[brucepick]

Low cost air temp readout:

For anyone who like me is driving a car that can't support a ScanGauge (pre '96), you can get an "Interior/Exterior" thermometer for about $10 that will do it. I got mine from Autozone. JCWhitney.com and Advance Auto also sell them. Probably most big box auto retailers so.

This past December I restored the regulated warm air intake in my daily driver, installing the thermometer was part of that project.

As my new route is drastically different from anything I've driven in the last couple years I can't comment on whether it actually helps FE however I'm very happy that when it's 20 deg. or less outside, the intake air temp is generally between 75-90 deg F. Darn close to the range some suspect is ideal. And as MetroMPG pointed out, I think it has to help get the car warmed up sooner.

I installed the sensor into the airbox after drilling a small access hole for the wire. The wire lead supplied with the unit was long enough for me to place the display on my dash, nicely mounted (Velcro) on a home-built bracket. I did need to cut the wire to get the sensor inside the airbox, and soldered the cut wire back together. You want maximum wire conductivity as the sensor's resistance is quite high.

Low effort, good result.