Mazda Rotary Club

hiya peeps - its me again !! :)

right then - after seeing adrians turbo timer working  - i want one  !! ( maybe not NOW - but soon )

having looked around ebay and such like , there are LOADS to choose from

do i need a special RX7 one - or will a turbo timer fit any car ???

do i need a special make , special wiring looms etc..

in theory all it must do is keep power to the ignition for a set period of time ( please prove me wrong though ) - and some connect to the handbrake so that if its released when the timer is running , it stops the car ( to prevent theft )

so from this - feel free to point me in the right direction

Thanks

Stu

They have no link to handbrakes at all.

I generally didnt ever use my old one as I knew when I was going to be stopping so could let the car adjust accordingly.  I dont often leave it parked on the handbrake and prefer to leave it in gear which I obviously couldnt do untill the timer stopped anyway.

I did once try driving the car with it just on turbo timer, and this is were I realised what a thief would encounter...  All would go fine untill you get to the first bend, at which point the steering lock comes on and you crash because you cant turn.  Luckily, I didnt crash :rollin

Lee

PS, It may invalidate your insurance and its actually illegal to have the car running when your not in it.

ahhhhhhhh i forgot about the leaving it in gear bit - didnt think of that !

i ALWAYS leave my car in gear

hummm maybe the turbo timer isnt such a good idea then

BUT on the other hand

do they work all the time - or can you turn them off

for example if i nipped to my parents , then i wouldnt be bothered about not leaving it in gear , or if it was on the drive and i knew i was going out later in it

thanks

stu

You can turn them off at any point during countdown, or even not have it turned on in the first place.

An electric water pump is a far better solution to the problem than a turbo timer IMHO. If you are ultra conservative then an electric turbo oil pump as well would ensure that you keep the lube flowing, but then again I have seen no evidence of this being absolutely necessary with water cooled turbos.

well guys - thanks for the comments !- just keep em comming

and bill - i can honestly say i have never heard of either of those two suggestions !! :)

HKS ones are connected to the hanbrake......  if the hand brake is released the engine dies. You can just turn them off at a flick of a switch.  

I think they are a waste of money as i always found myself sitting there until it had finished anyway :)

HTH

Adam

well it does look like they are a waste of money - hummm i thought they just looked like a cool toy thats all

will have to think of something else now !! :confused:

we could do with a sticky somewhere about all the cool toys that you can buy and what they ACTUALLY do and if they are worth it

like :

1 - boost gauges
2 - turbo timers
3 - oil temp gauge
4 - Apexi s-afc

etc... etc.....

QuoteOriginally posted by grinder
well guys - thanks for the comments !- just keep em comming

and bill - i can honestly say i have never heard of either of those two suggestions !! :)

Happy to be a source of enlightenment.

I have this week been thinking about getting a turbo timer myself! This is starting to make me have second thoughts, but the timer I was thinking of getting has a boost gauge included in it, which I need, so figured it was pretty good value for money.

So I now don\'t know where I stand!!

thanks Bill ( BTW - did you cash that cheque ??? )

and i have seen the turbo timers with the boost gauge - but never actually seen the back of the timer to see where the little pipe fits ?!??!

unless it uses a different method - as i have no idea how the standard gauge works - is that on electrical impluse thingy ???

The blitz turbo timer has a boost gauge function.  You run a vacuum hose into the engine bay from the back of the turbo timer.  Just like fitting a mech. boost gauge.

I think Turbo timers all depends on personal cirumstances.  If you have a privat e house and can leave the car running unattended then they are good, but if like me you live in the , middle of a town and your wheels get nicked while moving, then they are not worth using as you can\'t leave the car unattended anyway.

QuoteOriginally posted by grinder
thanks Bill ( BTW - did you cash that cheque ??? )

Not yet.  Will do some time

as already mentioned many are connected to handbrake the defi one which was part of the HUD boost gauge i had had this safety feature ;) (on my old scoob)
I have one on car en route but i\'m going to remove it purely because i\'m having one as part of the clifford concept alarm in getting fitted :D u can buy the spare one off me if you want then ;)
I want it less for being lasy when leaving car but more so i can leave it running when i\'m getting car out of garage so i can leave it runnign whuile i lock up & thus (hopefully) avoid any flooding risk :eek
Si

QuoteOriginally posted by Adam
The blitz turbo timer has a boost gauge function.  You run a vacuum hose into the engine bay from the back of the turbo timer.  Just like fitting a mech. boost gauge.

