[abhaybakshi]

As far as I can remember, since my childhood days, I had been always curious about engine braking.

While I was in 10th standard, I used to roam around on priya scooter and there was a quite a steep slope nearby my home. Often I used to punish my dad's scooter by driving it on first gear and was amazed to see that it is defying laws of gravity !! The RPM of the engine used to get high but speed totally under control without pressing it's foot brake....

Now I am grown up and own Maruti Swift..but still there are some mad questions that linger in my mind....

1. Is engine braking good for your car ? Does it puts negative pressure on piston ?

2. Is there any way to know rollover angle for you car ? For e.g. consider fully loaded (5 person) Swift standing on a inclined surface. Assume that the surface begin to tilt slowly !!!

Now, what will be approax. angle at which Swift will fall on it's side ?

3. How mush speed is safe while making a slow but sharp turn so that my Swift will not rollover ?

4. I know rollover depends upon centre of gravity, vehicle weight, tyres, anti rollbar etc......so which is the safest car available in India which handles well on inclined surface mentioned as above.

Hoping to get some serious answers from techies for such comedy questions !!!!

Cheers
Abhay

[Shan2nu]

1. Is engine braking good for your car ? Does it puts negative pressure on piston ?

I don't think it's harmful to the engine. Just make sure you revv match the engine and gear speed while you downshift.

Shan2nu

[Rehaan]

Heres a thread you should read through -

Engine braking
(Please continue the discussion about engine braking there)

Also, as for rollover angles, i havent seen them mentioned on passenger car spec sheets, but try and get a hand on an off roader spec sheet, eg. Landrover Discovery...and it will clearly tell you the maximum suggested safe incline it can tackle and on what axis.

cya
R