Easiest Method of getting the Water Temperature

[greauxpete]

What is the easiest way to get the water temperature?
I want to find out how hot my truck is running.
I dont have a scanner and I called Autozone and their scanner will
not read water temps. Will the $40 scanner read water temp?
I have an IR thermometer here at the office but I am noit sure how accurate that would be.

Can anyone share an easy method they might have used to get a good water temp reading?

 

[cary]

Yep, do the raventai mod. Takes less than a hour, costs less than $10, and will forever, without having to plug anything in, or take any other steps, tell you how hot your truck is running. No brainer in my book.

 

[Beowulf]

Will the $40 scanner read water temp?

Depends. Which $40 scanner are you looking at? Do some research, buy an OBD-II scanner that has real-time monitoring of the OBD-II output....

.... or .....

Buy a calibrated water temp gauge (~$100 + 2 hrs)

.... or ....

Do the Raven mod on the factory temp gauge as cary suggested.

-B-

 

[CJF]

I have an IR thermometer here at the office but I am noit sure how accurate that would be.

I would think that should be very accurate for spot readings at the top/bottom of the radiator, etc.

Curtis

 

[John E Davies]

I have an IR thermometer here at the office but I am noit sure how accurate that would be.

The cheap Raytek units are accurate to 2% or 3 degrees F, which ever is greater. The more expensive ones are more accurate. Check the documentation for the one you have at work, or check their website.

http://www.raytek-northamerica.com/cat.html?cat_id=2.3.5

Use the IR thermometer - a 3 degree max error is just fine. That is by FAR the easiest way to measure temps if you can't do it with an OBD2 scanner.

 

[Bob_Garrett]

I use an OBDII program running on a laptop. It allows me to get the temperature as well as all other OBDII readings. I like being able to log the parameters and compare pre and post readings if I do any mods. As an example, I recently added a pusher fan and found that running it when in traffic reduces my coolant temp by 5 deg F (at 95F ambient). It also showed me that I can leave the fan off when traveling at freeway speeds with no increase in engine temp. I also intend to do the Raventai mod to give me more accurate readings during daily driving.