Heated oxygen sensor

[NullHead]

So I was curious if any thirdgen guys here have ever tried a heated oxygen sensor on their car. I recently got a scanner (Snap-on Verus) and was outside scanning my Firebird last night and noticed how incredibly long it took the 02 to warm up till it would switch properly ... like it would read constantly lean unless I kept the RPMs at 2500 and then it would start switch. A good 10 minutes after the car reached operating temperature the 02 started to switch like normal, and it would go rich/lean like it should, but it really shouldn't take so damn long for the 02 sensor to warm up .... so I was looking on TGO and found that Summit carries a sensor that has a heater and still plugs into your stock harness. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CEI-103025

I already ordered it, but I was just curious what to expect here .... I mean, it would technically run "more' stoichiometric faster I suppose, but I'm just curious if it would really improve performance at all ... like it would just run better faster I suppose. I have short tubes on it now, so that's probably a contributing factor because I have the 02 right at the collector, but chances are, if it were in an exhaust manifold it would heat up faster and probably read better.

Any benefits of a custom chip for a stock 305TBI with shorties? I'm going to go TPI eventually just to tide me over until I can get all my body work done ... Needs floors dealt with, rear swapped, exhaust, new fuel/brake lines etc.

[WMCCjames]

Your old O2 sensors were probbaly just getting old and lazy. Unheated sensors take about 3 minutes to hit temp and start switching. Yes, you will notice better warm up performance with the heated ones. I always ran heated on my old TPI motor.

[hoogiesngrinderz]

I run a wideband O2 and narrowband on my 89, both are useless under 2500 rpm due to the cam.