Turn off my car right away when I'm only driving 5 miles to work in the morning and my pressure gauge never leaves vacuum? In other words, do I only have to let the car sit for a little bit before I shut it off if I go into Boost? What are your opinions on "turbo timers?" Sorry I have never owned a turbocharged car before, this is new to me.

 

i always turn mine off right when i park lol. i dont see what it would hurt?

 

Isn't that how oil can sling into the intake? Is that part of the reason to get an oil catch can?

 

Yea, Turbo timers are very overrated for the most part. Unless your beating the car around town then stop immediately and turn off the car you'll be ok. So don't worry, just treat it like a normal car.

 

Just drive it like a normal car, even if the engine never sees any boost in its entire life it will not matter.

What you don't want to do is push the engine into boost before its warmed up, or run the car very hard (boost) and then shut it off right away.

 

If I remember correctly, our turbos are combo (water and oil) cooled. The water cooling aspect lets us not worry about turbo timers. Cars that are oil-cooled-turbos-only benefit from turbo timers, as oil can hold enough residual heat to damage the turbo, etc.

Again, I am going off my reading here, and it's been a while, but I think that was the gist.

 

Drive it like a regular car. If you were driving a 900hp evo and doing a bunch pulls and stop. Thats what a turbo timer is for.

 

^This^ most cars that come from the factory with turbos are both water and oil cooled so you dont have to let the engine cool down before you turn the car off, its sort of an anti-idiot precaution on another note the turbo timers keep the car runing so the oil can cool so it dosent break down, having oil that has broken down is what is bad for the turbo also having synthetic oil helps to since synthetics are formulated to withstand more heat

 

he said that his car is always in vacuum, so whats up with that? Mine is always in vacuum as well. When i shut the car off its at 20lbs, and when i get back in the car, even the next day, its still in vacuum...whats up with that?

 

Our gauges are electrical, not mechanical. It's probably just the shut off position for the gauge. My car has been sitting for 10 days and it still says -20.

 

I have an SC and after some hard pulls, racing, spirited driving etc I let it sit for a few mins before I shut it off. However even in a turbo car, as long as you havent been shittin and gettin it, you're prolly ok to shut off right away.

 

i shut mine off right away unless i beat on it then i let it sit for a min or 2

 

I've always let the car "spool down" for at least a minute or two before shutting it off.

 

 

Just turn it off and go. Nothing to worry about.

As mentioned, the combination of water and oil cooling to the turbo work to prevent oil coking. Along with using synthetic oil.

 

fart in the kitchen

 

Thanks everyone

 

I have my turbo timer set for 5 minutes. I always get so many noobs telling me I forgot to turn my car off.

 

I've always just turned the car off like it's a normal vehicle. I don't see any reason to let it cool down, especially since I ride genuinely slow. Haha

 

Hey now, be nice!

 

it's ok to.... break wind while urinating

 

It is fine to shut the car off right after parking. Oil + water cooling means coking is less likely. Also, think of it this way -- the car has a 160,000km / 5 year powertrain warranty. If you were supposed to let it cool down before shutting it off, it would be in the owner's manual, like old turbo RX7's (I'm pretty sure it was in their manual).

If shutting the car off before it's "cool" causes you to kill your turbo, then warranty that. If it's past the 5 year mark, all the more reason to get a bigger turbo! At least that's my theory.

 

Coming from a diesel truck with a tune and gauges, I can tell you that by the time you make it to your parking spot even after getting on it hard, the exhaust gas has cooled to normal levels and you can safely shut it down with no problems.

The magic number for EGT's for me was 350 degrees to shut down, 1250 all day long, spikes above that are fine, back off the skinny pedal when you're sustaining higher than 1250 degrees for any longer than 5-10 seconds.

As I said, even when I hammered on the truck hard- by the time I got to my parking spot the EGT's had cooled to shut down levels 99% of the time. A smaller turbo such as in a Cobalt will itself be cooler in a shorter amount of time since there is less material to trap heat.

If you are really concerned about anything- just install an EGT gauge and take note at the temps you run. I will be putting one in my car soon because it's an invaluable tool for knowing when it's running abnormally.

If you're hell-bent on installing a "turbo timer" then get one that actually has a thermocouple and shuts down based on temperature. The ones that have a preset or adjustable timer are pointless. They will either shut the engine down too soon, rendering the product useless, or let the car idle excessively and waste fuel.

All in all- I've read a lot of information over the years about oil coking and turbo timers etc and my opinion is this: Oil coking just isn't something anyone here should be concerned about. Ever.

 

On the stock K04, you don't have to do any cool down procedure. It isn't in any OEM's best interest to pray that their owners know to let a oil cooled turbo sit before shutting down, so they make it a combo unit. The turbo timers are only a real concern for people who install an aftermarket setup and run a standard oil cooled turbo.

 

Nighthawk243- regarding your post: The turbo in my 8,000 pound truck was cooled by oil only. I never EVER saw the need to install a turbo timer or similar device.

The definitive answer to this entire thread is going to be what I've already said: Procure, install, and monitor your EGT gauge. PERIOD.