My intake air temps tend to run about the same as yours, and I have the sensor in the bottom of the plenum just like you do. I suspect Steve has his sensor in the boost piping which will certainly show lower temperatures. The plenum on the Stealth Ram is fairly large and heat soaks pretty well with the engine running. I debated moving my sensor when I did the turbo setup but decided to leave it in the plenum because, to me, it seems to be a more realistic/accurate reading of the temperature of the air the engine is ACTUALLY ingesting. I have seen various theories on this but I'm sticking with reading the hot air in the plenum. I would rather err on the side of leaving a little power on the table by fueling for hotter air.


-Paul

 

Okay very good I was just worried I was leaving alot of power on the table. To be honest I sent the car to the dyno and I'm not sure how much they did. They say it's a safe tune but I can't tell the difference. I wish I knew enough to redo things and change it up to see if it makes a difference. Because my 8-9 mpg is getting old real fast. And I want to run more boost so I guess I gotta learn somehow hah

 

I do have my MAT sensor in the charge tube just in front of the throttle body. The wire just has an extension on it so I can plug in to the original sensor. When I get a chance I will plug that one in and see how it compares. I use an open element sensor up front whereas the original location has a closed element. My feeling is the closed element is going to be skewed by the heat of the intake while the air rushing past may be cooler.

 

So what you are saying is that the sensor if put in the charge pipe would read the correct air temp?

 

"Correct temperature" is open to interpretation here. I have an open element sensor in the plenum because I feel that on a Stealth Ram the large volume of air the plenum holds is likely to be hotter than the air coming through the intake/boost piping. The open element sensor should be able to respond to changes in temperature fairly well, as Steve just mentioned. Either way will work but tuning tweaks may be necessary to give the engine what it wants if you change the location


-Paul

 

Ah I see, so there is no real correct answer. I'm not even sure if its a closed or open element! Ill check ln that later today. Being in the snow season sucks! Now If I can tackle this 8-9 mpg then were getting somewhere

 

Yeah mileage is a killer! I've gotten mine up to 12-16 depending on driving conditions but I still want more lol! Always want to have my cake and eat it too haha! Refresh my memory, what are you running for a cam? My cam really has too much overlap which is hurting my mileage. I can't lean it out like I would like to under cruising conditions...

 

Gosh, I almost can't remember! I looked it up, it's a comp cam nitrous hp camshaft. 2k-6k 224 236 dur 502 520 lift 113 lsa

 

But I'm thinking my 83# injectors might have something to do with it..

 

Yeah, those might be a little overkill, especially for lower RPM fueling lol!

 

I would say most accurate would be to replace the stock one in the stock location with an open element. That will eliminate heat soak from the intake itself, but the air will have traveled through the entire upper plenum and absorbed any heat it is going to from the upper before entering the runner. I suspect there isn't much transfer though, with the velocity the air will be moving.

 

Your thoughts are very similar to mine Steve. I made sure to install a new open element unit in the plenum when I built my turbo setup to try and get the most accurate readings I could.

-Paul

 

Silly question, the stock location would be in the plenum on the top part? I have a stealth ram intake on mine. Ill have to check and see what kind of element I have. I was able to take the car out for a quick spin around the block today it was in the high 50s!

 

Stock location on a TPI (as Steve was mentioning) is in the bottom of the upper plenum. That's where I have my sensor in the Stealth Ram as well, but I don't know where you have yours?

 

Mine is in the same location as yours, so that's a good sign in my case. Now if it's open element I forgot lol easy to check though!

 

It's that time to start buying parts again! So far I just have an eletric exhaust cutout and the slp line lock kit for our cars. I'm looking into a new transmission now and have talked to American power train and hawks thirdgen, looking at eithe me a t56 magnum, or a normal t56 with a stage two upgrade from hawks. Price difference is quite alot but the magnum has 2 year warrenty where the other has a one year. Anybody but a magnum transmission in before? How much fab work is really involved? Preference on the two trannies?