TIPS

Six ways to make your turbo last longer:

 

WARM UP, WARM DOWN:
The largest proportion of engine wear takes place at the first 30 seconds it's running from cold. That includes your turbo too, so you need to make damn sure you get plenty of oil round the turbo bearings as soon as possible. Give your motor at least 30 seconds to warm up from cold before even thinking about driving off. Driving off-boost for the first couple of miles will help too, by building good oil pressure before you use high boost.

When you've finished driving and want to switch it off-think again.
Your turbo will be very hot so don't starve it of oil and water that would normally be pumped through it . Do your turbo a favour and drive off-boost for the last miles or leave your engine running for a couple  of minutes once you get home. Either way, water and oil will still be pumped round the blower as it cools down.

 

USE PROPER OIL:
Thrash a turbo for more than a few minutes and chances are the thing will glow orange. So you must use a good oil. Take a semi-synthetic or fully synthetic one.

CHANGE YOUR OIL REGULARLY:
Change your oil at least every 6000 miles. Oil carries debris round the motor and if the build up of crap is left it can creep into bearings and seals. So give your motor a fresh oil and filter change every 3 to 6 thousand miles and it will last longer.

FIT AN IN-LINE OIL FILTER:
If you want the ultimate in protection for your turbo then fit an in-line oil filter. An in-line filter has a really fine gauze mesh that picks up even the finest bits of dirt and still allows a runny synthetic oil to lube yer blower properly.

GET PROPER FUELLING/IGNITION SETTINGS:
It's easy to forget the rest of your motor when you're upping the boost. But too much air forced into your motor will make the air/fuel mix for too lean. A lean mixture will lead to detonation. This can kill your pistons. So get your car on a dyno. The rollers and their diagnostic equipment will tell you how well your motor is running, so you can alter the mixture.

FIT A DUMP VALVE:
As you change gear you momentarily ease of the throttle butterfly flap. This is like closing the door on the flow of turbo charge air. That causes  the charge air in the inlet pipes to back up against the forced flow of the turbo and stall the turbo's compressor wheel. In severe cases this can snap turbo shafts and puts a massive strain on the turbo bearings. As air is stalling the turbo, it means when you come on the gas there's no positive boost in the inlet pipes. So the turbo has to produce boost from nothing. A dumpvalve is mounted on the air pipe from the intercooler to the engine, as close to the throttle as possible. It's opened and closed by a vacuum feed created by air rushing into the engine through the inlet manifold, after the throttle flap. If the throttle is closed, the dumpvalve opens and releases the built-up boost pressure in the turbo pipe. So the turbo still spins at full and as soon as the throttle is open again, the dumpvalve closes and the boost pick up is instant.