What can I add to oil to help keep Volvo Turbo?

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Originally Posted By: Rolla07
If you were looking to prolong your engine just a few more miles then sure, you can use an additive. Additives are not proactive solutions to a possible future problem. Use syn oil and change it per OLM or before, change it every 5k miles if you are that scared..its still better than using an additive that might actually reduce the efficiency of the oil.


Yes the Volvo dictates 10k miles change, I change (at volvo) at 7.5k miles and I pay the extra few bucks to have it changed then. I take the phoenix sun and the traffic as an indicator of heavy use.
 
Volvo used cartridge turbos in the early 2000's, and they're less than $300 online. Look up what that part costs on RockAuto or somewhere, and see - it might be cheaper than the additives and super-duper grade oil over the life of the unit.
 
My mate had an older Volvo Turbo, and yes the turbo did bite the dust, he added a Turbo-Timer to the car to fix the problem.
 
I mean honestly I am fully open to suggestions I don't want to give an impression that I am close minded to the non-additive market. However, not everyone is in the same driving environment as I am. Sure if you drive in MA, or Florida then you might be fine but when you drive in a place when an average summer temp for the next 4 months is 105 dry heat with low humidity then you might want to look for something else. I fully understand that a manufacturer choose oil A to use...but they only care about the lifetime of their warranty which is 75k miles which in today's engine is like driving 10k miles in the 80's.

Now Volvo parts are expensive as [censored] and having to maintain that car is expensive (I had a 2002 S40 with 150k miles on it in phx until 2 years ago, I used liquiMoly in it and the turbo was just fine...but that's 2002 vs 2015 hence the question) (S40 was totaled in an accident the engine ran just fine).

I mean if the final consensus is to run with Synthetic and change every 7.5k miles then I am down for that...that was my original plan...but I figured I would ask for alternative ideas (like seeking alternate diagnosis from a doctor).


Any consensus on ATF additive or is the VOLVO additive package fine?
 
If you must use an additive I'd recommend LC20 to assure clean turbo bearings, piston rings, etc. From what I've seen around here Volvo dealers like Castrol GTX, which is a blend now probably. Not saying this is better than just running main market full synthetic, but this should get you where you want to be.
 
I have 94K on my Chevy Cruze's turbocharged 4 cylinder - those engines are known to be intolerant of poor lubrication manifested in turbo failure and mine's still trucking along with the original one. Valvoline Synpower at 5K intervals, zero additives. Your car seeing 10-15 degree higher temps than a good portion of the rest of the country doesn't invalidate the maintenance norms employed in other climates. There is no product I know of that effectively increases the thermal stability of an oil - that's formulated into the oil to start with. Investigate why things like TBN, NOACK, HTHS, flash point, etc. matter and you'll understand why the prevailing advice is to find an oil you trust, not an additive.
 
You are getting good advice.

I had an '86 Volvo 740 Turbo from new for 18 1/2 years and 285,000 Km. That was in the days before synthetic was regularly available. And that turbo was only oil cooled - no water cooling until '87. I changed the oil (with good quality dino) every 3 months and never had a problem with the turbo. I worried about it, but that did neither of us any good.

I concur with the "use a good quality synthetic, and change it often" recommendation.

And if you can talk your wife into letting the turbo cool off for the last few blocks (especially after a highway run) before turning it off, that would be a bonus. My turbo used to turn cherry red after a highway run. With a couple of blocks of "off the boost" driving it was at least metal coloured again.

My engine was running hot at one point and I fixed that by having a radiator shop take the radiator off, reverse flush the inside and water and air blast the outside.
 
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Do you mean what kills the typical turbo today? Same thing as what killed turbo's many moons ago. Heat. Not familiar with the Volvo intercooler, but you go and figure a way to cool the cooler and it is guaranteed to last much longer than however they cooled it stock.

And the reason why people sometimes replace 2 or 3 turbos "recently" as someone noted bove is because they replacement turbo was a rebuilt unit. Dealer's will do that on warrantee work, too.
 
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Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
Sorry; what do you think an intercooler does?


I don't know, but not enough to prevent killing a Porsche Turbo few times over.

Of which I don't want to suffer the same fate as that owner of the Porsche. He has money (Neurosurgeon) so he did not use aftermarket parts.

Side note kind of ironic that a Neurosurgeon is driving a sports car where most of his patients are from a result of a sport like accident (no helmet law in AZ).
 
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If you're concerned about keeping your turbo alive, install a turbo timer.

Figure out if its water and oil cooled if you can. The HE351VE on my truck has both and I don't idle down unless I'm towing.
 
Originally Posted By: tempnexus
Sigh. Ok

To whom do I send the bill once the Turbo bites the dust?

No I am not asking anyone to agree with me, I guess what I am asking then is why even have an additive forum when no one ever recommends an additive? Should we just eliminate this forum? What's the point?


If you're this worried, you shouldn't have bought a car with a turbo.
 
Tempnexus - you keep changing the parameters of the question, by adding additional elements, and restricting the answers that you will accept. Makes it hard to help.

You want the turbo to last, like both of mine have? My wife's XC, driven by her, without cooldown, or warm-up is at 222,000 miles. Turbo is fine. No oil leaks, no issues. The turbos on both my 2002 Volvos are water and oil cooled. So is yours. Here is a rundown:

The car has been run on Pennzoil Ultra Euro 5W40, Mobil 1 0W40 and now, Castrol 0W40. It gets changed at 7,500 mile intervals. It hasn't seen dealer maintenance in over 12 years. It's had a couple of UOAs and for her driving, which is mostly city and short trips, the oil is DONE at 7,500 miles, despite the A3/B4 specs.

