Intake temperature monitoring

[MegatronUK]

I was just wondering how I am going to be able to judge whether the boot mount intercooler and the boot mounted scoop etc.. is going to be working efficiently? I may not have a big enough scoop, or the air pressure underneath may be too great, or the cooling fan may not work properly at motorway speeds....

Is there any way of measuring the intake temperatures, say before the IC and after it, to judge its effectiveness? If you could use some kind of temperature sensor then you could wire them into a couple of gauges up front -> pre-intercooler temp and post-intercooler temp.

Whats the best way of doing this? Drilling a hole in the hardpipes that go to and from the intercooler? Has anyone done this?

[Driftin_AW]

i did exactly that on my GT-Four, bought a couple of thermistor temp gauges from a local electronics store, cut the ends off the probes to expose the thermistor (made it react about 100x faster to temp changes), then drilled holes that were slightly too small into the rubber pipe joiners and poked them through. I did however have a problem with one of them blowing out all the time, but I think that was because I didn't have any form of blowoff valve.
If only those gauges were backlit, I would use them in every car I own!

[Paul Woods]

yep my 1.5 had this covered too.....i mounted an Equus digital air temp gauge on the dash and a small thermistor dangled in the airstream just before the throttle body,i just slipped the wire under the IC pipe rubber joint....this let me monitor intake temps before the supra IC install and after.I saw a 10 deg drop from 55 degs (when thrashed) to 45degs (also being thrashed) on a similarly temped day and at the same height above sea level.

[MegatronUK]

Paul, did the sensor come with the gauge?

I quite like the look of this gadget from Maplin:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...34932&doy=8m5D


Only thing is one of the sensors is internal.. the other is on a 3m lead.

[adamh]

i had one in the mk1!..still have.. i used for a similar reason, they are o.k.. ..the sensor so to speak..is a little sticky plastic pad about 10mm diameter and a mil thick on the end of the wire,.. you'd have to stick it somewhere!

[Paul Woods]

the equus gauge i had came with a sensor and about 4m of cable...it was a regular 52mm gauge that went into a Tim pod.