Do intercooled turbos need to be cooled down after use?

An intercooler just cools air after it is compressed by the turbo. It doesn't help you or your engine in anyway to preserve these expensive turbines. By cooling the air the volume of the air decreases and by doing so even more air can be compressed into your cilinders.

Leaving your turbocharged engine running idle for a minute takes care of the fact that your Turbo's need oilpressure for there bearings. Turbo's spin at high rev's and will keep on revving for a while after you released the throttle. Also the cooling down proces is much nicer this way (oil cools also)
Take look at this picture, then you know why to cool down easily ;)
http://www.ststurbo.com/remote_mounting___

Good luck

Have you checked your owner's manual. Mine recommends minimum idle down times depending on speed and driving duration.

You'll generally find that running around town the turbo isn't constantly at high engine speed and revs so "may" not need to be idled down for extended periods. I find by the time I pull up, open the gate, the garage and drive/reverse into the garage it would have idled down.

On longer trips at speeds above 80 kph, especially when towing, I idle down for at least 3 minutes.

But everyone will have an opinion on this topic just like everyone has an !@#$hole.

If your worried get a turbo timer fitted.

Wizard
Prado TD (intercooled)
Gold Coast

Hurricane

When I bought my car it was fitted with a turbo timer. The turbo timer has an auto function which sets the time required for idling according to the temperature (I guess).

Whenever I travel from Noosa to Brissy I get the following readings.

After travellling at 110-120km/h for 20 min it reads 1min 45sec and stays there until I hit the 100km speed limit and slow down a bit. This brings the timer down to about 40-50 sec after 10 minutes or so, and stays there. When I hit the northern sububrbs and traffic lights, it continually drops, so by the time I get to the city it's between 3 to 10 sec.

So, I wouldn't bother waiting too long to let the turbo cool if you have been driving around the city. If you just let it idle while your getting things out of the car and then turn it off just before you close your doors, that should be enough. The only time I'd let it idle for a couple of minutes is when you're coming off the freeway to pick up fuel or food etc, or have been off road and done a lot of high reving just before you stopped.

R.

Don't walk away from your vehicle running on a turbo timer!

Unless you want to get booked!

If you talk to a turbo shop they should tell you that you need to let it idle for awhile to cool down for this reason.It is to keep the coolant flowing through the turbo for it to cool down sufficently so the oil in the turbo doesn't boil dry,there for the bearings running dry.The harder you push the vehicle the hotter the turbo runs,the longer you idle for.Being a mechanic I have attended courses on the new turbo petrol cars and the Holden Astra turbo has 2 water pumps(one for normal operation),one electric pump that operates on shut down to keep the coolant flowing through the turbo for the above reason.So I would suggest idling for about 1 minute.All the best Peter.

Thanks Everyone for the advice.

I feel bad now. For the last 2 weeks I have been just shutting the engine off. But most trips have only been under 20kms so far.

I will let my Turbo Cool down from now on.

H.