Turbo blanket negatives

[Drex]

Not a fan of that explanation. The "blanket" keeps the exhaust heat contained in the "hot" side of the turbo so it doesn't transfer as much heat to the cool side, intercooler, or other engine components. This also keeps the exhaust gases hot (higher pressure) for quicker and more boost.

The heat is not contained, the blanket will slow the transfer of heat out if it. Locally the area gets hotter, the housing and exhaust pipes by heat conduction, essentially the items outside the blanket heat up because you are increasing the heat flow to them as you are slowing the heat loss at the turbo and increasing the temperature Delta The increased heat from those other parts are what cooks the wires and connectors as they weren't designed to work in those hotter conditions. The greater the difference in temperature between two things, the faster/more energy is transferred.

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[Austin26]

I do back up power generation, a lot of it. We were installing turbo blankets on small diesel stationary engine generators (30-800kW) for decades. Thousands of them. Not for performance issues, an E/G runs at one speed and it is optimized for it. We ran them as a safety feature, keep people from burning themselves on the housing. We aren't just religious on our preventive maintenance, we are fanatical on it. Oil/coolent changes, monthly testing, all standardized. We found that we were replacing a significantly higher percentage of turbos (and I do not have the numbers, I was just informed it was substantial) that were wrapped. Burned out bearings from oil coke gumming them up and cracked housings. The supplier sent a technician to replace one that failed in warranty (most others were replaced in house as the failure was after the two year warranty). They refused to warranty it because of the blanket on it when the tech arrived. He and his company informed us that the excess heat from the blanket caused the failure. That is when the data was examined. We no longer blanket the turbos unless they are factory added because there were designed for it.

Yes, you can get better performance if you keep heat in the turbo, in a race car that is regularly rebuilt, no big deal.

Yes, you will literally cook your oil into sludge with heat soak after shutting down.

The Ecoboost engines have heat shielding to protect the melty bits under the hood and heat management to allow the turbo(s) to live a long time. Adding a blanket to get slightly better spool response throws all the engineering Ford did in the trash and can be very hard on them. Temperature could climb high enough to flat out crack a housing before you boil your oil to the breakdown point.

People will blanket them, people will brag about how they got 100k miles out of them. People will bitch that their Ford Ecocrap engine ate a turbo at 25k miles. All sorts of permutations. I mildly mod my stuff, tune and cams in the motorcycle, hand built (and a frigging work of art) stainless crossover pipes in the AMG exhaust, tune in the WRX (going to an E30 tune when I can find my OBDII cable), but I will not be blanketing my turbo in the Bronco. I suggest that you do not either.

Now we're talkin'. This is some of the real world experience I was hoping to run across. Thank you.

I happen to work alongside the generator guys sometimes as I'm an electrician. I've probably only seen a dozen or so back up generators for plants or buildings and I've not seen a blanket on a turbo. Not that that meant anything because most were in a satisfactory state at best and some were obviously not maintained properly so spending more on a blanket wouldn't have been in the cards for them anyways.

I'm looking to keep my Bronco under warranty and long-lived so I'll be passing on a blanket.

 

[Spooled]

Extremely in-depth video on turbo blankets. I run them on my truck. Haven't had any issues.

 

[PecOBX]

I don't see one for the 2.7, but here is the 2.3: https://www.ptpturboblankets.com/co...g-focus-rs-lincoln-mkc-ecoboost-turbo-blanket

Thanks. I will keep an eye out for 2.7 components. With the number of people (at least on this forum) getting the 2.7 it will likely be made. And we have time.

 

[LostInArizona]

I'll be honest, I didn't read through every response here. But as an STI owner I can speak to this with some experience. In my car, a top mount intercooler, as opposed to a front mount intercooler, the main advantage of a turbo blanket that it helps prevent heat soak, and as others have said keeps the temps of things surrounding the turbo down. The only real downside is that it can, over time, shorten the life of the metal in the turbo itself. Granted, we are talking about over the course of many years here. You're not likely going to see any short term issues. And with high quality turbos its less of a problem. I don't know what kind of turbos our engines are using, but any turbo engine overall will benefit at least a little bit, in our case particularly during prolonged use like baja style driving at high speeds for hours. For the most part though, its not necessary in this kind of vehicle, they are mostly used in tuner cars that race a lot.

 

[BossMann]

Hard pass. This isn't a race car and no doubt that speeds up the degradation of your bearings. Seems like a clearly stupid idea for a Bronco.

 

[Austin26]

Extremely in-depth video on turbo blankets. I run them on my truck. Haven't had any issues.

This is the exact video that didn't mention reliability concerns at all that caused me to make this thread. Not in-depth enough in my opinion and I like him.

 

[Hoofnmouth]

High perf aircraft engine TIO-540 It uses a blanket perhaps high airflow keeps it from coking,also it may be there to protect the other components from heat.

