I'm looking to monitor my intake temps cheaply, before and after the intercooler.

What components can I use to achieve this? Will I be able to get temp probes from Maplin (or similar) that will cope with the temperatures involved?

Also, where exactly is the best place to mount the sensors to give me meaningful temperatures?

I'm a total novice at this kind of thing, being of the "hit it with a hammer" mindset, but willing to learn

 

I got my temp gauge from Pro-Therm who do a range of kit. They may do a gauge which takes two readings but to be honest, how important is the pre-intercooler temps to you?

I can't remember which unit I got but you should be able to figure out which one suits you best, or give them a call and tell them what it's for, as they have supplied a few of us in the past and are very friendly. I can remember that the probe was called a PT100 and that it had a 2m lead. I mounted the gauge in the coin pocket (bottom right of the dash near the fuse box) and the probe under the rubber hose which connects the exit of the intercooler with the inlet manifold.

Hope this helps,

Matt

 

From Halfords you can get a clock/inside/outside temp guage and use this to monitor outside ambient if you do not have this in car as standard. Position the sender at the front in fresh air flow. Get the guage with the cigar lighter socket which you cut off and wire in to a power supply so you have a back light for night driving.
I then use a guage from SPA Design, Warwickshire. There are several to choose from. Single temp. Temp/Temp or my choice Boost/Temp. Various functions include record of max values and pre-set warning limits. These are digital guages.
Induction temp should be taken close to the throttle body. I inserted an aluminium sleeve (later I got a stainless pipe rolled to take future H2O injection) and tapped the temp sender into this.
It was positioned in the large hose going onto the throttle body.
With my APS FMIC temps in the cruise up to 4k rpm are typically 2-5c over amb and on a rolling road sesion the max was 14c over.
Hope this helps but contact me if you want more info.

 

if you can afford te setup, it's worth spending the extra on thermocouples in my opinion, they react much faster. box to plug em into the most expensive bit, plenty available from places like maplin and also motor sport suppliers.

simple thermistor based system should be okay if you can get a small enough sensor, available agian from maplin

 

Autospeed/Jaycar in Oz do a good one, ranges up to about 150degC, which is a far wider temp range than most ones you will find over here. Its not that expensive either despite postage from Oz.