Question for everyone:

I recently had my Greddy TT installed w/peak hold EGT and Pressure gauges. Along with the emanage and HKS EVC boost controller. I am running about 7.5 or so boost and while I do not race (daily driver in Northern Virginia), I do drive relatively hard. The shop which did the install said they did not think I needed a Turbo timer so I passed on picking one up. I am now being told by other FI people that I need to have one installed to prevent seizing of the turbo. Is the turbo timer really necessary. I do tend to at least let the car idle for 30 seconds before shutting down for normal driving and 1 minute for heavy driving.

Any thoughts folks?

Regards,
Brent

 

No you don't. You can just look at your EGT gauge and see the temperature doesn't drop any more after the car is idling for a short amount of time. So if the same temperature exhaust is passing through it, its not going to lower the temperature any.

What you already do is more than enough. 30 secs for normal driving, and driving slow through the parking lot counts in this time. Longer if your beating it just to get rid of the extra heat stored in the housing. If you have another kit that uses water cooled turbos i.e. APS you could just shut it down with out any cool down.

Turbo timers are good for points at shows, Having people tell your car is still running when you walk away in a parking lot and pimping for the 16 yr olds at the mall.

 

turbo timers suck... when i turn my key off i want my engine to turn off!

i dont race down my street and in my driveway... by the time I shut down the car the turbos are back to regular operating temp, oil temps are regular, etc. that is whats important.

 

I am my own turbo timer

But really I agree and follow similar things as 7 Eleven and Phunk

 

Charles, what is that in your avatar? sorry for the hijack

 

I have a turbo timer just so if I was beating the car and then have to shut down, I want the option of being able to shut down without being a prisoner in my car. The problem with the turbo timer is that if I have my head lights on auto mode the lights won't shut off automatically after the turbo timer shuts the car off. I no longer use my auto light feature....sucks cause I really liked never having to turn my lights on or off.

 

How does a turbo timer work? Does it turn the engine off after a predetermined amount of time elapses? Or does it turn off the engine once the snail cools below a predefined temperature?

 

My understanding is it is a timer feature that lets you leave the car with the engine on.

 

After you turn the car off and remove the key from the ignition the turbo timer keeps the car running for a pre-set amount of time. I have mine set a 60 seconds.

 

I have a Compustar Alarm w/ turbo timer. It's great because I can engage the timer easily, and if I want it off NOW, I just press the brake pedal and the car shuts off.

It never hurts to have a timer, and with this setup I get an awesome aftermarket security system with remote start on my 6mt.

 

+1

On mine, the car shut off when i shut the door

 

Thats not how it works. The whole point is to keep the engine running to circulate oil through the turbo to draw heat out of the bearings and stop them cooking.

 

I would get one just for the security. They're around $100 price range anyways. Not super expensive.

 

I was thinking watching the EGT as it goes down was going to be a good way to make sure the car cools down before turning it off.

I can see this does not exactly relate to the oil cooling the turbo bearings, but the concept should be similar. As long as I see the EGT dropping (i.e. engine cooling) I should leave the car running. I have noticed that letting the car idle for the 30 seconds dropped my EGT from about 4,000 - 3,200 after my 25 minute drive to Evolution (with a couple of 6k RPM pulls on the turbo on RT28)

So, I guess the Turbo Timer is good if you are in a hurry and do not want to wait and/or you want extra security to make sure a specific amount of time is used to cool the engine. But the same can be achieved if you simply wait in the car.

The vote is still pretty close at this point.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

Regards,
Brent

 

I think you just have it a little confused. This is how it works. The bearings have a very low thermal inertia i.e. they gain and lose heat quickly due to their low mass compared to the larger exhaust housing. They are also much cooler than the exhaust housing while the car is running due to the constant flow of oil over them. So the problem that creates "coked bearings" is that once the car is shut down the heat from the much hotter exhaust housing now travels to the much cooler center section which houses the bearings and residue oil and causes the oil to coke. Like sticking a piece of metal in a fire.

To minimize this you are tiring to cool down the exhaust housing as much as possible since the bearings cool down much faster then the housing to a stable temperature once you start idling. So what you are sitting in your car for or impressing the girls with your turbo timer is for the exhaust temp to drop and thus the housings temperature also.