Turbo Timers and GU Patrol

Mick
I've had a watercooled DTS turbo fitted to my 78 Series troopy. The guy said exactly the same thing about idling.
Around town, provided you haven't just driven up Greenmount hill or similar, then by the time you have parked, removed seatbelt and applied handbrake etc, switch straight off.
If you've been belting down the highway at 110 and pull into a roadhouse, idle 2 minutes at least.
In other words, gentle work = little or no idle. Heavy or hot work = 2, preferably 3 mins idle. As I said, this is the advice given to me by my supplier. Had the turbo 7 months and nothing but joy so far.
By the way, turbo was the best damn 4wd money I ever spent. A diesel troopy that accelerates uphill and can pass triple roadtrains without needing a kilometre to spare is a wondrous thing.

Cheers
Russell

Turbos that have been run hard get powerful hot on the exhaust side, 500 or 600 C.If you dont do a couple of minutes rundown to cool things off a bit ,the heat sinks thru to the bearing housing and bakes the oil residue into a varnish type coating that can lead to poor turbo performance by inhibiting its ability to spin freely and even premature bearing and seal failure.Turbo timers are OK if you trust your handbrake and dont mind walking away with the engine still running.Otherwise just let it idle down for a while.Dont know about the insurance angle.
Cheers
Mick

Worth having YES if you plan to keep car out of warranty period..

Insurance companies HATE them.. Call yours first.

I usually unpack the car while it cools down from a long run.. Or get out go check mail box on a short run to shops and back..

Just ordered one for my Rodeo yesterday and saw that there was a few there for the GU's. It was at ARB and is a "plug in" unit made by Bogaard - they seem to be the one used and recommended by most.
I checked with the insurance company first - they gave the thumbs up.
I'd rather be safe than stuck with the expense of a turbo rebuild down the track.

Agree with the other posts. Save your money on the timer and just remember to let it idle for a few minutes after a hard run etc, steep hills, towing, high speed etcetc. Not critical to idle down if you are just popping down to the local etc,

Mick
I have just put one into my TD80LC. It's fantastic since you don't have to think about it, especially when in a hurry to the boy's room at a petrol station along the highway (or when wife's not around to wait for it to idle).
It's not expensive and you can even buy one from Dick Smith. Check with insurance co first..:)

mick, when i bought my good old imported surf about 2.5 years ago i went o auto barn (god dam im doing a lot of advertising on this site:) ) it cost me about $125 ish i think and took em about 30 mins to fit. i know you should only really use them after a hard run but then again what 2.4 dosnt run hard most of the time. ie always got it on and after driving from cairns to darwin them home to sydney id let it run for the full 5 mins. i dont think it hurt the engine. well at least as much as it would hurt my back pocket if i cooled the little go machine under the bonnet

just a thought

cheers

rexy

I read on this forum that it is not legal to leave a car unattended that has its engine running. You would have to be very unlucky to get caught but worth mentioning.

Dont know if this is true.
Groove!