Turbo Lifesaver?

[daveyburt]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a turbo timer and I'm thinking of the Turbo Lifesaver. Opinions/experiences are welcome and I have one main question. Do I need a pyrometer to use these timed shutdown devices? -I don't have an EGT gauge at the moment....

thanks!
-dave

[Dave]

Its not necessary. If you are worried about it pull in idle down for about 30 seconds. Shut er down

[luckydog]

The Turbo Life Saver saves a lot of time. No, you don't need a pyrometer to use the TLS, but it would be a good idea to have one if you pull anything with your truck, especially in hilly/mountainous terrain. With a pyrometer, you can learn how long it takes for your truck to get EGTs below 400 degrees, so you'll know how many minutes to set the TLS for. If you regularly shut your truck down before it's cooled down to below 400 degrees, you will eventually coke up the turbo's bearing and have to replace it. I installed my TLS about five to six years ago, and have never regretted it.

I can't remember the name of it, but there was a cool down "timer" that used a pyrometer input to shut down the engine without the driver having to know how long to idle the truck based on EGT temps.

[daveyburt]

i've seen it take up to 4 min for a turbo (friend with a cummins) to properly cool after a highway drive.
i sometimes just don't have the time to sit and idle for 4 minutes.

right now, i'm just making sure that i take 'er slow for the last couple miles of my trip, let it idle for a minute and turn it off. -this is probably working just fine BUT, sometimes i don't feel like, or have the time to, sit and idle for 4 minutes if i have to jump out hot.

[daveyburt]

Originally Posted by luckydog

I can't remember the name of it, but there was a cool down "timer" that used a pyrometer input to shut down the engine without the driver having to know how long to idle the truck based on EGT temps.

that would be perfect! -and would get em a gauge too. I'm assuming that you can't read turbo temp from a pin in the stock connector?

thanks!!

[orng1]

I have one and don't have much of anything hooked up to it. The brake switch is off, the egt thing, nothing other than the kill switch and the button to set it. I just tap it once or a few times if I've been on it hard and walk away. I set my DP on no start so I feel fine about it.

[daveyburt]

do all turbo lifesavers thingies work off a driver determined/set time rather than the actual temp of the turbo?
-if so that seems kinda silly.

why idle the truck of 4 minutes if you don't have to...?

[orng1]

I don;'t know how the others work but how I have mine I just push a button for a minute of run time. I will set it a few minutes if I hadn't driven the truck and just want it to recharge the batteries. It's either 1 minute, 3 if I've really been on it or a bunch if I want to recharge the batteries.

[Jarrod B]

my cool downs are under 3 mins. more like 30sec to a min.

[luckydog]

If you've pulled a trailer that's at or over your truck's max towing weight up Monarch Pass, CO (11,000 ft, I believe) then it might be necessary to idle the max 15 minutes that can be set on the TLS. I've had times when I had to sit in the cab for 9 - 10 minutes before it was cool enough to shut down. That's when I bought the TLS. I set the minutes of cool down time by counting the beeps while I hold down the button. But, like I said before, there is one that I've heard of that accepts input control from an EGT sensor input.