Innovate Motorsports LM-2 - Manual (Page 37)

Document # 31-0008 LM2_Manual_1.3.doc 37
6 Tips, Tricks, & Troubleshooting
6.1 Air/Fuel and Lambda
The Stoichiometric AFR value is the AFR multiplier. So for (standard, unblended)
gasoline its 14.7. If you set it to 14.7 the LM-2 display will show 14.7 AFR for Lambda
1.0. If you set it to 6.4 (methanol) the LM-2 will show 6.4 AFR for Lambda 1.0.
You can look at Lambda as the percent of richness. If running Lambda 0.85 (12.5 AFR
for gasoline) you are running 15% rich. For methanol 15% rich means 5.44 AFR. That's
where the value of Lambda comes in. If you run blended fuels where you don't know the
stoich value, you look at Lambda and adjust to 10-20% rich, depending where your max
power is. The % value of richness required by an engine (for max power) does change
relatively little (fairly independent of fuel). But if for example you adjust an engine
running methanol to 12.5 AFR, you would be running so lean that it would probably not
even run.
The LM-2 can be used to read Air/Fuel Ratio (AFR) or Lambda for an engine. For
gasoline-driven engines, the theoretically optimal air fuel ratio for efficiency is 14.7
pounds of air for every pound of fuel. At this ratio, theoretically, all available oxygen in
the air combines with all available fuel. This ratio is called the stoichiometric ratio.
Stoichiometric for different fuels are as follows:
Gasoline
14.7
LPG (Propane) 15.5
Methanol 6.4
Ethanol 9.0
CNG 17.2
Diesel 14.6
The measurement Lambda is the actual air fuel ratio over the stoichiometric ratio. A
Lambda measurement of “1” equates to the air fuel ratio of 14.7 (for gasoline engines).
When Lambda is less than 1 the engine runs “rich”, i.e., unburned fuel exists in the
exhaust stream. If lambda is greater than 1 the engine runs lean, i.e., free oxygen (0
2
) is
present in the exhaust. Depending on the engine, maximum power is typically delivered
when the engine runs slightly rich (for example at lambda values of 0.8 to 0.9 for most
engines). This instrument provides a means to measure the actual air fuel ratio or
lambda in the engine in operation directly from the exhaust. For this a special wide-band
oxygen sensor is used to measure the lambda value derived from the oxygen content
(or lack thereof) of the exhaust gases.