aircooled vs. oil cooled vs. water cooled turbos?

[Homer]

Originally Posted by JohnLane

By definition more plumbing=more likelyhood of failure+more hassle to set up. The newer cars are certainly less of a pain this way with better thought out plumbing for the water, but the hoses are stupid expensive compared with the lower hose for a car with no turbo.

I suppose. I suppose its just perspective. Paying 10 bucks more for the hose for a wc turbo isn't that bad.

[cricketol]

how can u tell the difference between water cooled and oil cooled ? is it the non Ball Bearings / to having Ball Bearings ? im looking for a water cooled turbo not oil so i dont have to leave my hole car on to cool the turbo down

[spruill242]

All of them are going to be oil cooled. The water cooling is the extra part. Some turbos have it some don't. You don't have to run the water but you will have to run oil no mater what. And I would let the car sit and cool no mater what you have running through it.

[500dollar744ti]

not reading any of this thread but what the hell is an air cooled turbo?

[PRVersion]

Originally Posted by 500dollar744ti

not reading any of this thread but what the hell is an air cooled turbo?

a farce.

[AHox244+T]

Yes and the oil cooled turbos on the big rigs my brother inlaw services dont last that long , only 1,000,000 miles + . Let your ish cool down and warm up and it will last longer that the car.

[CoPa85]

im running a well used 15g on a +t with no coolant lines at about 6 psi fine for about 25,000miles so far. i let it cool down for a min before i shut the car down.

[JohnLane]

The water cooling is there to cover for Jane Consumer who will run the car up her steep driveway at 60mph and immediately shut it off and then change the oil every ten thousand miles..... Whether it needs it or not.

[BDKR]

Originally Posted by JohnLane

The water cooling is there to cover for Jane Consumer who will run the car up her steep driveway at 60mph and immediately shut it off and then change the oil every ten thousand miles..... Whether it needs it or not.

Bingo!

I would far prefer to have more than adequate oil cooling then the water lines.

[sdturbo]

I deal with various turbo setups every day. I see far more damage from broken water lines than i do from overheated turbos. My personal cars get so much work done to them the oil cooled turbo just makes things easy/less messy. I have put quite a few miles on water cooled turbos without the water hooked up without any issues, im sure it wouldnt last 200k miles like that but id bet the water cooled turbo wouldnt last that long either.

Aero turbos could be considered "air cooled", they have built in oiling systems. They are popular on 2 stroke turbo apps. but I think have gone out of buisness... probablly do to lots of turbo carnage.

[JW240]

Garrett had a run of turbo's with extra cooling fins on the center section, as a switchover between pure oil cooled to water cooled turbo's. I have to dig up some pics, they are in one of the Garrett manuals i have. Helped against heatsoak, but not as effective as water cooling (thermo siphon when engine is turned off).

[cricketol]

im not trying to leave me car running i can just run the water cooling on the timer ... i dont live in the best of neighborhoods thats why.. i want water cooled not oil cooled and i can cool the turbo better that why any way and wouldnt the turbo last longer that way too?

[cricketol]

im only going to be running electric pumps but the oil pump will not be though

[cricketol]

and for air cooled turbo ... i know thats a load of crap...

[sdturbo]

Originally Posted by cricketol

im not trying to leave me car running i can just run the water cooling on the timer ... i dont live in the best of neighborhoods thats why.. i want water cooled not oil cooled and i can cool the turbo better that why any way and wouldnt the turbo last longer that way too?

Water cooling does not remove the need to let things cool down before you shut it down. Turbo timers are silly rice boy stuff, you dont really need it. If you were just putting through a neighborhood/parking lot, go ahead and shut it off as soon as you are parked. If you just did a 3rd gear pull, just hang out idling for a minute and let things cool down. I have had turbo cars for 10 years now and have never lost a turbo do to coking. Water cooling is cute but shows no significant advantage over oil cooling in my opinion. If anything, it adds complication and failure points.

