Sniper O2 Bung Extender & Cheap Sensors (1 Viewer)

[Steamer]

Since the Sniper install, I encountered my second O2 sensor failure so I thought I would try the “Innovate Bung Extender”recommended by a few folks here. My spare “Bosch O2 Sensor” came from eBay & was half the price of anywhere else I found. Now that it’s installed and working fine, I picked up two more spares from the same seller. They seem genuine to me.

We’ll see how the extender works out before I move the bung downstream and at a better angle.

 

[mrboatman]

Since the Sniper install, I encountered my second O2 sensor failure so I thought I would try the “Innovate Bung Extender”recommended by a few folks here. My spare “Bosch O2 Sensor” came from eBay & was half the price of anywhere else I found. Now that it’s installed and working fine, I picked up two more spares from the same seller. They seem genuine to me.

We’ll see how the extender works out before I move the bung downstream and at a better angle.

View attachment 2856452

View attachment 2856457

Let us know how it works. I`m on my 3rd O2 sensor now. Did the e-bay sensor plug into the sniper plug?

 

[MOTOV8R]

Wow that extender is pricey. Would something like this work?

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[Steamer]

Did the e-bay sensor plug into the sniper plug?

Yes! exact same plug.
When I got my Sniper from Holley, I did not get the kit, so I got all the peripherals separately. I ordered an O2 sensor from them but unknowingly, one came with the “basic” Sniper, so I had a spare right from the start. The one included was marked “Holley” and the one I ordered separately was the Bosch. The Bosch has a cord 18” longer than the one marked “Holley”. The shorter Holley one was the perfect length for my configuration, so I just have stow the excess on the Bosch.

 

[snaggletto]

I did some looking into a wide band O2 gauge setup for carb tuning a while back. I found nothing but failed O2 sensor complaints in all the reviews.

I wonder if an actual OEM sensor from Toyota, Ford, GM etc. would work with the Sniper setup? None of the big car makers have this high of failure rate with O2 sensors.

I’m loving the simplicity of my rebuilt stock carb right about now. Good luck.

 

[Steamer]

Wow that extender is pricey.

Yup, it is.

Would something like this work?

The one you show is just a longer bung.
The pricey one is totally different. The sensor is protected and has an entry & exit hole. It also has cooling fins machined in. Mosely said he uses them with every Sniper install so that was good enough for me to try it out.

 

[mrboatman]

Yes! exact same plug.
When I got my Sniper from Holley, I did not get the kit, so I got all the peripherals separately. I ordered an O2 sensor from them but unknowingly, one came with the “basic” Sniper, so I had a spare right from the start. The one included was marked “Holley” and the one I ordered separately was the Bosch. The Bosch has a cord 18” longer than the one marked “Holley”. The shorter Holley one was the perfect length for my configuration, so I just have stow the excess on the Bosch.

Yea I`ve been buying the Bosh units for about $68.00 so your e-bay units are a great find

 

[MOTOV8R]

I did some looking into a wide band O2 gauge setup for carb tuning a while back. I found nothing but failed O2 sensor complaints in all the reviews.

I wonder if an actual OEM sensor from Toyota, Ford, GM etc. would work with the Sniper setup? None of the big car makers have this high of failure rate with O2 sensors.

I’m loving the simplicity of my rebuilt stock carb right about now. Good luck.

Bosch probably supplies the sensors to the OEMs.

 

[Steamer]

I wonder if an actual OEM sensor from Toyota, Ford, GM etc. would work with the Sniper setup? None of the big car makers have this high of failure rate with O2 sensors.

Maybe. I don’t know much about them, but I did find out that not all O2 sensors operate the same and there are numerous plug styles and some even have different amounts of wires.

I doubt the problem lies with the quality of the Bosch sensor. In my case, my sensor is not in an ideal location. Ideally the best location would be on top in a horizontal pipe but that is not feasible for me because of the way I wheel in the swamp with deep water and heavy brush. I could safely move it down to the diagonal portion of the pipe and have it looking down on a 45deg. If this extender doesn’t give me satisfactory results, I may do that.

 

[MOTOV8R]

A lot of good info in this thread, thanks for sharing this Steamer. I will be installing the o2 sensor for the sniper pretty soon.

 

[Dizzy]

My Nissan 720 has an aftermarket wide-band readout lives on the dash. The truck came factory with an O2 sensor that controlled a carb enrichment solenoid - the engineers got the O2 sensor position correct in the exhaust, I assume. It is a one-wire sensor, so it relies on exhaust temp, which was insufficient, at times, when I had the exact same sensor and readout behind my 2F header.

