ok i know my turbo i supposed to get pretty hot and its okay that it gets a little red with heat. but sometimes after long interstate drives or after hauling *** for a decent amount of time and being in boost, i can pop my hood and my turbo is glowing really bright orange. i mean really bright. i have no heatshield on the outside of it and at night its bright enough to light up my engine bay. is it supposed to be that hot? ive seen tubos glow like that before, but on DSMs making 18-20psi. my car makes 12 or 13 psi. what gives? am i damaging my turbo?

 

before your turbo goes/needs a rebuild you'll see this and possibly oil in the intercooler

 

If u don't already have one I'd get a timer put on that thing.....maybe that might prolong whatever life u have left on it

 

this is relevant because I am about to replace my turbo -
do I need to put back on the turbo and pre cat heatshields? I'm getting rid of the pre cat with the RB turbo back 3'' DP, but is the turbo heat shield important?

 

If you guys aren't 100% sure on something, you shouldn't answer...

This is perfectly normal after a hard thrash. It only takes about 10sec of WOT to get heat exhaust components up to a nice cherry red, and if you keep going, they're be bright orange very soon. This has nothing at all to do with the age or condition of the turbo, they'll do it straight out of the box.
If you plan to do this regularly, I'd consider reinstalling those heat shields. Mazda put them there to protect things in your engine bay from just this sort of heat.
Also, a turbo timer is not necessary. A water-cooled turbo does not need to be idled down after normal driving, and after the sort of driving that heats a turbo up like this, a 5min drive at normal speeds would see turbo temps back to normal. That's what the water-cooling is for!

 

even the car manual suggests cooling down for a period of 30 seconds after runnign the car on the freeway. I understand what you are saying but I'd rather err on the side of caution and let it cool for a min. or so

 

my exhuast temps are lower after coasting down a hill for a block or 2 in gear then stoping and idling for a min

 

Who has a freeway exit at the end of their driveway? It only takes a 2-3 miles of normal (non-freeway) driving speeds without boost to get get core temps down to normal. The turbo is actually cooled better with the car moving (but not boosting) than when stationary because of the extra airflow.