Infrared thermometer

[steve_d]

Looking to get an Infrared Thermometer.
Does anyone know the sort of temp I would expect to see on the exhaust manifold?
I need to choose one with sufficient range. I read that an exhaust gas temp. of 850C to 900C would be about right at WOT but do not know if you would see that from the outside. I also have ceramic coated exhaust.

Thanks
Steve

[rich.f]

Hi Steve,
Hope this helps www.etiltd.co.uk/raytemp_38.htm It is an infrared thermometer which goes up to 1000c, it costs £130. When i had problems with red exaust manifolds our ray gun was reading 300 - 350c, now we have fixed the problem it is down to 130 - 180 depending on which port. (I am using standard stainless manifolds)

Richard.

[bluesatin]

Steve

I have an one and it varies depending on the material. Dark black works well while shiny cermacoat works ok! Great for tyre temps though

[GreenV8S]

Anything over 600 indicates you're in serious trouble anyway. I would expect to see up to a couple of hundred degrees steady state when the engine is idling, maybe 500 on load. At 600 things are starting to glow, and beyond that you would risk damaging cats, sensors etc. If you have a severe misfire you can go well over 1000 degrees but there's not much point measuring it.

[steve_D]

Cheers all.
The price of these things goes up the higher the temp you want to check.
Many seem to go up to 537degrees C so that now looks to be what I should go for.

Thanks
Steve

[jeff-texas]

bluesatin said:

I have an one and it varies depending on the material. Dark black works well while shiny cermacoat works ok! Great for tyre temps though

Doesn't your thermometer have a reflectivity-ratio adjustment? I thought they all did... (It adjusts for different surface colors and finishes, but even then, it's often sort of an estimate sometimes, where you're looking in a booklet for "gloss black" or "brushed aluminum" and set the laser-thermometer to the number the booklet tells you to... (two exceptions: I think some newer laser-thermo's can measure the reflectivity for you, and a way around using the booklet is to use a good-quality non-laser thermometer at first, then calibrate your laser for that particular surface by adjusting its reflectivity setting until its temperature-display matches the non-laser.) Not sure if they have a way to make-up for ceramic's insulative qualities using only the 'booklet,' but shiny vs. black should be given in most laser-thermo's instructions/'booklet'.)

>> Edited by jeff-texas on Wednesday 23 November 11:42

[chuntington101]

a bit off point, but i remember reading about the ford WRC team. they had a problem with their exhaust running very hot thanks to the anti-lag! so much so they had to run ceramic turbine blades on the turbo, and then have special exhaust welding done to reduce the chance of something flaking and smashing the turbo!!

i think they where running 1100 degrees C!!!!

in the same article (CCC a few years back) they also had a story about one of the ford machanics changing and exhaust! the car was in service with engine off! the guy put his hand over the tail pipe to remove the rear section and his nomex glove burst into flames!!!!

wonder what they did about the sensors????

thanks Chris.