my car is running at 14.7 under WOT. If i have this correct, the higher the number(ie 16.7) is richer and the lower the number(ie 10.7) is leaner, right? Now from what i was reading, 14.7 is the perfect number for torque because it takes 14.7 kg's of air to combust 1kg of fuel? is this right?

 

got it backwards, the lower the number, the richer it is.

think of it this way...

say the a/f reads 12.0:1, that means theres 12 parts air and 1 part fuel. so if it reads 10.0:1, that means theres 10 parts air and 1 part fuel and it has less air than 12.0:1 so it means that its running richer. know what im saying?

 

are you using a wideband to determine that its running at 14.7 under WOT? That is the only way to tell with an acceptable degree of accuracy that the readings are correct. Under boost that is not a safe air/fuel ratio. When boosted cars are tuned they are generally tuned to produce 12.0-12.5:1 air fuel ratios.

 

no wideband. just a normal o2 voltage reading calculated into a/f. I think i get what your saying. Yeah that makes sense. I was reading a site and they were saying that 14.7 was the optimal torque area, so that would be good for any type of application right(ie turbo, n/a.....)? how come on a/f meters, when they are apparently running lean it shows a green light and rich shows a red light? that is the way mine works. I would think that that is backwards. I have a a/f gauge that shows the actual ratio(ie 14.7) and then the light of the area(ie green, red, orange). it also says that on a o2 voltage meter that a 1.0 is rich and a .1 is lean. so i think i am still missing something. you think they would make stoich a reasuring color like green and lean a color like red but that goes against what has been said up top. but anyway i think i am ok for now. thanks
brian