The sensor is a controlled ground, on a microvolt scale. At 600, or whatever, degrees F, right. So, if you have more O2 (not necessarily lean, could just be unburnt mix) then it reads a lower voltage because oxygen can conduct as a ground. Please correct me if I am wrong. But, on my set-up, if I want to have a leaner reading on my dash, I can simply turn on the running lamps. Could be electrical, could be greater alternator load on crank pulley? The point is that if the electrical potential of the exhaust pipe is a bit off from that of the battery negative, it isn't going to work right, it would read lean if the exhaust ground rusted away, or the battery voltage drops beyond a certain range, like when the alternator stops charging immediately when the engine is off. Well, the same thing for a $20 radio in my FJ40 I made from Amazon computer speakers, it doesn't work, or shall I say, it picks up tons of noise, apparently body panels on the truck are so badly grounded that the coil firing creates a tone due to the difference in potential, it changes in pitch with rpm, like an audio type of tachometer. Electrical charge is always relative to its environment, so if the battery positive is doing all this drama when the points-type voltage regulator, way on the other side of the engine and wiring harness, you gotta wonder how that reads as microvolts at the O2 sensor? Can a contact-points type voltage regulator and , in my case from 1975 with original harness, be a 100% compatible match for whatever is reading the O2 sensor? They use solid state voltage regulators for alternators now, is my understanding, and for some reason, my voltage regulator has fewer wires than that of later Cruisers?

My 2F probably burns too much oil for O2 sensors to work properly, but, I can't help but wonder about the temperature range for a non-heated, one-wire sensor, and the electrical environment required. If the O2 sensor itself is cold, the reading will be rich on the dash readout, but, we know that it is just cold. Well, last winter no amount of driving would bring the readings into normal range, still too rich on the dash, and all the driving symptoms are related to a lean-feeling condition, which was easy to fix as enrichment is as easy as putting a vac plug on the line to the power valve.

My best conclusion has been a simple, I don't know, but, I'm still interested in following up on the mystery.

 

[White Stripe]

I think my wideband gauge uses a Bosch sensor. I have it mounted vertical from the top. It's never been replaced.

 

[zerotreedelta]

I'd wager most of the issues for the OP are from having the sensor a bit too horizontal - they like a bit of vertical to the installation.

Holley calls out at least 10*, so it'd be happier on that 45* section or on the horizontal run. I suppose one could kick it upward on that that vertical run as well, but not sure how well it'd pick up the exhaust flow at that point.

 

[Steamer]

I believe you’re right Zero. Moving it down to the diagonal should help. I plan to pull the head soon so that would be a convenient time to move it. Mabey this extender will help it till then.

 

[Steamer]

Thought I’d update this thread. Before the head rebuild, I moved the bung down a little further after the first bend where the pipe is angled and installed a 45-degree angle bung. The sensor now points close to straight down and I’m still using the extender. With a fresh new sensor, I made several swamp trips and it I seems to be happy there.

 

[Steamer]

I also wanted to update on my O2 sensor purchases on eBay. Before the head rebuild, I wasn’t getting a lot of life out of sensors, so I’ve been through several.

The first two I got on eBay from seller “curpauto68” (pictured above) worked fine but eventually died (before the head rebuild) & they got quite sooty. Cleaning wasn’t successful. I bought another one on eBay but not realizing at the time, from another seller “calmkaari”. This also worked fine until I pulled the head for a rebuild.

After the rebuild I bought two more from “calmkarri”. I wanted to start of with a fresh new sensor after the new cam break-in and then have a spare. After the break-in, I put in one of the two new ones from “calmkarri” even though the older one was working fine. As soon as I started up with the new one, the AFR was flashing rapidly back and forth from a normal reading to extremely high and in the red. I re-installed the old one and all was good. I then installed the second new one and it was similar as the first but flashing rapidly between normal, yellow and red. Just to be prepared for a discussion with the seller on a return, I rotated the three sensors again with the same results. I’m now running fine with the older sensor.

I ordered another one from the original seller that I used “curpaauto68” and returned the two bad ones to “calmkaari” which is still in transit.

The one from “curpaauto68” just arrived. It is not in a box, has no protective cap on the end and just stuffed into the gray & black shipping bag. I can see wrench marks on it and some scratches near the tip. It clearly looks used. I’m returning this one without bothering to test. I don’t want to be blamed for wrench marks and scratches.

 

[pbgbottle]

I have not much to offer but I refuse to use the Bosch sensor on my 2004 Astro van 4.3 vortec it hates the Bosch sensors. I look for O2 sensors that look like the oem Chevrolet ones ,just saying the Chevy and bosch sensor don’t play well together.