You mean it\'s actually a mechanical boost gauge!? Ooh, don\'t like the idea of that. Never really been into the idea of mechanical boost gauges as I just have the idea that they are less acurate!

scooby_si - i wouldnt mind it when you take it out - bearing in mind that mines and FC T II - but i assume it will still work ? ( and it being a good price !!   )

and a mechanical boost gauge is more accurate than an electrical one in my eyes !

if the timer has a digital boost gauge it may conver the air presure to a digital read out - but i have NO IDEA !

after looking into oil temp gauge - i have been told by a few people that mecahnical ones are FAR better and give more accurate readings - but then it all depends on who you talk to and if you believe them !

and the car is parked on a private drive - so its fine to leave it stood ticking over i suppose ( and its a cul-de-sac aswell ) - the only issue i have is that i have a mazda imobiliser and alarm - the immobiliser cuts the fuel pump - so i need to have that taken out first

i dont leave the car anywhere that it could get nicked so im not bothereed about that bit - and its more hassle to try and plug the credit card thingy into it to turn it off !!

OK m8 cool i\'lll give ya all first refusal when i get it out & available (http://burns.thefinaldimension.org/ups/fireslash/wink.gif) described as HKS turbo timer by Miguel so i\'ll try & check out wot they\'re worth & mark it up by say 20% cause i will of touched it & increased it\'s value (http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung0903/sprachlos/speechless-smiley-004.gif) lol kidding of course......
Si

20% ha ha ha its like you have the midas touch !

i will of course need to subtract 50% from your new price as it will be going into a real car not one of them FD toy car thingies !! :wave

I like all the puzzled looks I get when I walk away from the car and the engine\'s still running... all my friends (two at the last count) used to pipe up and say "hey, you\'ve left the engine running!"

Little things and all that...

(Ps. and just to get my two pence worth in, I don\'t really use it anymore - can\'t activate my Cat 1 with it running. I just drive real easy for the last 5 miles or so and let her tick over for a minute....)

i\'ve had the blitz one for about a year now and it does the job fine. the boost gauge is very accurate and you can set it to warn you when you reach a certain boost level, it also records the highest boost you\'ve reached. its usefull for letting the car warm up but as someone\'s already said the best way for letting the turbo cool down is to just not use it 5 mins before your going to stop. i would deffinatley reccomend the blitz one if you havn\'t already got an aftermarket boost gauge.

a mechanical pressure gauge is more sensitive than an electronic one, so expect more fluctuation (unless its got a digi read-out!)...
Basically the electronic ones are discreete (will always give a value to a certain number of decimal places) and the analogue/mech ones are continuous (infinitely variable reading). Mechanical ones are generally more accurate than digital ones, however, it does depend on the length of hose, blockages, dodgy connections, etc., etc...

basic idea of a turbo timer is to run engine to circ oil and water at low revs to prevent oil-bake in the turbo, and remove hot-spots from engine components, so an electric oil pump and water pump does the same thing (if running after the engine is switched off)

I had the same issue with the alarm, so did the following!...

got a turbo timer, 2x electric pumps (one oil, one water). I plumbed one pump into the cooling circuit and the other into the oil circuit, and then plugged them into the turbo timer; all three powered on a direct line/seperate fuse from the battery...     ...rather than the turbo timer running the engine for a set period, it ran the electric oil and water pumps (same job, no legal issues, no problems with alarm and immob.)

I wasnt bothered about the couple of horses used by the std. mech. oil and water pumps on the engine, so I left them in place for normal running and just used the electric ones for turbo-timer-cooling...

hope this helps some of you...

b :)

thanks for all the advice peeps - this may not be as simple as i first thought ! - i will have to find a way round the immobiliser ???

i looked at the elec water and oil thingy - now that looks like a big job as the oil pump is in the engine - or am i missing something ??

thanks again

stu