So this sounds silly I am aware, but as a new owner, I'm trying to get it correct from the word go.

Firstly starting up and warming down. The car is my daily driver so I am ever aware that I need to ensure I look after it properly. I warm it up by leaving it running until it hits normal op temp before driving it and then normally leave it running stationary for about 5 mins before I turn it off at the end of each journey. Is this about correct or should I be warming it up for longer / different method?

Additionally the car is a completely different to that of my 2 litre celica (obviously...) I'm not used to the turbos and not quite sure how to get the most out of them when driving. Will they ALWAYS kick in at the same point or do they only work under load?

The reason I ask is I only seem to get the dramatic boost occasionally, not always when expected as I found out when the back end nearly over took the front earlier today.

If you've got any tips on the above I would be very grateful!

thanks
Chris

 

You should post car information. I'm guessing a 3rd gen?

You don't need to let the car reach full operating temp before driving. Just don't flog it until it warms up a bit. And turbo efficiency/ boost depend on air temps, so sometimes the power will come on differently.

 

i don't think there's a need for cool down unless u've been running it hard/racing before shutting it down. just a minute or 2 should be enough warm up time before driving it.

 

the reason you have to go easy on warm up (not going into boost) is because the engine is made of many different metal that expand differently when heated. by not flogging the car on cold start you give the metals time to slowly match together in expansion.

basically, start her up, wait about a minute to drive so oil gets over everything. then go on your way. turbos kick in according to load on your engine, ive been in vac at redline before. just dont give it throttle, kinda keep in mind to stay less than half throttle at the beginning.

turbos are pretty linear in stock form as well. below 2500rpm or so you wont have boost, but as soon as you hit full throttle around there you will feel it. I highly suggest you install a boost guage this will help you out immensely in learning how your car responds to throttle input.
and in seeing your boost slowly creep up to operating pressure will give you an idea of where you will get the "oh **** its gonna swap ends" happens

cool down sequence. i recommend installing a turbo timer. you can find them cheap used, they almost never go bad so you are say there. something like a turbo xs or HKS with an engine load sensor. some have a little thing that can tell how hard the car has been driven and for how long and will set your automatic cooling time to that. so you just get out your car, lock the doors and go on your way with the car still on. (gets a lot of weird looks from people too)

if you opt out of the easy four wire installation of a turbo timer just keep this little thing on a post it.

30 seconds for every hour.
10 seconds for every full throttle.
1 minute for a "spirited show off" or heaven forbid "street race".
add them together not to exceed 4 or 5 minutes, longer than that the stationary motor will build under hood temps.

upgrade your radiator, get a turbo timer, get a boost gauge, and vent your hood some if you are in a warmer climate. there are many easy ways to do this, the easiest and non ghetto looking way i have seen is just to remove the weather stripping at the hood near the windshield. the long rubber strip that clips to the plastic and metal. this will give you about a half inch of breathing room.

 

This is perfect. Exactly what I was looking for. That puts me much more at ease about using the car. Boost gauge sounds like a really good idea. Have just sold the laptop so this might be a worthwhile purchase.

Interesting about the turbos. So are you saying that most of the turbo kick is going to be around 2,500 when under load? i.e. (I don't treat my car like this but as an example) In a drag race, should you be aiming to hit each new gear at around 2,500 and then pull through? I've found when accelerating, I don't get as much of a kick if I shift in at around 4k and pull from there. (This would obviously make sense if I understand you correctly!)

thanks for your help!

 

My personal approach with my FD is this:
Warmup = drive easy until water temps hit 180F. This is usually 5 miles / 5 minutes. I don't wait more than 10 seconds after starting to start driving. For autocross and track days the engine never really gets cold so grid time or the warmup lap is plenty to get things stable for hard use.

Cool down = drive easy the last 3 miles. If I must stop immediately after driving hard, I idle it for 5 minutes. For track days there is the cooldown lap. I do not feel there is any value at all in using a turbo timer since stock turbos are water cooled and there is no risk of oil coking. If you use synthetic oil the risk of oil coking is greatly reduced anyway. I would spend the money of a turbo timer on extra gauges.

FD turbos make most of their power and torque above 4500rpm. You should shift such that RPMs never drop below 4500.

Dave