How Lean can you go before you hurt things

i have read 13.4/13.5 is about it on pump gas and this is pushing it...

i have read people with mailorder tunes hit 14.1 on pulls will this not hurt the eng this lean .....


What is better fpr power..... AFR or timming or can you get or do you want the best of both worlds here...

Or should you set up the Afr and then start adding in the timming until you show knock...

thx

 

You don't need to go leaner than 13.2.. I tune for 12.8-13.2 and I don't run it that lean just to be safe, I do it because TOO LEAN can not only break $hit but it can HURT power as well.. You can actually have NOT ENOUGH FUEL by running that lean!!

 

I have just read what people say on where they like the AFR.
Yes you can break stuff when you are to lean but what is to lean...and if the car makes the most power at 13.4 why not leave it...

 

It really depends on the car, but in general for N/A I prefer to keep it between 12.5 and 13.2. Any leaner than low 13s for the A/F ratio seems to end up with damaged parts. Going richer doesn't hurt when it comes to safety, but you usually won't produce as much power the richer you go. But it's going to be dependant on the car. Some cars like a leaner mixture and some like a richer one to make the most power. You really need a dyno and a wideband to figure it out.

 

Isn't 12.5-13.2 a/r ratio running rich? I thought the way you read a a/f mixture was 12.5 parts air to 1 part fuel?

 

The stoichiometric value for air to fuel of gasoline is 14.7 pounds of air to 1 pound of gasoline. This is the perfect ratio for when you are just driving around under normal conditions at light load. However, you do not want this ratio for when you are trying to produce maximum power under a heavy load (WOT). In general, for an N/A motor, you want between 12.5 and 13.2 for the A/F ratio. While this is certainly rich when you compare it to 14.7 A/F, it is not rich when you consider all the factors for producing power. Again, this is just a generalization, I've seen some cars make more power with a 12.0 A/F ratio than a 12.5. It's going to be dependant on the car and the conditions.

 

Please tell me HOW you know this?? What did you do to come up to this conclusion that your car runs best at 13.4?!?!?!

 

I don't know that my car run's the best here....i have been reading post here on this board and 13.4 comes up as a stoping point for going lean...all i am saying is that i am going to try my car out on the dyno at this afr and see what happens.....

Just asking what people think of this....what there stoping point is for afr....

 

So my statement that running 12.5-13.2 is running rich under NORMAL driving conditions. BUT at WOT, lets just say 12.5, is a lean condition, depending on your mods and what your motor needs.
I also had another question about adjusting the afr with TunerCat, can you adjust the afr in WOT?