Turbo timer?

Hey guys,

with my new turbo diesel mommy-van I was told that installing a turbo timer would be a good idea. How do these work? Are they simple to install? Cheap? What is a good brand/model?

Not neeeded for regualr driving..

Just don't shut the engine down smoking hot. If you run it hard for a while, up a hill with a load, with a big load of boost... Just don't immediately shut it down.. run it around at low load or idle it to bring temps down.

Hot shut down turbo failures are real especially in diesels.

What he said. You don't need it as long as you drive and park like a normal person.

One more note. Don't let the oil level get low. Oil starvation problems are real for turbos. Use good clean Diesel oil.

What Caffeine said.

I had a 300z twin turbo come into the shop with a sticking throttle. She pegged herself pretty wide open with me at the driver's seat. I immediately turned the key off only to find he had a turbo-timer (oops!).

After the initial "OMGWTFBBQ" factor (it seriously felt like the first jump to light speed on Star Wars only it was all happening right inside our service area!) I threw both feet in and got her into neutral.

She was still revving to the moon when my boss came out to hollar at whoever was hot-rodding the customer's car.

So yeah. If you DO get one, keep it in mind if your throttle gets stuck.

Good times.

Third what Fueled by Caffeine said. I looked into getting one for the MS3 when I first bought it. The owners manual states just let the car cool off for 2 or 3 minutes at idle if you drive it hard. Generally by the time you pull into a parking lot, find a spot and are ready to shut down it's been that long.

Turbo tech has come a long way since the 80s and 90s.

The0retical wrote: Turbo tech has come a long way since the 80s and 90s.

Modern Oil helps a great deal.

Turbo timers are, more than anything, a gimmick for street driving. Its so the cool kids in the SRT4s can walk away from their car while its still running, and explain to their buds how their enormous turbo needs to come back down from space to realistic temperatures from the outrageous 200+mph freeway runs they just did.

No but in all seriousness, thats basically what they do. Keep the engine running enough to let the systems properly cool the turbo. So if you drive easy before parking, no need for it. Lots of guys put them on just because it "adds to the cool factor", as mentioned sarcastically above.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Modern Oil helps a great deal.

True.

I ran dino oil in my turbo Fiero and used an Accusump turbo oiler, which was nothing more than a one way T valve in the supply line to the turbo bearing, hooked to an oil reservoir (size of a hand held propane torch bottle). Run the engine and it will fill, shut it down and it slowly bleeds cool oil through the turbo bearing (metered orifice) to avoid ashing in the hot bearing. Way better than anything that keeps the engine running (see posts above for why).

I agree with Desmond that they are gimmicks for kids trying to impress each other. I have seen at least one car that had it but wasn't a turbo engine - the kid had installed it for bragging rights. QED.

On many modern turbo engines, my Solstice GXP included, the manufacturer just specifies a full synthetic oil and relies on that to avoid ashing. Wise owners should still idle the engine down a bit if they have just done a hard acceleration run and want to immediately shut the engine off.

Once water jackets were added to turbos it pretty much eliminated the need for a turbo timer for everyday driving.

kb58 wrote: Once water jackets were added to turbos it pretty much eliminated the need for a turbo timer for everyday driving.

Most diesel turbo's do not have water cooled center sections. The temps in a diesel turbo are lower than a pass car gasoline turbo. Pass car turbo diesel might be different, but I've never worked on them.

Realistically by the time you pull into the parking lot or your driveway, park and shut off the car everything is cooled down enough. Install a pyrometer if you want to monitor your EGTs, much more useful than a turbo timer.