LT1-7

I don't know if this has happened to anyone else but I just convinced my brother not to get a turbo timer. This was 2 summers ago when I first got my FD.

I had a Blitz turbo timer and in the morning I decided to go warm up the car but let the turbo timer keep the engine on instead of my keys being in the ignition. Well, I set it for 10min probably and went on my house. My girlfriend and I got into an argument and I must have stayed inside for more than 20min. I went back outside and to my suprise, my car was still on. The turbo timer fucked up, had a blank screen and just left my car on. I was thankfull that it was cold in the morning and I was warming my car up, not cooling the turbo or my engine would have been toast.

Just a precaution for anyone with a turbo timer. I had the Blitz multi-speed which was the best one on the market at the time.

artowar2

I doubt that your engine would be toast if you were cooling the turbo down. More likely you would have just wasted gas.

Quickfini

iTrader: (6)

His car probably would have overheated from sitting there too long.

When I set my turbotimer for 1min 30s, i can see the water temp getting higher and higher. So letting it sit for 20mins after driving it would probably toast his engine. Not sure tho, just what I think from what my water temp has shown.

skunks

I'm my own turbo timer, IDK about you all but I just can't leave my car running as I walk away from it.

93TTRX7

His motor wouldn't be toast, not unless his fans didn't work

artowar2

If your cooling system is working properly, and you idle the parked car after driving it, then you should see the temps rise a bit since the air will only be forced through the radiator when the fans turn on. Once the fans turn on, they should run until the coolant cools down a bit, then they should turn off. If you leave the car parked and running, then this cycle should repeat until you shut off the car or run out of gas.

If you watch the coolant temps during these cycles, you should see them rise until shortly after the fans turn on, and then you should see them fall until the fans turn off. Same thing for subsequent cycles. You should not see the temps rise to the range where your engine is damaged.

If your car actually overheats simply from idling, then you need to check out your cooling system. Perhaps your fans aren't working properly, there is a large air pocket trapped in the system, or the system is clogged and needs to be cleaned out.

I would not expect a car with a properly functioning cooling system to overheat simply from idling, unless there were extremely high ambient temps. It gets up to 105 or 110 here occasionally, and my car has not overheated under these conditions when it was parked and idling.

I have seen my car start to overheat at the track (I had to take it easy for a lap or two before picking the pace back up), and driving around town when a stray piece of newspaper had blown on to the front of the radiator, effectively blocking half the surface area. But after coming home, parking the car and letting it idle? Never.

Tad

i believe the post above me says it all,
but i'll just reiterate...

assuming you've got everything working right,
then leaving the car running isn't going to do anything.
it'll just run till it runs out of gas.

theres no extra wear and tear because its missing a pilot!!

of course if you've got some problems with your fd,
which many do, then sure... but you should get those problems fixed anyways. so yeah, theres nothing wrong with turbo timers. u just got a dud.

Street King

Here's my HOME DEPOT Turbo Timer:

Listen to half of a song on the radio.

That's it, enjoy =)

Tom93R1

iTrader: (2)

That would look nice hooked up to my Home Depot boost controller!

artowar2, Do you know what your water temps do get up to when it is 105-110 outside? I have never overheated from idling either but I do know when it is that hot out here my temps slowly keep climbing and I have yet to see them reach a peak. I have seen over 110C when idling even this last summer after I replaced practically my whole cooling system and upgraded to a Koyo radiator.

GsrSol

Didn't that happen to FlyBye or someone else a while back. They had theirs in a garage though and someone called the fire department, they broke in and scratched the car all up.

apneablue

I have come back form really tearing up the road hard for a couple of hours and my temp (summer of 94°f) was 210°f...I came home and left it on to cool it down (didn't have turbo timer then) and forgot it on for about 20 minutes maybe a little more...engine is still there..all original motor and turbos with 83k...I really don't think the the turbos or engine would be toast

artguy

one time...in band camp....

Node

iTrader: (1)

I remember that. And I don't think it was Flybye but can't remember who.
They scratched the **** out of their car and broke the window because they couldnt find the door handle.

boh

Turbo timer related question. I never had the problem that REDTT posted, but I have noticed that when my Greddy Turbo Timer shuts the engine off, the fans on my car also turn off. I have to turn on the turbo timer and let it count down w/o turning the engine on for the fans to come on. Has anyone else experienced this problem and how to fix it for the fans to come on w/o turning on the turbo timer?

Thanks

SPEED_NYC

iTrader: (3)

i left my TII warming up outside my house with the turbo timer set to 10 mins a few years ago, when i went back outside like 20 mins later, the timer had shut the car off, but there was a huge puddle of oil under the car. it seems that one of the high pressure oil lines to the oil cooler decided to rupture and let my car idle with no oil in it for almost 10 mins.

the motor still ran ok, afterwards, but now, I am the turbo timer, i never leave my car running unattended anymore

artowar2

I don't recall that mine was that high (it's been a while since I had a useful water temp gauge on the car). That seems pretty high though-- are you sure the thermostat opens at around the right temp and that your fans are working correctly? Even without checking the system against all of the specs, it's easy enough to determine whether your fans are turning off even though the water temp is rising.

