Turbo timers....Best bang for the buck.

[Chipstien]

It is about time I invest in a turbo timer and am wondering what one you guys are using. Help me out here.

 

[LSMITH]

The Isspro is nice because it will idle until it is cool, but will not idle longer than needed. The ones that run on a timer (Geno's) are strictly a guessing game, you just set a timer and hope it is the right interval. I have the Isspro.



That said I think it is pretty much useless. It does in fact use some fuel that otherwise would not be used, and I am not convinced that cooling the turbo is of much benefit. I have known people with over 250K miles on thier stock turbos and have never ever cooled the turbo. Of the many many thousands of CTD's out there I would bet that less than 10% cool the turbo before they shut off the truck. I bought mine because I got it cheap and it is another gadget, it is not something I would recommend buying.

 

[ewcmr2]

It is about time I invest in a turbo timer and am wondering what one you guys are using. Help me out here.

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HKS. Less than $100. Not having to wait to shut it down and knowing the turbo is going to spin when engine is restarted... priceless



Eric

 

[jimk]

cool down

I will agree that many people have gotten lots on miles on their truck and never cooled down their engine before stopped engine,

however let me share some things that I have seen.

Where I work we have a big cam 400 that is set up to run a fire pump, part of the fire system for a 690 megawatt power plant.

The system was set up, by a vendor, to come on and provide water at pressure. The engine can either be started in the auto or manual setting and come to full power. Block and oil heaters keep the engine temperatures where the engine can be run when needed at a moment notice.

However the engine lost several turbos and pistons and liners, under warranty and when the warranty ran out I was sent to rebuild engine. When I had a look at the system I knew what the problem was or had a good idea. The engine would start and run under a load and when the command to shut off the engine was given it would not idle down, just die. That was 16 years ago and have never had any trouble after I overhauled the engine. The system could have been set up to run by a custom engine logics system how ever we simply made manual provisions to idle the engine until the engine had time to cool down and then be shut down. The engine was then returned to normal setting.

In the coal yard there is a couple of 380b wheel dozer's and they have 1710 engines. I have spent many hours working on them. I have seen many times where a dozer would be in a hard push and for some reason die, run out of fuel or what ever and not long after you would replace one or both turbos.

sorry for the long winded speech but I let my truck cool down especially if it is working hard Jimk

 

[Chipstien]

Lsmith, does the isspro tap into a pyro? How does it know when to turn off?

 

[LSMITH]

Chip, yes it uses a pyro.



Jimk, you bring up some good points, but we are not going to be shutting our trucks off in the middle of a 6% grade with 12000 pounds on it. By the time you get pulled over safely and stopped the temperature difference is drastic. Cooling the turbo is a good idea, I just think the importance is over rated.

 

[ewcmr2]

Even when I deliberately idle down the street to my house, the EGT is higher than I'd like to see it before shutting down. It is, of course, worse when I'm going somewhere where I'm not idling along for a while before shut down (i. e. , getting off the interstate, turning rght into Sam's parking lot).



The big deal, though, is that we tow our racecar 20K miles a year. When I've just finished a long tow, the last thing I really want to do is sit there and wait for the EGTs to drop. As Eric already said, we love our HKS. We use it all the time.



The turbo timers that figure out for you when to turn off would be cool, but with a little practice, you can get pretty good at estimating how long it needs to run to cool down from a given EGT.



mlc (the co-driver)

 

[Scrappy]

TURBO TEMP monitor

yup, I got one. It works slick, set parking brake,turn key off and walk away! It won't let the engine run any longer than necessary unlike the timers which are a guessing game. It attaches to the pyrometer that I installed previously,a fused wire to the battery,and a large blue wire on the steering column.

 

[Chipstien]

Lsmith, can you give a ball park figure what the Isspro runs. Or PM me the price.

 

[LSMITH]

I bought mine NIB from a private party for a very nice price. DIS sells them for $116 and change + shipping. http://www.dieselpage.com/iss32.htm Here it is. I have bought from them in the past and been treated GREAT.

 

[ewcmr2]

Is anyone useing the Isspro and driving/living in the desert/southwest? I was wondering if the ambient temperature is 100+ degrees does it ever turn the truck off ? Or does it keep running intill the sun goes down ; )



Eric

 

[Evan A. Beck]

Originally posted by Chipstien

It is about time I invest in a turbo timer and am wondering what one you guys are using. Help me out here.

You already have one! Your eyes and an EGT gauge! No need to buy a turbo temp timer thingy... Waste of money if you ask me... We've installed a few, and they are more irritating than they are helpful. Sorry to be blunt, but this is a case where keeping it simple is a good idea.