Best Temp. Gauges

[Diesel_Dave]

I'm looking into adding some heaters to my truck to improve the warm-up FE. I need to monitor the temps to see how well I'm doing as well as to make sure I don't overheat anything.

My question is what are the best temperature gauges to use without spending a whole lot of money. Since I don't need high accuracy, I'm thinking mechanical-type gauges are probably best (and fairly inexpensive).

What are other people's experiences about the best types, brands, etc?

[Daox]

I'd just get a ScanGaugeII or ScanGaugeE. It'll tell you all you need to and more, plus it'll pay for itself with the fuel savings you'll see from using it.

[TheEnemy]

Ready-Made Insulated Thermocouples, Models 5TC-GG, 5TC-TT

$60 for 5 K type thermocouples, can be placed practically anywhere and most decent multimeters can read them.

edit: I think you would still have to get connectors.

[Diesel_Dave]

Originally Posted by Daox

I'd just get a ScanGaugeII or ScanGaugeE. It'll tell you all you need to and more, plus it'll pay for itself with the fuel savings you'll see from using it.

The SG can't tell me temperature of things there aren't sensors for. I don't believe I have temp sensors for oil or tranny temp and I know I don't have anything in the axle.

[Old Tele man]

...how "hot" are the "places" you need to measure? 100ºF, 200ºF or more?

...if anticipated temperature(s) are less than 150ºF, buy a cheap, battery-powered, remote weather sensor with a remote sensing "bulb" from Wally-world or Tarjay and tape the sensor to whatever it is you want to measure.

...if the sensor overheats or melts, simply buy a replacement plug-in sensor.