Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I see turbo timers for sale on Ebay for $40 upwards. 4WD shops sell them for $200 upwards plus fitting. Why? Are they hard to fit? I have a 2002 TD Hilux.

They are easy to make. I made one for a mates rig, out of a kit from jaycar. cost like $30. if ya can follow instruvtions and use a soldering iron, you right. east to install too.
layto.....

lay80n wrote:They are easy to make. I made one for a mates rig, out of a kit from jaycar. cost like $30. if ya can follow instruvtions and use a soldering iron, you right. east to install too.
layto.....

Yeah I soldered one up from Jaycar works fine, but i have seen the ones on ebay for "buy it now price" of $40 and would have bought one if I hadn't already done the jaycar kit.


Cheer Dazz.

I used a Jaycar kit in mine, but took out the resistor for the timer and used a four pole switch and used 4 resistors to give me adjustability (30secs, 2, 3 and 5 minutes). Works great.

phippsy wrote:I used a Jaycar kit in mine, but took out the resistor for the timer and used a four pole switch and used 4 resistors to give me adjustability (30secs, 2, 3 and 5 minutes). Works great.

Thats getting a bit high tech for me
Great idea though. Did you fit the temp sender by any chance as I didn't bother.


Cheers Dazz

Didn't use the temp sender, but i subbed in a variable resistor (potentiomiter sp?) for the time, so it was fully adjustable. Worked well.
Layto....

Nah, I didn't bother with the temp sender, if I'd only driven to the corner shops then I use the kill switch. My mate used a potentiometer on his instead of the resistors and it worked fine, just took a few stops to work out time/markings for the dial.

You really don't need to let the engine wind down, unless you've just given it an absolute hammering.

If you just drive sedately for the last 5-10 minutes of your trip, you can do without the turbo timer. That, and they are apparantly illegal to fit them to a vehicle, as you are not supposed to leave the engine running without the driver in the vehicle.

It's a good idea if you love being under boost and just wanna get out of the car and walk away, but if you can just deal with not hammering it on the last little leg of your trip, you won't need it.

I won't bother fitting one to my next turbo car.

mate its all about the peace of mind, knowing that your rig is actually cooling down properly, turbo petrol cars are good, as boost is higher in the rev range, so you can rive home off boost, but with diesels, your hittin boost anywhere from just off idle to 1500rpm, have you tried to drive you truck home for the last 10mins at 900rpm,

id recomend the turbo timer anyday, and will fit one, when i can afford the turbo

10 mins is overkill

pretty easy as leavin it in 5th gear for the last km home at low speed.. is just enough to cool the turbo down.

What i do..

near my destination... run the car at the highest gear and let it roll into town and then as soon as i arrive.. i let the engine run for 10 secs after stopping and turn it off...

Pretty much the best way to do it i reckon..

TOM

i've never had a turbo timer on my ute
tho i do have a pyro

and driving around town doesn't get it hot enough
i found driving around in a higher gear tho makes it work the turbo more
and heats it up more

GQ and foad, I agree, especially if it is a water cooled turbo. 30 seconds winding down or even a minute is plenty while getting your s... together to get of the car. Why would all the major manufacturers be happy to warrantee vehicles for 100000k's plus without them otherwise (and they have to make them idiot proof too) ?? Turbo cant spin at HIGH speed for than a few seconds. If youve got a boost gauge watch how fast it drops when you take your foot off the pedal. That is directly related to how fast it is spinning and because it is pushing against pressure it winds down FAST.

A turbo specialist told me once that even on the highway working it hard, by the time you pull into a servo to fill up, the turbo will have cooled sufficiently to safely turn the engine off.........I still habe a turbo timer, but that was a freeby in the GUI and the GQ came with one

I give my GQ hell because Its a 2.8t with 35s So its flat out everywhere

So Id say Its a good idea to let it cool down
My turbo timer is always set on 3mins

It's a good idea for sure, but it's sometimes not needed.

To give you an idea, my old turbo lived at 10-12psi the whole time I owned it, and I used to have the TT turned off because the exhaust would wake mum/dad up and they'd get the shits with me.

That turbo is still in perfect condition, after 2 years of being run "on the edge" (not meant to boost it any higher cause its a ceramic wheel turbo).

My neighbour leaves for work a 430am in a 56chev which is way louder

So I dont care about noise

well one thing is for sure, it doesnt do any harm to have a turbo timer on it, but personally I wont bother to fit one unless it was at a good price. Any volunteers to loan me one indefinately to sway my thinking!!!!

fisho64 wrote:GQ and foad, I agree, especially if it is a water cooled turbo. 30 seconds winding down or even a minute is plenty while getting your s... together to get of the car. Why would all the major manufacturers be happy to warrantee vehicles for 100000k's plus without them otherwise (and they have to make them idiot proof too) ?? Turbo cant spin at HIGH speed for than a few seconds. If youve got a boost gauge watch how fast it drops when you take your foot off the pedal. That is directly related to how fast it is spinning and because it is pushing against pressure it winds down FAST.

Its not just about supplying oil to lubricate the turbo's bearings, but keeping the oil up to the hot bearings and flowing so that it removes the heat and doesn't sit on the hot bearings and burn/turn to carbon.

Everyone has a different opinion i guess, some setups such as the new xr6 turbo are apparently designed not to cause damage when turned straight off.
One car i had was running a T04 at 23psi, at night the exhaust housing and manifold used to glow red/orange after a hard run, i used a timer set to about 1-3 minutes for it, didn't see any reason why not to.

fair point, at those (extremely) high boost pressures, but the thread was regarding a TD hilux. Point was made also about the ability of a watercooled turbo keeping the core cooler also. But yeah I do agree in that circumstance that a timer would be useful and can only do good, not harm

There's a new turbo timer at Jaycar that will monitor how hard you've worked the turbo and adjusts the idle time relative to this. If it doesn't need to run the engine it wont. Cost is $44.95 and can be seen here http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=KC5383&CATID=&keywords=TURBO+TIMER&SPECIAL=&form=KEYWORD&ProdCodeOnly=&Keyword1=&Keyword2=&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=

Cheers
Steve