Of course at home you can always raise the hood, but if you're stuck in traffic, you can run the heater on high to help out the radiator-- had to do that with my old Chevy driving through the desert. Yep, there's nothing like inducing heat stroke in yourself in an effort to save your car, when you should be driving at night in the first place. How the hell people can live out near Barstow, I'll never understand

artowar2

Well if you're going to have a leak like that, I guess the best place is at your house where you can fix it. Much better than having the line burst while you are braking for a turn

maxcooper

I have left my daily driver (not an FD) idling in the parking lot at work for 10 hours. And the drain plug on my oil pan fell out on the FD on the way up the hill to the corkscrew at Laguna Seca. For my next stunt, I am planning to...

-Max

RonKMiller

So,,,,Max, what kind of fuel mileage did you get during the parking lot "sit"? 10 hours -

RonKMiller

I just don't get the whole idea of a turbo timer. What's the point? (Besides having another useless gadget to look at?

To "cool down" the turbo's? Then only way to cool down the turbos is to shut the engine off. Period.

To prevent "coking"? Unless you are running really hard right up until you shut down this plain does not happen
with modern oils.

To cool down the engine? You can let it idle all you want but more then a minute or two is not going to cool it down any more. The turbos spool down within a few seconds at idle.

All you are doing by letting the engine warm up before driving is wasting fuel (you're getting "0" miles per gallon), polluting the air big time, gunking up the internals because you are running incredibly rich, and wearing out the engine at a MUCH faster pace than just driving it.

The whole idea is to get engine internals and oil
to operating temps quickly, and you can't do that by ideling, not even for 10 minutes.

Warming up an engine by ideling is on of the biggest fallacies out there............just stay off the boost until it's up to operating temps.

DavidDeco

I'm not going to touch the logic in your statement other than to say that shutting down the engine is certainly not the best way to cool down the turbos since coolant flow is cut (see owner's manual for one thing explictly advising against that) , but I for one warm up the engine for datalogging reasons.

I want the same consistency with everything ready, including water temperatures. Especially since my sequential system hs been ummm a bit simplified (re: AWS)

SoCalLove

I understand why some people say a t-timer is useless. But its nice to know when you're short on time, you can count on that timer to let you off the hook and run to the bathroom . I'm sure some people can relate.

Snook

iTrader: (12)

I think you should let it warm up for a minute or 2 while you get settled into the car and then stay off of teh throttle till you get to operating temp.

about the turbo timer. I usually set mine to a minute or 1:30 and because I will not run the car hard and then let the turbo timer sit on for 3 minutes I think that's stupid, I'll drive around for a sec instead.

BTW I can always hear my car turn off as I am walking away even if I am far away. If the car doesn't turn off I will hear the motor running and realize that something is wrong.

RonKMiller

Oil does 90 percent of the cooling for the turbos, coolant is just an extra. Most of turbos use only oil for cooling.

My point is that it only cools down to operating temperature, and that's all she wrote! Letting it sit for 10 minutes does nothing for your engine before or after except increase wear rates, ESPECIALLY when it's cold.

I have sensors at both leading edge plugs and they both only drop a couple of degrees when idleing. They start dropping much faster as soon as the engine is shut down. I have no problem letting it idle for 30 seconds or so........it just feels like the "right thing to do". Kinda like eating oatmeal........

You are hurting your engine big time by letting it "warm up". And yes, I do speak with some authority. I am an FAA Certified Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic.

redrotorR1

So what you're saying is that the AWS is a completely ridiculous invention and it should not be used ever? I'm curious to that statement because I've always let the AWS do it's normal 30-45 second warmup and I don't think it's done any harm whatsoever to the engine. Now if you're talking about "spirited driving" before the engine and turbos get to operating temp .... well, duh, that's definitely bad.

As far as turbo timers go, I think they're fine for those situations where you're in a rush and don't feel like wasting 2-3 minutes sitting in the parking lot (i.e. late for work ... like my oversleeping ***). You're right that it only allows the oil to get back down to operating temp ... and chances are, you won't get back down to operating temp in 1-2 minutes. But, if you reduce the heat by just a few degrees, you're reducing the stress put on your turbos. (And in case you newbies haven't figured this out ... they're the most expensive part on the damn car!) I generally pop the hood while idling as often as it is possible. That's the best way to get the engine bay cooled off, IMO.

edit: And a great tip I read from a forum member is to pop the hood as you get close to your destination. You ought to be taking it easy as you get close anyways ... the extra air flow greatly helps cool down the turbos and the engine.