 

[The Pope]

As to the "coking"...... some oils are better that others at resisting this.... just saying.
(oh yes.... this thread might have just be turned into one of those dreaded Oil Threads........)

Where's my popcorn?

 

[BlazinGTO]

On an offroad vehicle could these fill with water a bit while splashing around or fill with dust over a period of time? Just a random thought.

 

[guzie]

I'll be honest, I didn't read through every response here. But as an STI owner I can speak to this with some experience. In my car, a top mount intercooler, as opposed to a front mount intercooler, the main advantage of a turbo blanket that it helps prevent heat soak, and as others have said keeps the temps of things surrounding the turbo down. The only real downside is that it can, over time, shorten the life of the metal in the turbo itself. Granted, we are talking about over the course of many years here. You're not likely going to see any short term issues. And with high quality turbos its less of a problem. I don't know what kind of turbos our engines are using, but any turbo engine overall will benefit at least a little bit, in our case particularly during prolonged use like baja style driving at high speeds for hours. For the most part though, its not necessary in this kind of vehicle, they are mostly used in tuner cars that race a lot.

I’ve ran them on my past two STI as well. On the STI with its large single scroll turbo and top mount intercooler I too have seen a real benefit in quick spool up. Drive a stock shielded one and then a turbo blanket one and there is a definite felt difference. In regards to Coking oils and premature bearing wear mentioned by others, I cry hogwash. You don’t run a cheap oil in a turbo engine. You run a QUALITY full synthetic that can take the heat and not break down prematurely. The blanket isn’t making the hot side of the turbo hotter than it would be without it. It’s only helping to maintain the heat on the hot side and better isolate the colder intake air side of the turbo. Colder air is denser and generates more power.

 

[Drex]

No. A blanket will slow the transfer of heat away from the turbo, that is why it decreases spool time. It wouldn't do that if it wasn't hotter. Simplified it means that if you add the same amount of heat energy to the hot side and slow the release of heat from the system, you increase the steady state temps and you are now operating outside the design range. Like I said before, some folks will never have a problem while they own it, some may have a huge problem immediately, and all the variations in between. The problem is not when the oil is moving, it is when your stop the engine and the bearings stop being cooled by moving oil (same thing if water cooled jackets, the coolant stops flowing). Heat soaking parts and oil in the small oil passage and bearings in the turbo. The blanket keeps that already higher then normal temperature locked in for longer, taking longer to cool, the oil is subjected to higher temperatures for longer. That is why you can get temps high and long enough enough to break down the oil. Send it the oil for analysis after driving the vehicle for a few thousand miles with and then again without the blanket. That will tell the tale.

Not that it matters, people will believe what they want, will scramble to find anecdotal evidence they think shows they are right.

 

[guzie]

No. A blanket will slow the transfer of heat away from the turbo, that is why it decreases spool time. It wouldn't do that if it wasn't hotter. Simplified it means that if you add the same amount of heat energy to the hot side and slow the release of heat from the system, you increase the steady state temps and you are now operating outside the design range. Like I said before, some folks will never have a problem while they own it, some may have a huge problem immediately, and all the variations in between. The problem is not when the oil is moving, it is when your stop the engine and the bearings stop being cooled by moving oil (same thing if water cooled jackets, the coolant stops flowing). Heat soaking parts and oil in the small oil passage and bearings in the turbo. The blanket keeps that already higher then normal temperature locked in for longer, taking longer to cool, the oil is subjected to higher temperatures for longer. That is why you can get temps high and long enough enough to break down the oil. Send it the oil for analysis after driving the vehicle for a few thousand miles with and then again without the blanket. That will tell the tale.

Not that it matters, people will believe what they want, will scramble to find anecdotal evidence they think shows they are right.

I have done multiple oil studies actually on my oil from the STI. The amsoil used still held up its viscosity over 5k miles and that included HPDE track events. All with the turbo blanket installed. I have never experienced oil failure with it.

 

[hozer]

I have a 600whp track car that's been rebuilt a dozen times. Turbo blanket is to maximize heat differential between hot side and cold side of the turbo and reduce the heat soak within the engine bay. It will cook your oil if you come off hot and shut right down (I could dig up the analysis for anyone interested), turbo timer helps this.

When I say hot, I mean down pipes glowing red hot, not a spirited drive hot, that's not gonna cook anything.

Would be a total waste to throw a blanket on a bronco or anything turbo vehicle not being driven to the limit.

Everyone may have their own opinion and for a few hundred bucks and 20 mins of time, you can have one if it makes you feel better. Won't make a lick of difference though.

 

[vrtical]

Have any of you seen the size of the turbos used on the Bronco. Turbo blankets do not belong on this vehicle.

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