Very soon I will be going from a STI8 top mount to a Hybrid Front mount. Now I would like to compare the two.

My question is, how hard are these to fit and where is the best place to obtain one?

Cookie

 

Glad your getting one of them matie. Your driving pattern will change knowing what temps these get at when stationary.

 

Do you have one fitted mate?

 

Just read this if it's any use to you m8y...

 

Something like a SPA digital gauge linked to a thermocouple will show rapid response.
Mount the sensor in the hose going into the TB for both set ups to get a direct comparision. Alos make sure that sensor cable has thick insulation on it and mounted away from heat sources
I've run an SPA for a couple of years on two different cars. Both used a TMIC and from other results, the TMIC on a newage car looses in heavy traffic and also about 4/5 deg C at WOT.

Nick

 

good thread that

 

I have that same set up. SPA digital guage with thermocouple under the IC hose. Works a treat.

Cookie - have a chat to Zak - he fitted my gauge.

 

i got a air temp gauge off ebay, think it was around £25 and for the money it is quite good, reads the temp every 1 second, and the back light has not broken yet!!

this place has a shopon ebay, this is there onlineshop
Evolution LCD Charge Temp Sensors for Cars and Bikes / Contact 07984 573301 or HQ 0845 8382517

 

The SPA kit has a voltage scaling box which costs £££.
I built my own and have quite a few bits to make several more if you need one.
The gauge is about £130.
The K type temp probe is £9 off Ebay and is much better insulated and robust than the one SPA supply for more ££££.

Nick

 

Maplins cheap as chips about £15 with external probe,runs off an aa battery cycles every second or 10 seconds,obviously every second is better,been on my car for well over a year on the original battery and works excellent.... probe is pushed into the throttle body housing hose and secured with a dab of silicone sealent......

 

does that one have a back lite?
i remember looking a some in maplins, but they had chunkey senders on them, but may of been a different now

 

No........ thats the only drawback,but as temps at night time are a lot cooler than in the daylight im not that bothered about that,vfm you cannot beat it,many will argue its too cheap so cannot be any good and you must have a spa version or the like,but its a measuring tool that works........ interesting the charge temps when sitting at traffic lights when you have one fitted.

 

I use an STi5 air temp sensor, araldited into a larger (1/2" BSP IIRC) plumbing fitting then threaded into the side of the FMIC pipe just before it goes into the TB. Works very well as I have it connected into a Power FC so can get a readout on my FC Commander. However, if you don't need this facility, the Maplins ones are as good as any, there is a cheapo black one that's not great - I found it hard to read. They do a more pricey one which comes to a tenner including the probe and white bezel and it is perfect for the job, reading to +70C I seem to recall, and at 60hz. As rigga mentioned above, don't be put off because it's cheap. It's just a simple measuring tool.

 

i have the same air temp sensor (version 6 sti) and apexi power fc, but how fast does ti read the charge temp? mine seams to be like every 30 sec to a min, it feels like a long time anyway (p.s have got the sensor by the airfilter)

 

If the sensor is by the air filter its only going to read ambient temp,which is pretty worthless on a turbo engine,you really need to see what the charge temp is after the turbo has heated up the air,and the intercooler has made an attempt to cool it as much as possible,could always run another at the throttle body to give a comparision of the ambient versus charge air.

 

i have got another one in the intercooler pipe, just in front of the throttle body (see pic and you can see the wire)

just didnt know how fast the standard one and the apexi measured the air temp

 

I never thought about rigging one up to the Apexi to be honest....... the maplins one was less fuss for me to do ..... and just a thought on the temp reading by the air filter.... it might not change very much because its reading a nearly constant air temp as its ambient ? more variation by the throttle body so more change seen there

 

i use the maplins one, spot on, rapid change and pretty accurate as a guide.

stops reading at 70 degrees tho,stationary in the summer it rose to 64 amazing heat soak !!!!!!

 

you can see the temp probe to the right on the silicone type inlet hose on the throttle body

 

And heres the display,under the stereo

 

wonder if there is away of making it back it?

 

Silent running.
I have been thinking about that STi-sensor to PowerFC thing. Is the sensor differently scaled on different years? (I have a -98, do I need the STi5 exactly or will any similar year do?
Which pins on the Apexi do I connect to?
Does it read often enough to make it worth it's while (to use charge-temp for backing of ignition)?

 

Some good infor there guys, I would have been worried about putting the sender in the IC pipe, I thought here was loads of pressure there and it would blow it out

 

Cookie, have a chat to Zak.

He sells a proper boss that mounts the sensor in the inlet plenum to give you accurate readings before the air enters the engine.

Then you can mount your gauge on your steering column

 

Depending which gauge you use we do have fittings for securely locating the sender, it replaces the PCV valve in the inlet plenum which can be done at the same time as improving your engine's breather set-up.
If it's a small gauge K-type wire then as Dynamix has said simply slip it under the throttle body hose post intercooler, if you have two you can see how efficient your intercooler really is measuring temperatures both pre and post cooler.

Just a thought Mark, do you have a KnockLink; if not it may be wise to fit one?

 

Zak, no knock link - yet - As I believe the most recent problem could well have been avoided with one

How much is the fitted price for the temp sensor please

 

i also have a knock sensor,but find it very hard during the day of looking at ti and givin the car some,the LED`s are very faint until u get knock etc,if any,still handy to have,but mountin it somewhere so it looks part of the car and in a highly visible area is diffcult,i put mine,next to the charge temp gauge.

 

Am going to be stripping the box apart and putting the LEDS in the shroud by the clocks. should show up a treat then

 

Scaling is not an issue as far as I know. Mine's a MY98 WRX and my STi sensor gave me an accurate reading as soon as it was hooked up., plus I'm sure it wasn't the equivalent year's sensor that I used i.e. not an STi4. Perhaps newage ones are different but if you stay with a v3/v4/v5 it should work. The blank lines that normally show up on the FC Commander when you select Air Temp simply change into degrees C. Recent cold mornings have shown that it also displays minus temps as well.

Now the only thing is that I can't remember exactly which pin of the ECU I connected to. I found an STi4 pinout after a lot of searching and worked out which pin I needed. So let me just say it definitely does work. If you get to the stage where everything else is in place and you just need to know which pin to insert your sensor wire into, then PM me and I will pull up the carpets and look at the ECU and tell you. The other side of the sensor itself you can just ground, anywhere nearby. It doesn't need to go all the way back to the ECU.

It updates at least once a second as far as I can tell and is plenty fast enough to show accurate temperature gradients. It only reads in whole degrees though, so it may in fact be sampling faster than 1hz but the temps don't change that fast with my fmic.

It IS currently mapped (by Zen) to pull the timing at a certain charge temp so I'd take that as a confident vote in favour of using it to map ignition.

 

i have my standard air temp sensor on my car (near air filter) and it also shows up on my power fc, but the re-fresh rate is very slow. it is in hole degrees C like yours.

wonder why the re-fresh rate is so slow, it will got hot in traffic, but take a long time to cool down.

the sensor is next to the air filterin the inner wing (asp caik)