Best Temp. Gauges
 

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?

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.

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.

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.

...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.