Is this true

[Blue Streak]

Having grown up with the 60's & 70's muscle cars I have driven some cars which at the time had a lot of get up & go. This is the first turbo engine vehicle I have owned. Talking to a guy I mentioned how impressed I was with how this little 4 banger turbo ran. He proceeded to tell me that you should really get your turbo spinning a couple times a month to help keep them cleaner. Any truth to this?

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[Racket]

I don't think there's any justification to adapting any aggressive driving style to benefit the engine.

I'd say that happens organically ?

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Having grown up with the 60's & 70's muscle cars I have driven some cars which at the time had a lot of get up & go. This is the first turbo engine vehicle I have owned. Talking to a guy I mentioned how impressed I was with how this little 4 banger turbo ran. He proceeded to tell me that you should really get your turbo spinning a couple times a month to help keep them cleaner. Any truth to this?

I certainly have not hear this before....You spin it up every acceleration. Almost apply the "Opinions are like Rear Ends. Everybody has one and they all smell"...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[cfhgarza]

I don't know about that. My advice, let the oil get circulating. Don't turn the key and instantly take off. Let get warmed up before giving it the beans. Especially in winter.

 

[RedlandRanger]

I think it is similar to the old "blow out the carbon" argument on older engines. When my dad wanted to have a little fun he'd floor it and then say "Well, I was just blowing out the carbon - you know you need to do that occasionally". If it helps justify my occasional heavy right foot, I'm good with it.

 

[EJH]

I've read and heard this many times, for different vehicles, all related to clearing carbon buildup on direct injection engines.

 

[GTGallop]

I think what he was talking about was short vs long drives.

If all you are doing is running neighborhood errands in the 5 mile range and then turning it off, then on and 5 miles and turning it off, I have heard that once a month or so you should get out and put it on the free way and run it for 20 to 30 minutes. Less to do with spinning the turbo and more to do with getting the engine circulating and burning off any moisture vapors in the oil. Constant short runs are hard on the fluids because they never really come up to temp is the idea behind this.

Also good for the battery and catalytic converters too.

 

[StarLord]

A redline a day keeps the carbon away!

 

[Silverfox]

It has more to do with cycling the wastegate and blow off valve to prevent them from sticking. I have heard of ecoboost F150’s that wouldn’t build boost when needed because the drivers never used the turbos for long periods of time. Although on the Ranger you’re probably in boost with anything but the lightest acceleration.

 

[Canadian Ranger]

I think he was yanking your chain, teasing you about having EcoBoost.
I'm going to go out on another limb and bet he drives a Chev.

 

[Vitis805]

The first post I ever made here was about my truck "smoking". After I took it in to the dealer, the tech informed me the "smoke" was actually just excess moisture vapor and that I was seeing it now because of the temperature variation (the vapor being warm and the ambient temperature being below 45F). He asked about my commute and he shared a sort of 'A-HA' moment with me. Since my commute is often 15 minutes or less this meant the truck never had time to burn off the moisture created. It would sit and condense when the motor was off and then "poof" once the internals started warming up again. In my case, the tech told me that for the health of my engine I needed to bury the pedal or climb our local 7% grade mountain pass @ 70 MPH once a month. He also informed me that doing this will help burn off excess fuel vapors that are more pronounced in DI engines.

This synopsis was confirmed by Blackstone Labs when they tested my oil after 10k total miles on the engine. Blackstone noted a 1.0% fuel dilution rate and attributed it to excessive idling (AKA remote start and falsely letting the engine "warm up") and the short commute and trips. I suspect many of the reported fuel-in-oil issues are due to the same driving habits.

P.S. the oil in this report was ran for ~4500 miles and have done a total of 3 changes. First @ 1500, second @ 5000 and third @ 9500. I will now run my oil changes @ ~6500 miles.

 

[y2krtaf]

The only time it doesn’t spin,is when the truck is off

 

[HenryMac]

Having grown up with the 60's & 70's muscle cars I have driven some cars which at the time had a lot of get up & go. This is the first turbo engine vehicle I have owned. Talking to a guy I mentioned how impressed I was with how this little 4 banger turbo ran. He proceeded to tell me that you should really get your turbo spinning a couple times a month to help keep them cleaner. Any truth to this?

Sure there is truth to it.

Carbon builds up on the intake / exhaust valves and combustion chambers, especially if you drive like grandma going to church all the time. That soot / carbon also ends up in the exhaust stream, and that's where the turbo is.

If you mash the pedal to the floor every so often it helps to break up any carbon deposits.

I remember back in the 70's there was a phrase called "Tony's Tune Up" and it referred to folks with Italian sports cars. Folks would take them to their mechanic (Tony) telling him their engine just didn't seem to have as much power as it used to. They leave the car at Tony's shop. Later Tony takes their car out and runs the piss out of it, which knocks the carbon deposits loose. And like magic Tony fixed their car.

So I always do a "Tony's Tune Up" a couple times a week. There's a spot here where I merge onto the highway and the road goes up a really steep hill. I mash the pedal to the floor and run the truck up to about 75 mph.

What the heck... it's fun for me and if it helps, great!

 

[Blue Streak]

I think he was yanking your chain, teasing you about having EcoBoost.
I'm going to go out on another limb and bet he drives a Chev.

Hope you got your climbing gear on. The limb you are on is about to snap. He actually drives a 2014 Tremor so he knows turbos. I do get on mine at the wright time's. Way to much fun, so it is not an issue I was just curious.

 

[D Fresh]

People are good at "signalling" things.

This man just signaled to you that he knows nothing about vehicles.

This is not 1977. While his ignorant comment may haphazardly contain some truth, through no part of the man trying to understand what he's talking about. It doesn't take away from the fact that you should not listen to him about anything vehicle related.

Kinda like the guy that told me my WRX had a "Porsche Boxster" engine in it.

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