Anyone ever install some EGT probes in to an HKS cast manifold?

Wondering if it's possible.

 

its possible, but you would might want to go to a professional welder that will preheat the piece, weld it, then a slow cool down with pinging

 

Do it in Tig. Thats what i have. Works fine.

 

i simply mig welded a couple of nuts to my stock manifold and tapped through them,, into the cast with the thread for the K couples

this way it is not mechanically held only by the weld .. and the probes ends are not too deep into the exhaust flow

works AOK.. and i drive mine daily.. and see 1000 C in bursts

 

why not just put it in the down pipe?

 

There should be enough meat in the manifold to simply drill and tap it for a threaded bung.

Properly placed pre-turbo thermocouples will provide a lot more useful information that a post turbo sensor.

 

I drilled and tapped my HKS cast manifold, and put brass plugs into it for the time being since I don't have an EGT gauge yet. No leaks or other problems after 500 or so miles. Been running the same thing (tapped cast manifold) on my diesel jetta for 35k running 19 psi. From what I understand tapping cast manifolds is fairly common.

 

Thanks for the input everyone!

 

+1

 

I have pictures of drilling and tapping the stock cast iron manifold in my build thread. I got the locations and idea from another member on here.

 

I don't want to remove my manifold. lol

I didn't think of this until after the fact.

dammit.

 

I can't remember off hand if there is enough room while installed, but you can tap it while its on. Either do it while its running so the metal comes out from the back pressure ( be really careful not to get burned, flying metal etc...) or go very slowly and carefully with axle grease liberally applied to the drill bit and tap. Clean often, reapply grease and go slow. Backyard style, but it does work.

 

i would NOT tap it on the car.. have seen bits of turbine blade fall straight back into the engine .. particularly on the stock s5 manifold

i expect swarth to do the same

its a hell of a lot harder to rebuild the engine than it is to drag the turbo manifold and do it once, right
.. at least you guys dont have a flipping steering column in the way to make it an absolute ***** of a job

as for the nuts..
they are there to pull the probe tips back as installed directly they will extend past the mid way point inside the manifold
,, and expose all of the element to potentially destructive flow and heat
the nuts i tack welded in place while on the car ( and while holding some residual heat from a drive )
so to be sure the back of each probe and its flying lead doesnt foul or pull tight on the crossmembers

 

When you are drilling/tapping make sure both probes are the same distance from the exhaust port and at the same angle. Different angles will put the tips (where the thermocouple is) in different spots.

I drilled/tapped mine into cast manifold and it was no problem.

I used cast iron NPT plugs to fill the whole when I wasn't using them and that was a problem. Even with manifold out of the car now, the plugs aren't coming out.

 

i drilled and tapped mine, got really high temps though. not sure if its because im only and inch or so away from exhuast ports