Lean Or Rich

[Eclipseturbo4]

do you want to run a car lean or rich im so confused

 

[Loewen21]

haha confusing. let me see if i can make some sense of this. You want the car to run rich, but you want to lean it out (remove fuel) to the point that you are as lean as possible without knock.

 

[gdmbat85]

Neither. you want a car to run stoich. running a car lean will give you more power. however it will cause excess heat and too lean and you'll burn your engine. rich will keep your engine from burning. however too rich and youll start building up gunk (carbon) on your valves, pistons etc. if your still confused, lean means that there is more air and less fuel. rich means that there is less air and more fuel. a stoich mix is a mix of aprox. 14.7 units of air per 1 unit of fuel.

 

[Loewen21]

True. For daily driving stoich. would be the best. No threat to the engine. But for optimal performance what i said previously is true i believe. Could be wrong. Depends what you're using the car for.

 

[snox135]

running a car lean will give you more power.

Not always true. Some engines will make more power by adding more fuel (to a point). Our older snocross sleds we always ran very lean (white plugs) because that gave us the best power and we weren't WOT long enough to melt a piston or get alot of knock. With a new motor in 99 we found out we get make more power by running them much richer. The new motor really seem to like alot of fuel. F1, Indy, and Champ cars all run this way also. To save fuel they will lean the motors out but make less power, when they need the power they will richen the mixture.

 

[Loewen21]

Not always true. Some engines will make more power by adding more fuel (to a point). Our older snocross sleds we always ran very lean (white plugs) because that gave us the best power and we weren't WOT long enough to melt a piston or get alot of knock. With a new motor in 99 we found out we get make more power by running them much richer. The new motor really seem to like alot of fuel. F1, Indy, and Champ cars all run this way also. To save fuel they will lean the motors out but make less power, when they need the power they will richen the mixture.

Exactly! You will need to use a logger to find the best mixture for yourself. The leanest without knock will give you the most power. How lean that is varies for your engine depending on variables such as age etc.

 

[luvmygst]

Neither. you want a car to run stoich. running a car lean will give you more power. however it will cause excess heat and too lean and you'll burn your engine. rich will keep your engine from burning. however too rich and youll start building up gunk (carbon) on your valves, pistons etc. if your still confused, lean means that there is more air and less fuel. rich means that there is less air and more fuel. a stoich mix is a mix of aprox. 14.7 units of air per 1 unit of fuel.

Run your turbo car at 14.7:1 and tell me how long it lasts. You want to get Stoich. while cruising and idle, while under boost you need air/fuel closer to 11:1, 12:1. IN other words rich.
This question could take pages to answer your best bet is to do some research. Here is one place to start.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-fuel_ratio

 

[Eclipseturbo4]

thanks guys

 

[TalonTsi31]

that depends on the application at which your running it for.track?road?. and how much air is going in if you have more air(bigger turbo) you can run alittle rich to geet better combustion and horsepower.

 

[luvmygst]

that depends on the application at which your running it for.track?road?. and how much air is going in if you have more air(bigger turbo) you can run alittle rich to geet better combustion and horsepower.

IT doesnt really depend on what you are running it for, it depends more on the load on the motor. You can get more power by leaning a turbo motor out just like a N/A motor. The extra fuel is a saftey factor, it keeps combustion temps down among other things Desired AFR depends on alot of stuff,chamber design, timing advance just to name a few.