How should you drive a turbo-charged car efficiently?

[brucepick]

Hahaha! I had to look up Kraken. Sometimes I wish my HX had one but alas, no. My son's Saab Turbo 9.3 seems to have one though. :-)

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by AaronMartinSole

engine kill switches terrify me. All I can imagine are accidents and tree collisions.

You could get a brake master-cylinder without the vacuum assist, which would still work properly even with the engine shut off. An uncle of mine got one out of a Chevette when he converted his former Suzuki Vitara to Diesel some years ago.

[AaronMartinSole]

It wasn't an exact test by any means, but I seemed to have gotten worse fuel economy driving with the turbo. Of course, I did kind of have a little more fun with the turbo than maybe I should have. Maybe a really smart intelligent driver could utilize the turbo in a way to increase fuel economy, maybe it's just strictly better to drive without the turbo. I've heard that turbo-charged engines have to lower their compression ratio to sort of compensate for the added power of the turbo. I don't know. I do know that the turbo version of the sprint is rated at a lower MPG than the regular version, and of course, the coveted ER version. I think I might try advancing my ignition timing on my next trip, and hope I don't inject the turbo or else in theory I might get engine knock and pinging and exploshions with an h. I'll probably forget to try that. Eh, maybe I'll just advance the timing during this tank. My last tank was 41 and I'm hoping to get at least 43mpg.

[wickydude]

A turbo is not really an on/off thing. It's constantly driven by exhaust gases.
Little gas means little boost, more gas means more boost. The light you have will be set at a certain amount of boost pressure,Or just when you do get boost, but it does not mean the turbo is not spinning before that.
Keeping rpms below max torque level should give the best mpg, as said before.

[Coroner]

Originally Posted by AaronMartinSole

It wasn't an exact test by any means, but I seemed to have gotten worse fuel economy driving with the turbo. Of course, I did kind of have a little more fun with the turbo than maybe I should have. Maybe a really smart intelligent driver could utilize the turbo in a way to increase fuel economy, maybe it's just strictly better to drive without the turbo. I've heard that turbo-charged engines have to lower their compression ratio to sort of compensate for the added power of the turbo. I don't know. I do know that the turbo version of the sprint is rated at a lower MPG than the regular version, and of course, the coveted ER version. I think I might try advancing my ignition timing on my next trip, and hope I don't inject the turbo or else in theory I might get engine knock and pinging and exploshions with an h. I'll probably forget to try that. Eh, maybe I'll just advance the timing during this tank. My last tank was 41 and I'm hoping to get at least 43mpg.

Rather than go through all of that mechanical altering, try P&G. If your going to use the turbo, blast off to the desired speed and drop it to neutral and glide like the other poster said they do. It allows the fun of the turbo, and the satisfaction of mpg's by dropping your engine to idle while going for as long as you can at the proper and safe speed.

I don't have a turbo on my current vehicle, but have had them in the past (2006 Freightliner Sprinter, Mercedes 5 cylinder diesel). When I could, I drove as you did (featherfoot) and realized great fuel mileages.
At that time, I was not familiar with the techniques this site has taught me, otherwise, I would have gained even better mileages.

Mark

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by wickydude

A turbo is not really an on/off thing. It's constantly driven by exhaust gases.
Little gas means little boost, more gas means more boost. The light you have will be set at a certain amount of boost pressure,Or just when you do get boost, but it does not mean the turbo is not spinning before that.

A turbo still spins a little even after the engine is shutdown.