can i overheat my turbo?

[WEB264]

Ok well a lot of you guys are probably gonna fuss about me not researching but our fine administrators decided to lock all the tech questions...so here goes nothing..

I was wanting to maybe drive my talon out to a few shows or maybe strips and like when i'm runnin 55 to 60 mph of course my TT still counts up time slightly...

My question is : Will it over heat my turbo to keep on goin after my TT maxes out at three min.?

 

[gofer]

My question is : Will it over heat my turbo to keep on goin after my TT maxes out at three min.?

Im not trying to sound like an ass but maybe you could possibly explain your question a bit more, it honestly doesn't make any sense.

Is it about the TT letting the car idle for more than 3 minutes after you remove the key?

Is it about how the turbo is cooled while the cars idling/driving?

 

[TJCTalon]

What I think he is asking is can his turbo get hot enough that the preset 3 mins from the turbo timer would not be long enough to let it cool. Correct me if im wrong.

And op i think you are alright. If your using a coolant and oil cooled turbo the 3 mins from the tt is plunty even if you were driving at highway speeds for a few hours.

 

[rimmbrme]

i agree the question is a little confusing

a few minutes running your turbo timer/or idle should be enough to cool the turbo.

 

[throwedgsx]

You can't technically "overheat" your turbo. You can "cook" the oil if it cools too fast and turns to sludge. When you turn your ignition off just let your TT count down. Depending upon how hard you were just driving it you should only need to let it idle for a minute or two.

 

[WolfsFang]

What I think he is asking is can his turbo get hot enough that the preset 3 mins from the turbo timer would not be long enough to let it cool. Correct me if im wrong.

And op i think you are alright. If your using a coolant and oil cooled turbo the 3 mins from the tt is plunty even if you were driving at highway speeds for a few hours.

if this is what he is referring to then isent 30 sec's~1 min long enough to cool the turbo were it is safe to turn the engine off?

 

[Karnag3_0kc]

The phrasing of the question was odd, but yet like said before you can cook the oil sent into the turbo and it'd be sludge. I have never heard of a turbo overheating but the housin could crack due to pressure..

 

[Thomas91169]

55-60mph isnt enough load/heat/etc to cook oil in the turbo, even if it was only oil cooled (and not oil+coolant).

the only time you will do that is if you were running balls out and instantly pulled over and shut the car down.

99.9999% of the people will at least have a 5min drive after freeway speeds, of normal slow low-rpm driving time that will cool things down. Hell even people drag racing still have a 2-3min drive from the end of shutting down, down the return road, to the timeslip shack, and back into the pits thats more then enough time to cool things down, the additional 3min turbo timing is just added security, and really necessary for those that DONT run coolant lines through their turbos, where yeah, the oil could still cook inside due to the heat since the CHRA cools down slower with only oil cooling it.

 

[agentorange313]

Well it depends what he means by overheating. A turbo can overheat, go beyond its limits of how much heat it can handle. When there is an insufficient supply of oil the lubrication of the turbo is decreased. without the lubrication the friction creats so much heat when the turbo spins that it can cause cracking to the housing and destroy the seals.

As far as turbo timers, I let mine run for 55 seconds after I turn off the car, I have never had a problem with my turbo overheating.

-What do yo mean why "Will it over heat my turbo to keep on goin after my TT maxes out at three min.? "
If you keep your turbo timer on for 3 minutes after you shut off your car than it will run for three minutes. I dont think it will overheat you tourbo in anyway. In fact it will cool the turbo, no more heat is being created in the chambers so the coolant that is traveling throught the system will cool the turbo and the rest of the engine.

goodluck

 

[LiquidX]

+1 with Thomas

There truly is no need for turbo timers and you will cool the turbo down more efficiently driving easily and out of boost for the last few min before shutting off. Especially with water cooled turbos, they came from the factory assuming people would just turn the car off after driving hard.

At most you will coke a small amount of oil but there is still coolant circulating even with the engine off due to convection currents happening from the transfer of heat from the CHRA to the coolant. It'll slow down once the T-stat closes and the coolant equalized temperatures with the CHRA.

If you run a non water cooled housing then yes, a TT may help out more so oil is circulating over the bearings and shaft to help pull off the heat. Still the same principal applies that driving easy will reduce or eliminate the need to idle before shutting off.

Having an external oil cooler will lower that idle needs on a non water cooled turbo even more as the oil is being directly cooled by ambient air instead of heat transfer from the engine internals to the coolant in passages, air blowing over the pan or even with a water cooled OFH as it will only cool the oil down to as low as the coolant temps are.

To further answer your question these turbos still work even after this happens

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[Jimmer307]

For 95% of applications, a turbo timer is not even necessary. I think you should be good letting it cool for 3 minutes. When I had a turbo timer on my car it was always set to 1 minute and I have yet to see any sludge come out of my car.

 

[Rob10_99]

Simple fix, don't boost while your lookin for a parking spot.
But as for overheating, the only thing that could happen is oil coking or coolant boiling.

 

[thomcasey]

I am running a N/T motor in my TSi AWD, I have NO OIL COOLER (neither air or coolant). I have taken my car on several long trips (recently a 4.5hr straight thru drive to the shootout, and back). Changed oil once returning, zero sludge, the syntho looked as it normally would after 3000 miles of use, med-brown. YOu are overkill with the 3-minute timer, as another poster said, 1-minute should be fine.

 

[FluidKaos]

Take a look at my avatar
<-------
My turbo works just fine. I don't have a turbo timer, I just allow things to cool off after it does that, before shutting down.

 

[KyleJ]

One way to keep closer tabs on your turbo temp is with a pyrometer. I come from the diesel world where EGT's are extremely vital to engine health. I have a pyrometer on my Eclipse and even with my Cummins and it's HX40 a couple minutes spent idling will save your turbo.

 

[WEB264]

thanks guys and sorry for the confusion on the question.

but throwedgsx answered the question i was asking, i just wasn't for sure if i could burn up my turbo at highway speeds driving for a while....

but i guess i'm good even tho my turbo is only oil cooled