Thoughts on Turbo logevity...

[DieselD]

I admit my thoughts could be outdated but having turbo cars in the 90's and 2000's and even to some extent today, incredible damage could be done to a turbo by shutting the engine down without letting it idle for a bit to cool things down. I'm having issue wrapping my head around how this can't happen to the Powerboost with the constant on/off cycles. It seems to me that oil starvation would have to be an issue to some degree unless they have a way to deal with it I'm not seeing. What do you guys know about how that system works to keep the turbo's in good shape?

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[Gros Ventre]

It's long been a rule of thumb for aircraft pilots to ensure the engine iles for at least 5 minutes after landing to ensure their turbos spin down. Keep in mind that turbos can reach 100,000 rpm at full power, so allowing them to spin down is important. If Ford has been on the ball in programming the engine software, they built in an "engine off" lag of 5 minutes or so in the programming. Cannot say for sure that they did this, but they'd be dumb not to build such into their software.

 

[HammaMan]

Turbos are liquid cooled avoiding the heat soak of the bearing and the oil cooking. Oils are also considerably different today.

 

[RcFlyer330]

From my understanding aircraft turbos are only cooled by engine oil and run in boost almost all the time. The reason for the cool down is so you dont cook the oil in the bearings of the turbos. Where most if not all automotive gasoline turbos are cooled by engine coolant and are not being run in boost unless it's needed.

 

[lrb_35128]

Older threads, on a different forums, plus one from ours. However, it seems Ford uses (used?) a water cooling system in lieu of needing you to sit & idle (or) a turbo timer.

https://www.f150forum.com/f70/ecoboost-turbo-timer-106103/

https://www.f150ecoboost.net/threads/turbo-timers.1073/

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/how-common-are-14th-gen-turbo-failures.18120/

 

[FaaWrenchBndr]

From my understanding aircraft turbos are only cooled by engine oil and run in boost almost all the time. The reason for the cool down is so you dont cook the oil in the bearings of the turbos. Where most if not all automotive gasoline turbos are cooled by engine coolant and are not being run in boost unless it's needed.

this is 100% correct

 

[Gros Ventre]

From my understanding aircraft turbos are only cooled by engine oil and run in boost almost all the time. The reason for the cool down is so you dont cook the oil in the bearings of the turbos. Where most if not all automotive gasoline turbos are cooled by engine coolant and are not being run in boost unless it's needed.

Only partly true. The issue is less cooling down of the turbo and mostly ensuring oil flow to the bearing. Keep in mind that even though the turbos operate at high power during cruise, the descent to landing and the taxi to parking cools things down quite smartly since the engines are aircooled and the airflow goes over the engine, cylinders, and turbos. The coking occurs when the engine is shutdown and oil is no longer flowing with the turbo still spinning. The oil left in the bearing then cokes from residual heat. This is the cause of the coking. This can be sidestepped by using a turbo after oiler like offered by CantonRacingProducts.com. The problem with the Powerboost is going from high power to electric mode suddenly. This happens in my neck of the woods. There's a steep hill with a store just beyond the crest. I've taken to driving beyond it for a couple of miles and then back to the store to get that 5 minutes for spin down.

 

[redline]

In the 90s everything was driven off the motor, fans, oil pumps, and water pumps , everything now is electric and fans etc , will run after you turn the engine off.

 

[SALEEN961]

Working on mainly European vehicles, I see a lot of turbocharged cars and I wouldn't worry about turbo timers, or letting your truck idle to cool things off if you're just driving around like a normal person at part throttle under light loads.

If you drive aggressively or tow heavy, giving the engine, trans, and turbos a few minutes of cool down time before shutting the engine off is a good idea. If you hear your cooling fans running at high speeds after running your truck hard, giving your truck a few minutes to cool down is a good idea.

The vast majority of turbocharger "failures" that I see are just rattling wastegates and excessive play in worn wastegate linkages. Bearing failures and oil seal failures are extremely rare. I can only remember replacing one turbocharger for a bearing failure and the vehilce was thoroughly abused and unmaintained.

When it comes to keeping your turbos in good condition, the most important thing by a huge margin is keeping your engine oil clean and full. The second most important thing is keeping your cooling system in good condition. Make sure the cooling system holds pressure, keep your coolant clean and full, and change your coolant at the proper intervals.

 

[SilverSpur]

Not much to worry about unless you use the turbos a lot. A heavy foot engages the turbos quite a bit. But using just normal acceleration the turbos are not usually used. Normal shut off without the need to cool down first is ok.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

If you drive aggressively or tow heavy, giving the engine, trans, and turbos a few minutes of cool down time before shutting the engine off is a good idea. If you hear your cooling fans running at high speeds after running your truck hard, giving your truck a few minutes to cool down is a good idea.

Agree. I used to tow a horse trailer with my 2016 Expediton EcoBoost against headwinds at 70 in the heat at times. I did not learn until too late that I should let things cool down. Cracked my exhaust manifold and turbo housing. Fortunately the girls grew up and now they tow their own trailers!

 

[DieselD]

Some good stuff here. Thanks fellas.

 

[Gros Ventre]

In the 90s everything was driven off the motor, fans, oil pumps, and water pumps , everything now is electric and fans etc , will run after you turn the engine off.

The engine oil pump is geared off the engine. Stop the engine and the pump stops.

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