Doesn't the lead in the race gas burn out your average O2 sensor fairly quickly or are you running plugs specially designed for running "gas" applications.

 

AFAIK, lead will kill a catalytic converter rather quickly. I don't think it will do an 02 sensor much good either. The choice of plugs will not prevent damage to either system.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Perfectionist &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">AFAIK, lead will kill a catalytic converter rather quickly. I don't think it will do an 02 sensor much good either. The choice of plugs will not prevent damage to either system.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I know. when running race gas, what O2 sensors are people running since the lead pretty much kills them? I meant to say "how are you supposed to get by w/ running a leaded gas...."

Sorry for the confusion as I just re read what I wrote and it made no sense to me either.

 

Generally the wideband O2 sensors made by NTK will withstand a certain amount of lead contamination before readings are significantly affected. Also, generally, Bosch sensors die almost instantly (or at least measured in mere minutes). I say generally because both NTK and Bosch make more than one model of sensor, some doing better than others with leaded fuels. We have found that NTK sensors will last a few hours running with an engine that's properly tuned. An engine running very rich will rapidly shorten the lifespan however.

One of the reasons we designed and developed an complete computer-controlled water methanol injection system was partially in response to the dilema of lead fuels and wideband O2 sensors. For street cars, we never use race gas anymore since it's no longer required with water methanol injection. Sanctioned racing usually means race gas and a race budget part of which gets spent of many O2 sensors.

Ross.

 

Are you running high enough boost or alot of compression to even warrant a leaded race fuel? You can get unleaded race fuels in (I believe) up to 105-108 octane. I run 100 octane Cam 2 (unleaded) with the Bosch sensor in my AEM UEGO and no problems.