Turbo cool down

[dieselfish]

Just heard from a co-worker that just bought a Dodge that it is good to idle for one minute before turning off the engine. Especially when towing. I am also a new diesel owner and was wondering if there is any truth to that.

[DmaxMaverick]

Welcome to the forums!

To answer your question...Yes, and no.

The turbo on the Duramax is water cooled. This means the housing and bearing temp will decrease much quicker than with an non water cooled turbo. For normal driving, a cool down is not necessary. After a hard run under load, it is probably plenty cooled by the time you get slowed down and stop. It won't hurt anything to give it a minute, or two, of idle. I do it. I know lots of others that do and don't, and there doesn't seem to be any issues with it either way. The GM turbos have proven to be very reliable and durable, no matter how bad we abuse them.

The "other brands" are more of a traditional turbo design, lacking a cooling system. It may be well advised to give them a cooling off period under some circumstances.

[BozDMAX]

When I installed the Banks system it came with an EGT (and Boost) gauge on the A-Pillar. I let the EGT cool to 400 degrees and then shut if off.

[Kennedy]

The key is not to shut down immediately after working the engine. Typicaly you will have decent coast down and light load time to cool down before shutdown. What you don't want to do is pull over and shut down right after towing. Typically you'll cool plenty on the off ramp or the road to the rest area etc.

I use my remote start to time it down when necessary.

[dieselfish]

Great feedback! Now that I am aware I will follow your suggestions. Not sure what an A-pillar is but I'm sure I will find out when researching the engine monitors/programmers for my next project.

[jbplock]

Originally posted by Schulze:
..Not sure what an A-pillar is Schulze,

A-pillars are the sections on the right and left side of the windshield that support the roof. The left pillar is a convienent place to mount gauges - i.e. Exhaust gas temperature (EGT) and Turbo Boost...

http://www.dieselpage.com/pics/bnkmount.jpg

Heres some links for more info..

AutoMeter A-Pillar Gauge Mount (http://www.autometer.com/cat_mountsdetail.aspx?vid=375&sid=0&mid=4&pg=1&mdl=87&gw=0)

Kennedy Diesel A-Pillar Gauge Mounts (http://www.kennedydiesel.com/categoryresults3.cfm?Category=7&SubCategory=102&SubCategory2=97)

DIS Guages and Gauge Mounts (http://www.dieselpage.com/bnkmount.htm)

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[dieselfish]

A-pillar gauges look good. Thanks for the clarification.