Why it's a bad idea to remove the O2 sensors.
We never recommned to remove the O2 (Lambda)sensorbecause it is a poor solution (or rather non-solution) When you remove the O2 sensor, the ECU will see the air/fuel ration as being too lean and will just go as rich as the software allows. But it will only do so in the situations where it is trusting the O2sensor signal which is when you ride the bike at steady speeds on the open roads (Closed loop) - this means that you will get the richer mixture where you need it the least and will basically just waste a lot of fuel.
And the combination of the O2 sensor in the exhaust and the BoosterPlug works brilliantly to our advantage:
The BoosterPlug is inactive when the O2 (Lambda) sensor in the exhaust is allowed to regulate the mixture back to the very lean factory level (This is called closed loop operation and is while you are riding the bike at constant speeds on the open roads at medium to high RPM's).
But the signal from the O2 sensor is not stable during low RPM,accleration and deceleration, and the fuel injection ECU knows this and will ignore the lambda sensor signal in these situations (This is open loop operation) - and now the BoosterPlug can do it's job.
This gives you the fuel enrichment where you need it most while keeping the fuel consumption low - and that makes the combination of the BoosterPlug and the O2sensor a very elegant solution.
If you want more information about the O2 or Lambda sensor, I suggest you download our e-book on motorcycle fuel injection here: (It’s free for everyone to download!)
Why you should avoid O2 sensor eliminators or devices that are tweaking the O2 sensor signal.
It's a tempting thought that it should be possible to make the air/fuel ratio richer by tweaking the O2 sensor signal, but in reality it's just as bad as just removing the sensors (As described above) Someof these products will definitely make the mixture richer, but you are no longer in control of the process and you willusually end up runningthe bike way too rich and just waste a lot of fuel for nothing. These devices can be divided into two groups: The O2 sensor eliminators and the O2 sensor tweakers:
O2 sensor eliminators.
The simple and cheap O2 (Lambda) sensor eliminators are usually just disconnecting the O2 sensor signal to the ECU, and they only contain a smal resistor for the heating circuit to avoid a fault warning in the dashboard. So they work similar to the O2 sensor removal described above, and they are not doing your bike any good.
O2 sensor signal tweakers.
The O2 sensor tweakers usually contains some kind of adjustment where you are supposed to be able to adjust the air/fuel ratio. Unfortunately the ordinary narrow band O2 sensor that is used in all motorcycles and cars is not really possible to tweak correctly (Because it is basically an on/off switch), and the air/fuel ratio you want to see is outside the operating range of the narrow band O2 sensor. When you try to adjust the mixture by changing the sensor signal, the ECU will just see the air/fuel ration as being too lean or too rich and will adjust the mixture very rich or very lean (Until it reaches the adjustment limits set by the ECU). So depending on which way you turn the adjustment knob, you will either waste a lot of fuel for nothing or to run the bike even leaner than stock - which could potentially harm your engine. And even if you could adjust the air/fuel ratio correctly this way, you would still get the richer mixture where the engine needs it the least !
