[V8] New member + O2 sensor fun

[Josh Marzolf]

Hi all, my name is Tony, I just came across this list on audiworld
yesterday, so if my questions have been answered in the archives already,
forgive me, I haven't found them yet. Feel free to point in in the right
direction if this is the case...

Ok for starters I own a 1990 V8 with about 118,000mi on the chassis &
tranny, about 85,000mi on the engine, she's been mine for 2 years.

My beast has a good sized whole in the exaust right underneath the driver's
seat. (middle muffler has already rotted & been replaced with straight
pipes.) Slushy, wet roads have been getting the O2 sensor wet through this
hole (I think), causing the all too familiar stalling & bogging from the
engine...

I've dealt with O2 sensor issues on this car a couple times before and have
replaced it twice, most recently about 6 months ago. I used the
buy-a-ford-sensor-and-splice-it-in-method both times, using soldered
connections. (3 wire)
*
*
She's going in to the shop(s) for some repairs including the exhaust so I
thought I would just take care of this at the same time, but I'm being told
that splicing the O2 sensor in won't work because the wires need to be a
certain length for a correct signal, I'm thinking about forgoing the
laziness and just doing it myself again, but is this true about the wire
length?  I know the O2 sensor signal is very sensitive; i had to do some
troubleshooting to get it to work correctly in the past (crimped
connections, 4 wire sensors i didn't know how to properly wire).....*Also
what are the odds that it just needs to dry out & won't be an issue after
the exhaust is fixed?*

Thanks in advance.