Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Modern Turbo Engines

We all know the auto industry is moving to modern turbo, small displacement engines to meet weight and admissions goals.

Ford EcoBoost, Toyota Tundra/Tacoma, etc - it's not really going to go away.

Old school line of thinking was to provide a warm up/cool down period for turbos. Still necessary for you guys running turbo engines?

What oil changes have you made? That is not OCI or UAL - but have you upgraded the oil you'd use vice NA engines of the past?

Anything else you guys find yourself doing differently?

For a truck, I could see the cool-down if you just finished a heavy tow job. Maybe let it idle a few minutes and circulate. I roll a lot of highway miles in my turbo F150 and change the oil about every 6k. I think the manual specifies a longer duration, but I don't see the sense in pushing it. My brother turned 250k yesterday on his 2012 3.5L EB F150 and it has seen a pretty good mix of city/highway. That truck has seen oil changes at 5k intervals its whole life. He needed new valve cover gaskets a few months back and internals looked clean. As to oil brand, he uses Mobil1, while I use generic paired with a Ford oil filter.

If I was driving a turbo performance vehicle and pushing it hard, I would definitely let it cool down afterwards and would probably change oil at 50% of the recommended interval. Keep those turbos happy and don't let that oil get dirty.

Edit: I will add that I was anti-turbo for a while, until I drove the N/A versions again the forced-induction versions. Had a V6 Accord and a 2.0Turbo Accord and the turbo model had more torque on tap at nearly all RPM, with the V6 not being a slouch to start with. No contest on a V8 F150 vs the 3.5 EcoBoost in the same department, being torquier at 2,000-4,000RPM. I know there are more moving parts in a turbo setup, but being able to add boost when you need it and being able to cruise with practically no boost and a smaller displacement engine does make sense if you are looking to have fuel economy while also having power in reserve when you want it.

If I think about it, I'll remote start my EB in the morning. I read something a while back about the cam phasers (a known issue on previous model years) needing to be bathed in oil. I talked to a few mechanics about using an oil stabilizer, but they hadn't had any issues on modern models.

I tow periodically, mostly during hunting season. But not heavy, a 10 foot enclosed or a 12 ft utility. Never done a cool down other than I'm probably backing up, so I suppose that is a slight cool down. As Jpro said, the torque curve at low rpms makes towing a joy.

Use mobil1 synthetic. 6-8K miles.

Sitting around 85K on a 2020, no problem free.

I had a late '70's Saab turbo that ate two sets of turbo seals that made me swear off turbo's ever since. $750. each time negated what ever fidgety fast turbo kick I got or the great four cylinder gas mileage. That was a year or two before they had the inter-cooled version of that engine which probably made lots of a difference. I was using Mobil-1 oil back then, but it was only offered as a 5w20 or some such really light weight oil viscosity. Turbos run hot and those Saab seals couldn't take it. When I bought my last Ford truck that 3.5 EB was an option. Nope, one of those V-8 dinosaur engines for this guy. The wife thinks she wants a van, but Toyota's have been 4 cylinder turbo since 2021. People seem to be hanging on to those 3.5 V-6's and there might be a lesson there.

My ex-wife had a Subaru back in the 1980's with a turbo that had very bad turbo lag. In that era, and my understand up until the last 15 or 20 years turbo lag was typical. Also the longevity of turbos were very poor. The one my Ex had died in less than 80,000 miles.

Fast forward to today. I purchased an Acura RDX in January and it has a 4 cylinder turbo that has absolutely no lag that i can detect. It is my understanding that the modern turbos make power early in the rpm range and the torque curve is fairly flat. I know that he Acura will outrun the 2014 Toyota Highlander I had with a naturally aspirated 6 cylinder of approximately the same horsepower and torque rating.

My research before buying the turbo indicated that modern turbos are going well over 200,000 miles on many of the vehicles using them in the last 10 or 15 years.

Talk about SAAB's...it only took GM 7-8 years of owning SAAB to drive it into the ground. I have a very low opinion of the 14th floor at GM, which used to be where the GM execs made the decisions.

Anyway, back to SAAB. Yes, they had turbos starting in the 1978 model 99, and those turbos were usually good for 50,000 miles, if you did not follow warm up and cool down procedures. The oil would 'coke' on the turbo bearings if shut down before it had a chance to cool down. Once you heard a turbo 'rattle' on cold start up, you knew replacement time was coming.

I used to sell SAAB's, and the engineering that went into them was incredible, having been designed and engineered by many of the same guys that made the Swedish Viggen military fighter jet.

