Turbo charged diesel engines are not new; they have been part of our life for a decade. Most diesel engines nowadays are turbocharged, the reason is simple for efficiency and Power.
In the year 2021, A new trend has started that is turbocharged petrol engines. Turbo charged petrol engines are exciting and hopefully they may bring motor culture in India. In this article let’s talk about how to keep your turbo car reliable. Here are a few tips and tricks which you can use to protect your turbocharged car.
#1 Avoid initial revving in turbo Cars
When you start a turbocharged car cold, do not race the engine hard. First allow the engine to warm up for five to ten seconds until your car gets up to operating temperature so that the oil starts flowing through the turbos. Engine oil has to circulate through the oil pan and need to heat up. If oil doesn’t reach operating temperatures, it will not flow as fast as it will at operating temperature. Oil is thick, when you cold start the car. It won’t circulate through engine and turbo properly. When oil is heated up, engine oil becomes thin and it will circulate through engine faster. Thinner oil provides better protection to turbo chargers. Turbochargers spin insanely high RPMs hence you need to make sure proper oil flows through engine and turbo chargers. When turbocharger and engine is not lubricated with oil then revving hard after cold start may damage your engine and turbo faster. Always wait for five to ten minutes, allow engine to warm up and then you can rev it to full power.
#2 Engine shut
Never immediately turn your engine off after a long drive or if you have been driving your car at high RPM. When you drive your car at higher RPMs, the turbo charger gets really hot and when you turn off the engine, oil flow stops immediately. Turbochargers spin at higher speeds and when oil circulation stops; turbo spins without oil circulation which will harm turbocharger ultimately affects the car performance. Second drawback is oil doesn’t settle and it sits on the hot areas of turbochargers and it starts breaking down those leaves behind a thicker oil. Thicker oil does not have good flow characteristics which will again harm turbo chargers. Hence you need to change oil more frequently. Always let your engine cool down for 30 to 60 seconds, let engine oil drop down temperature and cool off hot areas of turbocharger. It is strongly recommended to keep your car on idle for 30 seconds to a minute before turning off the engine.
#3 Engine Lugging and LSPI (Low Speed Pre-ignition)
Never lug the engine. Let’s say you are in fifth gear at 1000 to 1500 rpm and you press the throttle for immediate boost. This is a very dangerous situation. There are several reasons; why you should avoid engine lugging. When you press the accelerator at low speed, engine will inject more fuel to cylinders but it can’t ingest more air so as a result you inject more fuel but it will not burn completely and this partial burn fuel goes through your exhaust system and it harms catalytic converter and damage exhaust system of car. Many times you see black smoke; that black smoke is a result of this condition where you are at low engine and put a high engine load. Another most important reason is Low speed Pre-Ignition which actually damages car engines. It may even seize the engine. In small capacity turbocharged engines high load and low rpm conditions actually have ignition far earlier than spark plug ignites. Ignition is not happening in a controlled manner. This situation can damage your car engine significantly. It may damage piston rings, spark plugs etc. Hence always shift to lower gear before harsh acceleration.
#4 Always buy best fuel
If you have a small capacity turbo charge car, always buy the best fuel for your car. This will avoid scenarios like low-speed pre-ignition that significantly damages the engine. When you use high octane fuel, ignition happens in more controlled manner which minimizes knock.
#5 Neutral Slip Angle
Let’s understand slip angle first, slip angle is the angle between the direction in which the vehicle is actually travelling and the direction in which the wheel is pointing. Stable vehicle means the front tire and rear tire have the same slip angle. In case one of them is greater than the other; let’s say the front is greater than the rear then the car will understeer and if the rear is greater than the front then the car will oversteer. So why is it important to understand slip angle for turbocharged vehicles? In a turbocharged vehicle if you are coming out of a corner and if you accelerate hard or if you brake hard where you are increasing the slip angle of a tire. In a turbocharged vehicle when you are coming out of a corner and you press accelerator hard, there is turbo lag and then all of a sudden turbo lag is overcome and all power sent to the rear or front wheel. This scenario puts a significant load on the tires. If you have a rear wheel drive vehicle then you are putting load on the rear wheel which greatly increases the rear wheel slip angle which means rear tires slip angle is greater than the front tires. Ultimately the car will oversteer. Similarly, if you have a front wheel drive vehicle, the front wheel will slip and the car will understeer during cornering. These are dangerous conditions with turbo charged vehicles. Hence you need to be careful while cornering with turbo cars otherwise car will slide in uncontrolled manner.
#6 Engine Oil
Use high quality engine oil for your turbo charged vehicle. Generally, car manufacturers recommend synthetic oil for turbocharged vehicles. Since turbocharger uses hot exhaust gases to spin, it gets super-hot and hence synthetic oil works better in turbocharged vehicles. We still recommend reading the owner’s manual and use engine oil that is recommended by the car manufacturer.
#7 Better Fuel Economy
If you want better fuel economy with turbocharged vehicle then never accelerate harshly. Turbocharged vehicles will give you better fuel economy than non-turbo charge vehicles but this advantage is totally neglected if you are always accelerating hard. So be conservative while driving turbocharge vehicle if you want better fuel economy.
Thank you for time if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comment box below.