While the car is under warranty, not much you can do. The water cooling will maintain the bearing housing at a reasonable temperature despite your climate.

Once it's out of warranty, any of those three oils will serve you well.

Our street is slow (25 MPH) and has kids, dogs, pedestrians on it all the time (we are by the beach). So, effectively, the car gets its warm-up and cool down by driving slow at the beginning and end of each day, though what happens at work is anyone's guess.

Idling it for 30 seconds before taking off and the same prior to shutdown is the best thing you can do for a turbo. No additive will change that. No additive will compensate for a high RPM device being spun when the oil flow is inadequate.

If your wife won't do that, your options in warranty are limited. After the warranty, you could add a supplemental oiler, like the turbotimer, but that engine is tight, I don't know where it would fit.

In the meantime, be certain that the Volvo dealer IS using a full synthetic. Nothing wrong with Castrol. Good stuff. But Volvo dealers in the US have a long no, sordid history of using the wrong oil and ruining owner's engines - with the damage becoming apparent just after the warranty expired. See this TNN on my car as an ugly example of what happens when you use the wrong oil for the drain interval: TNN Oil System Contamination Cleaning
 
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Originally Posted By: tempnexus
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
Sorry; what do you think an intercooler does?


I don't know, but not enough to prevent killing a Porsche Turbo few times over.

Of which I don't want to suffer the same fate as that owner of the Porsche. He has money (Neurosurgeon) so he did not use aftermarket parts.

Side note kind of ironic that a Neurosurgeon is driving a sports car where most of his patients are from a result of a sport like accident (no helmet law in AZ).


So that you DO know: the intercooler is a big air-air radiator. It takes the compressed air (charge) from the output of the compressor section of the turbo, which is HOT from being compressed and runs it through a heat exchanger in the very front of the car. The intercooler sits in front of the radiator, so that it gets the coolest air. That cooled air (which will still be a bit above ambient temperature) is then fed through the throttle body into the engine. The engine makes more power than it would without an intercooler, because the cooled air is more dense than the hot air. As an example, the B21FT engine in my 1985 Volvo Wagon made 127 BHP with a turbo but without the intercooler. in 1985, some cars started getting the intercooled engine, which made 162 BHP. A big change for just cooling the charge air...the cooled charge air allowed that car to run at a higher boost pressure as well, which upped the power more than just cooling the air.

The intercooler has nothing to do with the temperature of the turbo. That's solely a function of the water cooling, and the oil, removing heat from the bearing housing.

The exhaust (turbine) section of the turbo gets hot. Really hot... that heat is conducted into the center section of the turbo, where the bearings are.

If you're really running the car hard, the heat of that turbine/exhaust housing will continue to heat up the bearings for a while. Running the car gently allows that heat to dissipate, and to be removed from the bearings by oil and water flow. So, drive gently for the last few minutes of your drive, and idle the car for 30 seconds, which allows it to cool further and the turbo to stop spinning before the oil flow is removed.

But remember that an intercooler, while good for power, does nothing to cool the turbo itself. It cools the charge air.
 
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Originally Posted By: ecotourist
You are getting good advice.

I had an '86 Volvo 740 Turbo from new for 18 1/2 years and 285,000 Km. That was in the days before synthetic was regularly available. And that turbo was only oil cooled - no water cooling until '87. I changed the oil (with good quality dino) every 3 months and never had a problem with the turbo. I worried about it, but that did neither of us any good.

I concur with the "use a good quality synthetic, and change it often" recommendation.

And if you can talk your wife into letting the turbo cool off for the last few blocks (especially after a highway run) before turning it off, that would be a bonus. My turbo used to turn cherry red after a highway run. With a couple of blocks of "off the boost" driving it was at least metal coloured again.

My engine was running hot at one point and I fixed that by having a radiator shop take the radiator off, reverse flush the inside and water and air blast the outside.


Ah, the mighty Volvo B21FT engine!

Remember it well...and I upgraded my 1985 wagon to a water cooled bearing housing with the help of IPD back in the day...

Coking in the bearings (previous owner) killed that turbo.

The rebuilt turbo was upgraded to a water-cooled bearing housing and it was bullet-proof. That engine ran great without anything but regular maintenance (although, it liked plugs every 15,000...despite the Volvo maintenenance interval of 30,000) while the car rusted away around it. No problems with a Volvo red block. They run forever....
 
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Originally Posted By: montero1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JZNJPKE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T1_5wMozbQBCAY3A

Try this, let us know if it works.

Or just the turbo additive.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BHHJCWW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T1_1yMozb42HFPVM


I believe that they recommend the turbo additive as wells as the oils be used ONLY after the regular treatment.

I'm not sure what oil is recommended for your vehicle, but M1 5W30 ESP has an exceptionally high flashpoint and low NOACK loss for those who are concerned about high temps. It is probably also a good choice for avoiding LSPI in a DIT engine (I assume this newer engine is DI) due to having a low calcium/sodium formulation. Its HTHS (3.58) is pretty close to XXW40 territory, too, and it's possible that it being a very low SAPS (0.6%) oil might help keep deposits down.
The downsides are that is has a low starting TBN (not suitable to long OCIs in a US gas engine) and is also hard to find and expensive in the US. A poster on here (edyvw?) says it goes on sale at NAPA for $7(?) a liter and it is sometimes available online for around that price, but good luck finding something like a 5l jug to get the costs down below that...
In the interests of full disclosure, this oil is really targeted to diesel cars in the European market, but it is also gasoline engine approved.
 
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