im not sure where everyone gets this magical 1650 number from anyway. there are so many variables relating to the EGT temperature anyway. your best bet is to dyno tune the car eventually anyway, and when doing that, you can see what temperature YOUR car makes the most HP at on YOUR gauge. as far as tapping the gauge, my probe did hit the manifold wall too until i backed out the adapter that threads into the manifold. i just backed it out until the probe wasnt hitting the wall anymore, then made sure it wasnt leaking when it was running, which it wasnt. if you are going to tune on the very edge of detonation, use a wideband 02 and a dyno. me personally id rather run 1/10 or 2 slower and be safe.