call it good?

 

The single wire O2 sensors only get read once the engine is up to operating temperature due to how they work. Your gas mileage may be lowered, emission issues, among other things but you will be fine. The system will run rich to protect the engine from no O2 feedback. Just replace the sensor, IIRC they are only $20 - $30 anyways.

 

it's the feedback carb, carb is jetted rich and allows air into the system to lean the mixture, so default is rich, I just threw one of those out when I converted to my carb setup, I would have just sent it to you