Fast forward to today, and you have water cooled bearings, with their own radiators in many cases, better oils and the turbos are now lasting a long, long time.

With my 2022 Jeep Wrangler and the 4cyl turbo, I take it easy when the engine is cold and I do let it idle for 20-30 seconds before shut down, then I'll open the hood to assist in cool down. It does get hot, very hot, under the hood, and there are all kinds of electronics under there, and electronics generally do not like heat, so I let the heat out.

Old habits die hard, lol.

Doing some research as I'm looking at a new Tundra. 24

I've always run Amsoil in my Tacoma but not the top stuff, I think with the Tundra, should the deal get done - I'll bump it to the top tier stuff. Increase of 30 bucks (also more oil, 7.7 qt). Supposed to do better with the heat. Toyota states no cool down needed for city driving, no cool down needed for "high speed driving" up to 50 mph. If the truck sees 62 or hills, they recommend 1-2 minutes of cool down before shutting off the truck. UKN if that means idle or, if you come off the highway - spending 1-2 minutes at city/low speeds.

It's buried in the owner's manual so you have to hunt for it.

Not a bad idea. Some of the new turbo truck engines, like the Chevy 2.7L Turbomax, have electric water pumps that continue to run after the engine is shut off.

I haven't seen that yet on the Tundra. I'd imagine there's some syphon cooling going on when you shut down via the oil channels but still - I bet 95% of people buying new turbo style vehicles aren't giving a cool down period. (not that this is the reason for the Tundra 22/23 engine issues)

My wife just bought. Ford Ranger Raptor. Amazing truck, 405 HP and 430 ft/lbs torque from the 3.0 Ecoboost V6. Suspension just soaks up anything you want to throw at it. Just a couple of weeks after she bought it, Ford Performance came out with a tune that bumps the HP to 455 and torque to 536 ft/lbs. Naturally, we had to have that. Turned an already amazing truck into an absolute monster. About the most fun you can have with your clothes on!

Anyway, to answer the OPs question, I do let my turbos spool down for a few seconds before killing the motor. Figure it can’t hurt. Also use only full synthetic oil and no more than 5000 change intervals. Cheap insurance in my view.

John

That’s a lot of HP in a mid size truck, bet it will scoot, 471 in my GW at 6,300 pounds, and it will fly, but the 3.6 double turbo they put in GW is like 515 HP, I will stick with big V8.

I forgot to mention that my new Acura has engine “Stop Start” which stops the engine when the vehicle is stopped and restarts the engine when the accelerator is pressed. Fortunately the Acura has a button that you can press when first starting but you have to remember to push the override button each time. There is a kit available on-line that will defeat the Start Stop feature but I have not gotten one yet.

Now when driving on the interstate at high speed and then exiting to enter a business or residential area the autos with Start Stop will cut the engine off at every traffic light. This cannot be good on a turbocharger.

Seems like a good idea to me, as I love Amsoil motor oil. '24 Tundra 1794's almost 10k off here so I've entertained the idea too. The particular one I started looking at was made in late June of this year, using the improved parts that were suspect in previous models.

They're getting 25's in next month - I'm weighing my options. All I really want is a Limited TRD Off Road, nothing more. They have exactly 1 of them coming in next month.

Otherwise the 24, if it's still there so I can compare - I expect to have pretty good discounts on.

The landowner where we hunt whitetails has the TRD Limited, 2023 model with 25000 miles. He's had no problems with it at all so far. One guy (no idea if it's true) told me that Toyota was shutting down the plant in San Antonio for a short while to only produce the replacement engines they are recalling/warrantying, then they'll start full production of the '25's.

Dealer says 25s on the lot next month. I might wait for them.

My current Camry and former trucks/4Runner I'd always do 10k mile full synthetic changes.

This '23 F150 3.5 I do 5ks myself and will do 10ks at the dealer just for paper trail and extended warranty stuff should it be needed. I always turn the start/stop off, and go gentle the first few miles and let it sit 20 seconds or so before shutting it off.

Don't know if it'll all help, but hope so.

Got a pard works for Toyota not a salesman anyhow he said Toyota going to be sending them Long blocks to replace the v6 motors in the tundras that are letting go. They said Toyota has never done long blocks always been short blocks.

Wonder how hard it would be to put a 3.5 ecoboost in a non Raptor Ranger. Or even a different ecoboost. There’s bound to be a bunch of them available .probably need a transmission swap too.

Does Procharger offer anything?