Keep in mind the temperatures you shut it off at depends on location of the probe. Mine is pre-turbo, mounted in the exhaust manifold right at an exhaust port. So my temperatures will read considerably hotter than those with probe post-turbo. I let mine cool to below 500 before shutting it off. Rarely does that take more than a few seconds. Pulling into a rest area, for example, it usually will be down below 500 before I stop. After a long, steep uphill grade it may take up to 20 or 30 seconds.
The installer pulled the manifold off, drilled and tapped it, then cleaned it up good to remove all filings. My previous truck was done the same way. There is a miniscule risk that if the probe ever breaks off it will take out the turbo. But I have yet to hear of this happening. I would not recommend drilling into the manifold without removing it and cleaning it up. Any filings at all in the manifold will do bad things to the turbo.
Some trucks supposedly have a plug you can remove and just screw the probe into that port. I don't know which ones that is nor whether the port actually exists on any engine. It would be something to look for, though.
See another Montana or Mountaineer on the road? Flash lights twice, it might be one of us!
Steve Reigle (pronounced Regal)
Fulltiming since 3/21/03
'03 3295RK
'05 Ford F250 SD Lariat CC SB 6.0L PSD/TS FX4 4x4
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