diff --git a/src/apify/scrapy/_async_thread.py b/src/apify/scrapy/_async_thread.py
index 79de1162..0333531b 100644
--- a/src/apify/scrapy/_async_thread.py
+++ b/src/apify/scrapy/_async_thread.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 from concurrent import futures
 from datetime import timedelta
 from logging import getLogger
-from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, Literal
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from collections.abc import Coroutine
@@ -14,13 +14,16 @@
 
 
 class AsyncThread:
-    """Class for running an asyncio event loop in a separate thread.
+    """Run an asyncio event loop in a dedicated background thread.
 
-    This allows running asynchronous coroutines from synchronous code by executingthem on an event loop
-    that runs in its own dedicated thread.
+    This lets synchronous Scrapy callbacks drive asynchronous Apify and Crawlee coroutines. The
+    scheduler and the HTTP cache storage each own their own `AsyncThread`, so the request queue and
+    the key-value store never share an event loop; they only share the read-only global
+    `Configuration`. A single shared loop would also work but would couple their lifecycles.
     """
 
-    def __init__(self) -> None:
+    def __init__(self, default_timeout: timedelta = timedelta(seconds=60)) -> None:
+        self._default_timeout = default_timeout
         self._eventloop = asyncio.new_event_loop()
 
         # Start the event loop in a dedicated daemon thread.
@@ -33,7 +36,7 @@ def __init__(self) -> None:
     def run_coro(
         self,
         coro: Coroutine,
-        timeout: timedelta = timedelta(seconds=60),
+        timeout: timedelta | Literal['default'] = 'default',
     ) -> Any:
         """Run a coroutine on an event loop running in a separate thread.
 
@@ -42,7 +45,8 @@ def run_coro(
 
         Args:
             coro: The coroutine to run.
-            timeout: The maximum number of seconds to wait for the coroutine to finish.
+            timeout: The maximum time to wait for the coroutine to finish. Pass `'default'` to use the
+                `default_timeout` passed to the constructor.
 
         Returns:
             The result returned by the coroutine.
@@ -52,6 +56,9 @@ def run_coro(
             TimeoutError: If the coroutine does not complete within the timeout.
             Exception: Any exception raised during coroutine execution.
         """
+        if timeout == 'default':
+            timeout = self._default_timeout
+
         if not self._eventloop.is_running():
             raise RuntimeError(f'The coroutine {coro} cannot be executed because the event loop is not running.')