Quote:
Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary
I don't know. For one, because fuel injection is already tuned. You can go leaner at the expense of more NOx, but other than that, you usually don't find some car with a fuel injection system that's all out of whack going way too rich and/or way too lean.
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I'm okay with that tradeoff. I had a problem with my old cat going bad, which got blocked, then blew the seal to the engine. So I had to replace the whole assembly. I'm pretty certain even if I run a lean mix and ruin the cat... something else on the car is going to fail before the brand new cat does.
By the way, the stuff that I've read about stoichiometry always points out that what every car manufacturer does is a compromise. Because of emissions regulations the engines are tuned not for peak performance nor fuel economy, but a happy middle ground that gives sufficient amount of everything with minimal emissions. Just small tweaks richer or leaner can give significant power / mileage, but throws off the sweet spot of the three-way cats.
In any event, I'm already convinced of the reality of lean burn to reduce fuel economy. I am also confident that if I go to a tuning shop with a dyno and fork out $1,500 they'll get me at least +5% increase in mpg. What I'm not convinced of is whether I can buy an off the shelf product like a chip for $150 and get similar results. That's really what I'm asking about whether anyone has experience with.