Santiago 2 Greddy 0! EGT bung breakthrough.....
08-26-04, 11:14 PM
#1
Santiago 2 Greddy 0! EGT bung breakthrough.....
Well, I don't know how many of you all have Greddy EGT guages but I had bought a 52 mm unit from a friend on the forum and was informed by the seller that I would need to find a bung or buy one from greddy. Well I checked the pricing on the OFFICIAL Greddy bung and it was listed at anywhere from 30-49 dollars plus shipping. 
So I said to myself 
AFAIK a bung is basically a metal nut that is the proper thread for the fitting to be used that is welded onto the exhaust pipe, so 49 dollars sounds like getting raped in central park while a group of tourists watches and take pics. So I set out on my quest for a cheap(read under 10 dollars) bung around town. Well my first stop was the local parts store which happened to be autozone. They didn't have anything that would fit the probe's fitting so I walked out and headed to ACE hardware. I spent around 10-20 minutes there looking for something and again nothing would fit. Already pissed, I drove over to Lowes home improvement to see if they had a better selection. I was advised by a friend that Lowes had a "special size" cabinet full of nuts and bolts where I could probably find the right size and thread pitch. Well I did a quandrant by quadrant search of their bolt section and couldn't find anyything worth using. I asked one of their clerks if he had anything that would fit this and he said he might but i'd have to look in the plumbing section. So I headed over there and searched through about 6-10 drawers of fittings to find only one type of fitting that would fit the probe. My new problem was that this was NOT steel or stainless steel, it was brass. With my limited knowledge I could tell that brass and steel weren't going to work well with welding. So I bought one of the fittings that did fit for a sample to take home. But then I got a stroke of good luck and my friend Ted(RETed on the forum) signed on and I started chatting with him. Eventually after asking him about EGT placement and such I asked if he knew of anything better than having to buy the Greddy bung and we somehow got onto how nothing would fit at the hardware store. Ted then said it was an NPT threaded piece, which completed the puzzle. I then came to town looking for places with steel or SS NPT parts. The only place I found that had something worth getting was a place called Granger. It is at this point where Greddy lost the battle with my thriftyness! At the bin where I found the parts I saw the price for each peice !! 55 CENTS EACH !! So I walk up to the counter and plunk down my two prized parts and hint that I want to buy these 
with a polite nod to the clerk the convo goes something like this:
Clerk: Do you have an account with us?
Me: No...Do I need one?
Clerk: Yeah you do.
Me: *kinda sad* Umm...I didn't know that. I just came in to buy something.
Clerk: Oh.... *He starts to walk towards the place were I got the parts from.*
Me: *I follow expecting him to say that I can't buy them or something* Then as he rounds the counter I blurt out, "I have been looking for these things for around two weeks and you all were the only ones that had them in town."
Clerk: *looks at the price tag and turns around and walks towards me*
Me: I thought to myself, "yes he is going to let me buy them"
Clerk: *hands me the parts* Says, "Here....take them....they're on the HOUSE!"
Me: Thanks man!
I walked out before he could get in trouble or anything and thought about how I just saved around 80 dollars total compared to buying two Greddy bungs!! All thanks to that guy at Granger's!
So now I am going to have to find a good exhaust shop to weld these in my exhaust tubes so i can get some EGT readings and hopefully in the future get the thing tuned.
Santiago
So I said to myself AFAIK a bung is basically a metal nut that is the proper thread for the fitting to be used that is welded onto the exhaust pipe, so 49 dollars sounds like getting raped in central park while a group of tourists watches and take pics. So I set out on my quest for a cheap(read under 10 dollars) bung around town. Well my first stop was the local parts store which happened to be autozone. They didn't have anything that would fit the probe's fitting so I walked out and headed to ACE hardware. I spent around 10-20 minutes there looking for something and again nothing would fit. Already pissed, I drove over to Lowes home improvement to see if they had a better selection. I was advised by a friend that Lowes had a "special size" cabinet full of nuts and bolts where I could probably find the right size and thread pitch. Well I did a quandrant by quadrant search of their bolt section and couldn't find anyything worth using. I asked one of their clerks if he had anything that would fit this and he said he might but i'd have to look in the plumbing section. So I headed over there and searched through about 6-10 drawers of fittings to find only one type of fitting that would fit the probe. My new problem was that this was NOT steel or stainless steel, it was brass. With my limited knowledge I could tell that brass and steel weren't going to work well with welding. So I bought one of the fittings that did fit for a sample to take home. But then I got a stroke of good luck and my friend Ted(RETed on the forum) signed on and I started chatting with him. Eventually after asking him about EGT placement and such I asked if he knew of anything better than having to buy the Greddy bung and we somehow got onto how nothing would fit at the hardware store. Ted then said it was an NPT threaded piece, which completed the puzzle. I then came to town looking for places with steel or SS NPT parts. The only place I found that had something worth getting was a place called Granger. It is at this point where Greddy lost the battle with my thriftyness! At the bin where I found the parts I saw the price for each peice !! 55 CENTS EACH !! So I walk up to the counter and plunk down my two prized parts and hint that I want to buy these with a polite nod to the clerk the convo goes something like this:Clerk: Do you have an account with us?
Me: No...Do I need one?
Clerk: Yeah you do.
Me: *kinda sad* Umm...I didn't know that. I just came in to buy something.
Clerk: Oh.... *He starts to walk towards the place were I got the parts from.*
Me: *I follow expecting him to say that I can't buy them or something* Then as he rounds the counter I blurt out, "I have been looking for these things for around two weeks and you all were the only ones that had them in town."
Clerk: *looks at the price tag and turns around and walks towards me*
Me: I thought to myself, "yes he is going to let me buy them"
Clerk: *hands me the parts* Says, "Here....take them....they're on the HOUSE!"
Me: Thanks man!
I walked out before he could get in trouble or anything and thought about how I just saved around 80 dollars total compared to buying two Greddy bungs!! All thanks to that guy at Granger's!
So now I am going to have to find a good exhaust shop to weld these in my exhaust tubes so i can get some EGT readings and hopefully in the future get the thing tuned.
Santiago
08-28-04, 02:22 AM
#5
I wish I was driving!
Ever hear of a tap and die set? NPT Taps are pretty damn common (any hardware store will have them); it would have taken you all of a couple minutes to make your own bungs out of some iron.
09-21-04, 12:07 PM
#7
Eat, sleep, work, mod.
Join Date: Jun 2001
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Yep, it's happened to us to when we've done engine swaps for customer with pre-existing EGT bungs. The last time, we had a spare EGT bung from an old gauge but a while back we did get a few of the same pieces from some industrial supplier.
Companies like GReddy and HKS have it made...they make real quality items and make out like a BANDIT on markup and actual cost per unit. But, this is what happens when you talk about a company selling to a specific market and are one of the house-hold names (so to speak).
Companies like GReddy and HKS have it made...they make real quality items and make out like a BANDIT on markup and actual cost per unit. But, this is what happens when you talk about a company selling to a specific market and are one of the house-hold names (so to speak).
