crazy idea

He told me any colder than that you would have problems with fouling plugs, I have a fluke temp meter that goes to 2500f and I put it on the outside of the header tube about 1in out and it reads around 650f - 700f and I'm sure it twice that inside the header
Exactly, the temperature at the inside wall of the exhaust manifold will be much higher than the outside wall. Remember some of the temperature is being dissipated to the air surrounding the exhaust manifold. And during an extended run at highway speeds you will see localized external manifold temps much higher than 600 F