Warming up, and cooling down.......... how long??

Just wondering how long everyone warms up and cools down their car.
On a dead cold start i'd probly warm it up for around 30seconds, holding it around 2000rpm some of the time.

Then daily driving to work and back probly only 1 minute on the turbo timer, and after a night or cruising and dragging 3 minutes on the turbo timer.

I usually leave mine on for about 2 mins if I have been driving around like a 60 y/o and about 3 mins if I have been driving around like a 19 y/o with a turbo car!

with a turbo car it is wise to warm it up a bit before you begin to boost it. You will kill a turbo or motor boosting hard while not at operating temperatures. I wait until my temp guage hits normal driving temps before i give it anything more than 1/4 throttle.

Cooling down depends on how hard you were driving. If you thrash it then just turn the motor off you can cook your turbo bearing and destroy the turbo. Usually 2 min is long enough unless you just gave your car a hiding.

Hrmmm I usually dont cool mine down if i've just been driving around normally.. I figure that if i'm only cruising on 60 kays then maybe making 2 psi boost when accelerating cooling down shouldn't be a problem as cruising on 60kays is basically cooling it down. Am I wrong? And if this was the case why didn't they fit turbo timers as std. if this was going to be a problem when driving normally. I usually let it sit for about 1-2 mins if i've been driving a little harder than normal or i just take it easy a few kays before I get home.

Yep joel you are right.

Warming up is important of course, but by the time you have been out screwing it and then drive home like a grandma, the turbo would have cooled enough. Unless you are on the track for an hour and come straight off and stop the car, then I would leave it for a few minutes.
I always turn mine straight off when I am driving normally, and it REALLY pisses me off when I see people stop their car and leave the turbo timer going for 5 min even though they have been driving like a grandma. Why don't you get a big sign that says, "I HAVE A TURBO CAR" because basically it is just like that.. ;)

I personally like the turbo timers that count up or down on how much you screw it. Mine will go up to a max of 3 min with continued full throttle, if I drive for 10 min without boost it goes down to 20sec, I think that is pretty good.

Ben (Never had any turbo trouble :finger: )

I was under the impression ,generally speaking the timer was to let the turbo slow down so that when the engine stopped pumping oil to it , it didnt sieze ...rather than cooling the thing down .....
Oil stavation being the biggest cause of turbo failure and all .........

yes but if you are driving slowly without boost, then it won't matter. You need the oil to cool it when it is spooling fast enough to heat the whole turbo, like when you can see through the thing..

The turbo spins at a hugely high number of revs at idle, regardless of how long it stays at idle, it'll never get any slower. The timer is to let it cool down. I think from memory that a turbo spins at about 20,000revs, not exactly sure, but it is a huge number, obviously, speed goes up as boost does.

Ant:newburn:

oh yer I forgot to mention .. I turn her off after I have taken off my seat belt, grabbed the face from the stereo and opened the car door. That would probably be around the 20sec mark..

Most turbos are no only oil fed and cooled but utilize engine coolant to cool them down. You will never get it cool per-say as exhaust gases are hot anyhow, But if you can get the exhaust housing glowing under long full boost. If you are poking around town then you should not even need to use a turbo timer. Only after you have given the car a good fang then want to shut it off.

Saying that would it be a good idea to have an oil cooler after the turbo if you use the car for a lot of track work? or would before the turbo be better?

I would be wary of thrashing a car til at least a few minutes after the water temp has reached "normal".

Been out in an R34 and had the console display set to show oil and water temps. Once the water had reached it's normal level, the oil was still way low, in fact not even showing up yet.

I have been in a rebuilt RX2 which was started first thing in the morning and thrashed out the gate of a motor camp without a proper warmup. POP!.
We drove home(Hawkes bay to Wgtn) on 1 rotor due to the other one packing up.

Normally have my timer set to one minute, unless it's been thrashed in which case it's up to 3 mins.

Warming up - idle for at least 30 seconds then 5 minutes of easy driving (3500 max rpm est). Then gradually over next few minutes increase revs. From what I've seen from my oil temp gauge it takes about that long for the engine to get warm.

