Hello Paul
"Will the sensor be affected by leaded fuel ?"
I contacted several Mfgs of O2 Mixture displays and the answer is it will work
for
a while with leaded fuel.
Upon power up of the Split Second, it does the hebegeebees, and you can see the
sweep from lean to rich / lean to rich. It will be full deflection. Then once
lead
contamination begins, it will slow down but still go full deflection. Unlike on
a
auto where the response needs to be licketey split to control mixture, in this
application even if it took a few seconds to display correct that is complete
acceptable. When the sensor loses its ability to deflect full scale upon power
up
it is time to change. It is supposedly very apparent and easy to see things
going
south.
Split Second spent plenty of time precise mapping the O2 sensor they sell, and
they tout it as more than just a switch. Aircraft Spruce sells a mixture display
that uses a O2 sensor, I forget if they recommend 1 or 200 hour replacement of
O2
sensor.
I have not yet tried so all the above is only what was told me. My dart throw is
even with 100% use of 100LL ~ 75 plus hours??? It is an accumulative thing, use
a
tank of 100LL here and there and should get years and years.
Probably not very much an issue, but Silicone kills O2 sensors. O2 sensors do
draw
in outside air, if there is any fumes around it can hurt. Also because use of
Silicone based heat sink compound on the plug threads was a bit of concern, will
probably put in a plug and run motor for a few minutes upon re application of
silicone heat sink compound.
Supposedly the exact results of lead contamination are experienced with silicone
contamination, very noticeable.
Some coolants have silicone as a corrosion preventative in them, I forget if
rotax
wants silicone free?? Anyway if coolant ever gets into combustion chamber,
besides
cleaning out some carbon, if it has silicone in it it will probably fail the O2
sensor if used for mixture control.
Ron Parigoris
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