IAT probe, where to mount it?

[Sycostang67]

I got a temp guage to check on my intake air temperature. I was wondering where I should put the probe. Before the filter, after the filter, tube opening. I'm gonna try 3 different intake setups to see if there is any difference in temp.

 

[Chevyboy_0]

i would go right after the air filter or right before the intake screen, what are you trying to figure out with the IAT?

 

[rjjp]

I would put it right before the turbo, or between turbo and manifold.

 

[Sycostang67]

I've seen a lot of debating on the effectiveness of certain intake setups. I figured I'd try the 3 setups I have and see if there was any difference. It's just to satisfy my own curiosity. I'm going to check with my hypermax intake, the factory intake tube, and then no tube at all.

 

[argve]

Well in stock form on most vehicles they take the temp after the filter, in the tube headed to the intake. I think that would be as good a place as any...

Hats off to ya for doing the testing. I wonder what we will see. Reason I say this is on my dodge it took outside temp readings for the overhead display from under the drivers battery.

 

[Agnem]

The air in there is moving pretty fast. It's not going to change temp very much I wouldn't think, so mounting it where it is convienent would be satisfactory. For the purist though, obviously right before the intake screen would tell the truth. If you have a turbo, putting it there probably won't make a lot of sense since the temp is going to vary like crazy depending on throttle and RPM.

 

[dave186]

This got me thinking, I have a thermocouple for my multimeter that I have never used so I pulled it out and taped it to the aluminum tubing right out of my turbo. I stuck the meter under the windshield wiper . A quick trip around the block and I got it up to 160 on a small climb at about 55mph, ambient temp was about 45. I will do some more testing tomorrow and then swap the probe over to the cold side piping

 

[jperecko]

Or you could be really cool and have 2 (or more) hooked up to a switch and swap between the probes for the gauge. I would say that ambient, pre-filter, and intake manifold would be ideal. If only one probe... intake manifold I guess... but one would need to duplicate ambient as well as load conditions. I would also like to echo the thanks for doing the testing.

 

[FordGuy100]

I think that if you are testing different intakes looking for temperature differences I would put it before the turbo. If you put it afterward it just throws in another variable to mess up the temperature results.

 

[Sycostang67]

I figured I'd start with the easiest location first so I put the probe before the filter a few inches in past the tube opening. I'll wait for a day that isn't windy, and take a straight 10 minute drive with each setup. I'll try and do them all at once so the outside temp is the same. That should give me a pretty good idea of how well the intakes are at getting cool air in. After that I'll move the probe post airfilter, closer to the turbo and see if that changes anything. It may be awhile before I try it right before the screen as I would prefer to have extra o-rings handy for when I remove the intake hat.