How To install aturbo timer (explained for a ’91 nissan 240sx): You may have seen a turbo car pull into a parking lot, looking and sounding incredibly mean. When the driver gets out of the car, he closes and locks the door and begins to walk away…with the engine still running? Your immediate reaction is to help the guy, so you say something profound like, “hey dude, your car is still running.” He looks over, gives you a nod and responds, “I know. It turns off by itself.” There’s a practical reason for this too-cool feature. Since a turbo runs on hot exhaust gasses, all of its components get extremely hot. However the oil flowing trough the center housing, wich keeps the bearings lubricated, can break down at temperatures of 400 degrees. Thus, if the engine is shut off while the turbo temperature is excessively high, the oil in the center housing has a much greater chance to coagulate and create carbon buildup. If this conditions happens repeatedly, the turbo bearings may be starved of oil (due to restricted supply passages). This buildup generally results in a bad turbo. This is the reason for a turbo timer, which keeps your engine running even after you shut off the car. The timer lets the engine idle for a few minutes and allows the turbo to cool down properly, thereby minimizing the risk of deadly carbon buildup. This is also an effective way to help the engine cool down. So after tuning an 240sx or other turbo-charged engine, kwowing full well that these engines would see some extreme driving conditions and elevated turbo heat, its best to install a turbo timer to keep your turbo system running top notch. APEXi has a very good and nice auto timer, based on multi-functions and sleek design. The auto timer is great for turbo charged cars but also for natural spirated engines. It’s shaped like a pen, wich makes it extremely compact. In fact it’s the smallest turbo timer on the market and can be mounted virtually anywhere in the car. It also has a cool joystick button that provides easy navigation trough tons of available features. If setup and installed properly, the APEXi auto timer will automatically determine the amount of time necessary to idle down to full shut-off. Ther’s also a manual mode that allow the user to preset the idling time up to about 10 minutes. The timer is also sophisticated enough to give you readings of your air/fuel ratio, as long as you take the time to install the correct wires to your car’s factory O2 sensor. And if you think that’s great, it gets better: the timer displays info from the O2 sensor voltage and battery voltage. In case you’re worried about someone stealing your car while it is running, APEXi has a safety feature that connects to the handbrake. If the handrake is released without the key in the ignition, the engine automatically shuts off. Before installing the auto timer, make sure you have a wiring diagram of u’re car handy. All cars differ slightly in their wiring, so it’s smart to have your car’s specifications available for quick reference. You will only need a few basic tools to complete the install. Take your time and make sure that everything is done properly so that you can enjoy all of the available functions of the timer. The install: FAQ by MR2DIE4 Source: HCI magazine. 1A,B,C,D,E: Begin by removing the driver side kick panel. You will find four Philips head screws ( each foto indicates where these screws are located). 2A,B,C: Remove the steering panel located under the steering wheel. There are seven 10mm bolts: four on the left and three on the right side of the steering column. 3A,B: Once the steering panel is removed, remove the sic Philips head screws holding the steering column shroud ( there are four screws in the front and two in the back). 4: once the screws are removed, simply separate the bottom from the top by pulling them away. 5A,B: Now it’s time to decide where you want the timer to be installed. We chose to mount it right in front of the gauge cluster. There are two Philips head screws holding the shroud in place. Remove these and pull gently until the shroud pops out of place. 6: To make room for the timer’s wires, we used a rotary tool and drilled a hole in the side of the gauge cluster shroud. 7: Once the hole is drilled, simply feed the auto timer up from the bottom and set it into place with the wires FAQ by MR2DIE4 Source: HCI magazine. placed neatly through the hole. 8: Before wiring the timer, we need to disconnect the negative cable of the battery. Whenever doing any kind of electrical work on a car, it is always wise to disconnect the power to prevent short-circuiting. 9: To locate the wires on the ECU, pull the plastic protective shield off. It is held in place by four plastic tabs.(ECU is located in the passenger-side kick panel). 10: For the next few steps, you will need a wiring diagram of u’re ECU to locate the correct wires. Take the white auto timer wire and tap into the O2 sensor wire going into the ECU. (for the Nissan 240, the O2 sensor is white with grey spots). 11: Take the black wire and tap into an ECU ground wire. These are twi ways to ground the timer. First, if you are not going to use the O2 sensor function, then you can simply ground it to the chassis. If will use it, then you must ground it by tapping into an ECU ground wire. 12: Take the grey timer wire and tap into the e-brake wire. To find this wire, it will be located under the center console ashtray. FAQ by MR2DIE4 Source: HCI magazine. 13: It’s important to make sure when the key is in the “on” position that the e-brake wire reads 12V when it is down, 0V when it is up. Use a Volt meter to find the reading. The reason why tapping into the e-brake wire is because it functions as a safety switch when setting up the timer. 14: Once you’ve hooked the timer up to the O2 sensor and e-brake, and the unit is grounded, you can hook the unit up to your ignition switch. For most vehicles, APEXi sells a wiring harness that plugs into the stock ignition harnass and eliminates the need to tap into the wires. On the timer there are three main wires: blue, red and green. The red wire gets tapped into the constant 12V wire when the key is in the “off” position. The blue wire gets tapped into the wire that has power when the key is turned to the “accessory” position. The green wire gets tapped into the wire that has power when the key is in the “on” position. A simple way of identifying these wires is to take a Volt meter and measure each one with the key in “off”, “accessory” and “on” position. In order to do so, you will have to reconnect the battery, then start measuring the wires. The wire that reads 12V when the key is in the “off”position is the constant. With the key in the “Accessory” position, measure which wire gets power. You should have two wires reading 12V. (the constant and accessory) Do the same with the key in the “on” position. Once you have identified the wires, disconnect the battery. Take some wiretaps and connect the red wire to the constant (on a 240sx it’s the white wire with a red stripe), then take the blue wire and connect it to the accessory wire, which is also blue. Next you will take the green wire to the “on” wire (black with a white stripe). 15: After you have successfully tapped into the proper wires, you can reconnect the negative cable on the battery. 16A,B,C,D: Once you have power back to the car, check to make sure that everything is hooked up correctly. At this time you will need to start the engine. Once it is running, you should receive a reading in each of the settings: time, battery; O2 , air/fuel. (On some vehicles you need to wait a few minutes to get a reading from the O2 sensor because it needs to warm up).If it’s hooked up correctly, you can now put everything back together (follow the reverse steps of our installation steps). 17: Now that everything is back together, the only thing left to do is set the auto timer to your specific settings. FAQ by MR2DIE4 Source: HCI magazine.