Using PLM as temporary diagnostic tool?

[Chris Wilson]

I sometimes want to use my PLM as a temporary diagnostic / tuning tool on cars without a weld in adaptor to screw the wideband sensor into. I want to be able to probe the exhaust tailpipe and sample gasses there. Has anyone come up with a way of getting a stock wideband sensor to sniff gasses from the tailpipe, either by using a pump from a normal automotive gas analyser and passing the cool gasses over a heated sensor remotely cited, or by simply sticking a stock wideband sensor as far up the tailpipe as the heat resistant lead section will allow? 99% of test will be at idle or fast idle, cars on the dyno will almost certainly be pre prepped with a weld in adaptor to take the wideband sensor conventionally. Thanks.

[AdamW]

For the majority of car engines the standard tail pipe clamp types work fine, most chassis dyno operators use these even for tuning/mapping. If you do a google image search for "lambda sensor clamp" you will find some pictures of some DIY setups if you want to build one yourself or the very common "innovate" branded part. You can pick up the innovate part for about USD$75.

For race engines with open headers and many motorcycles there is too much reversion for this type of setup so in these situations you really need a bung close to the head. I have used a chassis dyno that had the vacuum pump setup but it gave quite slow resopnse compared my normal tailpipe setup and I'm not sure what the advantage was meant to be.