I am after a Lambda sensor and gauge (to check lean/rich).

I have seen Lambda sensors on eBay for £10.00 and gauges for £18.00.

Can i use any Lambda sensor to a gauge?

Think you need a wideband sensor for that application (ie not just telling the ecu the basic info it needs.)

Sadly not that simple

You need a wideband sensor (about £45), and also a controller (JAW, LC-1, or something like that), and a gauge.
LC-1 including sensor can be bought for around £150.


You might be able to do something cheaply with a narrowband sensor (i.e. >14.7 or < 14.7) but I don't know anything about how you would wire up one of those, and really it isn't what you want.

Matt

Yep, the keyword here is WIDEBAND. A cheap narrowband will not give you any kind of control as it is more like an on/off switch. The LC-1 is probably the best one to go for and only takes a couple of hours to install it properly, making sure that all the earths, powers and signals are connected to the most suitable points as they are VERY sensitive to noise on their circuits.

Narrow band sensors are very simple to wire up. they are quite useful when installing older style LPG system to give a warning of too lean a mixture.
The output is a voltage that " switches " between about 0.2 and 0.8v they either read lean or rich very rarely anywhere in the middle.

[Edited on 31/12/10 by britishtrident]

I built a JAW - at the time it cost about £110 for the wideband senson, controller and display.

Have a look at this:

Link to video

I think the LC1 controllers are a bit neater though. This allowed me to set my bike carbs up quite easily without a rolling road.

Stu

I use these

http://www.vems.co.uk/VEMSWB/UserGuide/README.html

More versatile than LC1 with more facilities inc. EGT on the same 50mm gauge. EGT is vital when setting up an engine so you need that too if you are going to map your own engine.

The unit can feed a narrow band signal out to the ecu which can be fudged to alter the cruise fueling of stock ecu's to get more economy. With closed loop lambda control, it is only working at partial throttle settings and at WOT you will be on map. At least with an ecu anyway, obviously there is no closed loop control with carbs!

Never felt the need for EGT on the 'Four SD