QUOTE(lmcchesney @ Jul 25 2004, 02:33 PM)
You must have thought about running a hose from the exhaust to the cab for sampling.
Has the unit been reliable and accurate?
i have, because kinda like a carburetor, a Bosch MFI pump has two "circuits" that control idle and "part-throttle." idle is easy enough to check and correct in the driveway but part-throttle has a long rigamarole that involves long constant-load pulls at 3000 rpm. and naturally, an adjustment to the part-throttle setting affects idle, but not vice versa ... at the moment, i'm going by general performance, fuel economy, and plug reads to have a clue on the part-throttle but i'd really like to have a better handle on it. this is tricky due to the need for a draft-free, exhaust-free environment for the main unit.
i believe it is pretty accurate, certainly for the price. it -does- tend to drift some, which is the standard complaint. IOW - you calibrate it in free air, make some changes, get your readings, re-compare to free air only to discover that it's drifted a bit. not a lot. but if you're playing "anal retentive tuner" and want EXACTLY 4,5% CO it can take a few tries to have the degree of confidence you want.
it is A LOT more accurate than trying to tune by smell, plug reads, "feeling" the lean-surge/rich-hunt zone, or any other kind of shadetree voodoo tuning. sure, i'd rather have a 5-gas analyzer and rolling-road chassis dyno, but for me trying to get my tune 'on the paper' from the total unknown state i got it, it was worth the money for me. and this is a "known combination" all-spec engine, so pretty much all i need to do is turn the knobs until i get the numbers specified in the factory manual.
it's not like i'm trying to dial in a whole new setup (yet...).