3.0L V6 O2 sensor: 4-wire/2-wire dichotomy

1990 3.0L V6 in a Mighty Max pickup 4WD most likely needs a new O2 sensor. Two major supply houses want ~$150-US for the item- ouch. Two other chain stores offer Beck/Arnley replacement units for ~$35-US, so I grabbed one of these. These cheaper ones require the re-use of the plug and wire stubs, but this is no big deal. When the order arrived it was a 2-wire sensor and there was no poop-sheet in the box, again no big deal. But checking my factory manual the V6 has a 4-wire sensor (with heater) so I am entering new territory here as I have only replaced GM/Ford 2-wire (one-wire) types before.

Thinking between the lines about this leads me to deduce that the

2-wire O2 sensor they supplied will indeed fit and work for this application. For the considerable cost savings the downside might be that, without the heater, the engine might not quite fully comply with the original emissions testing scheme. But it just might work 'like new' for all means and purposes in the real world as we know it. Especially in a 13 year old vehicle that otherwise would continue to be driven with a bad O2 sensor and thus be way off scale for clean operation. Yet, without the heater the vehicle would technically not be in stock OEM form, thus the lack of poop-sheet in the box and any other discussion about this whole topic. Search of Google yielded me nothing on this but I did not exhaust all possibilities.

Anyone been here before, or remember discussion about this? TIA, sp