[Forg]

Originally Posted by JohnLane

The water cooling is there to cover for Jane Consumer who will run the car up her steep driveway at 60mph and immediately shut it off and then change the oil every ten thousand miles..... Whether it needs it or not.

Ooh, Thread From The Dead!!

Actually, I think of water-cooled turbos as being more for the person, eg. me, that buys Jane Consumer's turbocharged car. 99.99% of all new cars are bought by Jane or her husband John, after all; water cooled turbos mean I won't have a 50/50 chance of needing to buy a new turbo if I buy a car that's over about 5 years of oldness.

Originally Posted by sdturbo

Water cooling is cute but shows no significant advantage over oil cooling in my opinion.

Turbo failures have gone down dramatically since water-cooling became pretty-much standard, because of the aforequoted reasons. With water-cooled turbos Jane & John won't necessarily kill them as they casually pull off the freeway into the service-station & shut the engine off 30-odd seconds after they've been on (light) boost for a solid hour ... oil-cooled turbos tended to die under those sorts of circumstances.

[sdturbo]

Originally Posted by Forg

Turbo failures have gone down dramatically since water-cooling became pretty-much standard, because of the aforequoted reasons. With water-cooled turbos Jane & John won't necessarily kill them as they casually pull off the freeway into the service-station & shut the engine off 30-odd seconds after they've been on (light) boost for a solid hour ... oil-cooled turbos tended to die under those sorts of circumstances.

If you are Jane/John, you would not be reading this thread.

[Forg]

Originally Posted by sdturbo

If you are Jane/John, you would not be reading this thread.

True, but as I said above, there is a 99.99% chance any used car you look at was bought & driven by Jane or John when new; plus it is possible to have a Dumb Moment when concentrating on something else & forget about the whole idle-down thing (eg. driving turbo cars around for 10+ years without even having to think about such things, you could stop to fill-up with fuel while thinking about something completely different & cook your turbo).

I guess my view & point is that almost all cars that exist come with water-cooled turbos, and it's not worth the hassle & potential pain in changing the setup.

[JohnLane]

Also worthy of note:

We all use synthetic motor oil don't we?

Synthetic motor oil will not coke in the fashion that the crummy dino based oils did in the eighties.

We also change our oil!! This helps considerably. In the years that I've had my turbo V-6.... it has had (count 'em!!) one turbocharger. No failures.

[Homer]

Well my turbo timer cooks me breakfast in the morning!

[JohnLane]

Originally Posted by Homer

Well my turbo timer cooks me breakfast in the morning!

Bonus!!

[Ursan]

I'm thinking of getting a remote car starter/alarm installed. The place I'm getting it done says I could get it with a turbo timer that will allow the car to run from 0-300 seconds after key off. Anyone ever do this? Is there a particular brand you've used if so?

[lookforjoe]

Originally Posted by Ursan

I'm thinking of getting a remote car starter/alarm installed. The place I'm getting it done says I could get it with a turbo timer that will allow the car to run from 0-300 seconds after key off. Anyone ever do this? Is there a particular brand you've used if so?

You can make your own on the cheap using the 700 series heated mirror switch/relay. The mirror portion is a six minute timer. Just feed the output back to the ign switch/fuse panel.

On my 240, I used a radioshack momentary contact rocker switch & a couple of diodes to monitor it...

next to the hazard switch, the other was for the nitrous system...

[Ursan]

Also, AFAIK, any turbo that isn't water cooled would be considered air cooled. I know the oil does some cooling, it's really not that good of a heat conductor.

[Ursan]

Originally Posted by lookforjoe

You can make your own on the cheap using the 700 series heated mirror switch/relay. The mirror portion is a six minute timer. Just feed the output back to the ign switch/fuse panel.

On my 240, I used a radioshack momentary contact rocker switch & a couple of diodes to monitor it...

next to the hazard switch, the other was for the nitrous system...

Dude, that's a big pic of a lot of gauges.

I could do that, but I'm planning on getting a remote starter anyway, so, yeah.