Warm down - easy driving, turn off straight away so long as idling. If you drive very hard and tend to turn your car off straight away you probably need a turbo timer.

However, the manufactures do not provide turbo timers and give no recommendations for cooling down as the modern turbos are both water and oil feed. Considering my car has a 3 year warrenty I am confident that normal driving will not cause any problem if you don't warm down for normal driving.

so its fairly safe to say that i should warm it up for around 30 sec, then drive slowly only up to 3500rpm to heat up the oil before i go thrashing it?
I actually have a long drive into town (around 20kms) so i never hit it hard until town.

Then warming down, only idle for a little while after normal driving. And if after a really hard burn use turbo timer for either 1 or 3 mins depending how long ive driven slowly after thrashing it.

I don't know much about Turbo's so it's awesome to have threads like this!
In my mind it's better to let her warm up and stuff, then the more you thrash it the longer you leave her to warm down! kinda like a g/f! LOL :D
Jokes guys, hope I didn't offend anyone...

Na what do ya expect from an N/A guy hehehe

LOL I have something for you Vince - :finger: haa haa haa.
I'll be a turbo driver soon!!!

go carkt dont count mate hehehe

Haa haa, bit of a smart a$$ today are you?
lucky for some to have nothing to do at work! :D

But for some of us we have to work..... CYA

Actually I was wrong!
It's all about multitasking, I am posting plus rebuilding a clients PC! :D

Hey guys.

I have only been a skyline owner for 1 and 1/2 months. In the car manual i got with the car it says never race a cold engine and it has suggested times that you should leave the car sit after using


This is from memory so i could be wrong

normal driving no need to idle

driving under boost up to 80 km i think it said 20 seconds

driving under boost at high speeds over 80km 30 seconds

driving at higspeeds over 80km in hilly moutain type terrain 1 minute


I could have remembered the figures wrong..

Me i usually warm the car for 20 seconds and then i drive nornally for a while and the turbo timer is set to 1minute..

cheers have a good one

Is that manual from a brand new Skyline or one from an older model?

Its from a 95 R33 GTST..

Sounds right.

Seeing as Skylines were meant to be driven hard, looks like you should leave your cars for atleast a minute! :D

Just saw something, this is the first and only (so far) thread that Vince hasn't left a post under mine with something smart too say!
What's happening old buddy?

I don't idle at start...but I don't break 3000 until the oil pressure is above 75 degC. That's much more important than you water temp...cold engines have problems because of lack of oil flow....mostly due to the oil drained back to the sump....and because it's relatively thick when it's cold (depending on your weight:)) So you really should wait until the Oil temp is up vice water temp! I usually don't thrash on it anywhere near my home as I drive downhill when I leave...and downhill when I come back!:) I actually drive two different ways to work....I'm halfway down a big ass hill:) How's that for love of car! That way I don't stress the engine either prior to shutting off....or just after starting! I try not to let the car idle too long. Carbon deposits have cause havoc in a tuned engine......And if you are running 7 plugs or higher....you should never turn off the car until your water temp (yes water:)) is normal....otherwise you can oxidize the tips!

Hey guys, just a quick thought i was talking to a guy the other day who has a t5/t6 turbo with 42-46psi boost... he doesnt use a turbo timer at all!! They actually use water and oil accumulater tanks... (which by the way are alot cheaper than t/timers). All they do is hold a certain amount of oil and when you switch your car off... the lack of pressure in your oil and water lines, that cool your turbo down, will pull the oil and water out of these tanks and flow it round the turbo... the concept is pretty simple... and alot more effective than just keeping your car on idle dont you think?
any input? im not an expert but to me... its saving a lil bit of petrol... and yeah seems pretty good....

yeah thats right, hell most don't even use blowoff valves

What about thermal shock? How close are these tanks located to the engine? Are they kept warm enough from latent engine bay heat to prevent thermal shock in the turbines from cool fluid/oil running through a hot turbine?

....and last time I checked, the skylines had stock blow-off valves:)