Comments by "SkyRiver" (@SkyRiver1) on "Is It Bad To Engine Brake With A Manual Transmission?" video.

  1. Old subject lots of comments. Here's my two cents for posterity (because I doubt if any humans will read it. It being a 2 years old question). Ok, this is not one subject but several. I will only talk about entering a corner, with no traffic in front of you and little concern for pedestrians or police. Also you are not on a race track, but having a spirited drive alone on an appropriate road, like in the coastal range in Kali or the Appalachians on a two lane black top, something like that. This is how I "engine brake" in that sort of situation, and it has served me well for over fifty years of using the public highways as my own personal billions dollar amusement ride. In the appropriate situations of course. This is done in one very quick smooth action. I depress the clutch and put the gear shift in neutral. I sharply blip the throttle and as the engine is coming back down from the peak of the rev, I downshift when the revs match the gear. That is, there is no clutch feel at all of the engine catching up to the gear speed or visa versa. They just match, no slipping at all. If you have never gotten effective with this technique it can probably be done much faster and smoother than you imagine. This affords an initial state where in nether the clutch nor the gear box is strained but rather have almost retained a constant state of equilibrium, except of course that I am now in a lower gear that is engine breaking at a higher rate. It is also handy for exiting the turn under power. I have always called this double-clutching. In my old Willys Jeep it was the only way you could shift without grinding, and in my more sporting cars it seems fun and effective and definitely preserves the synchronizers from explosion. Not for everyone I suspect, but I usually bother to double-clutch when driving attentively and the curves are sharp enough to inspire down-shifting. On the other subject he mentioned, that is, long grades: If alone in the mountains, which is a frequent situation. I like to crest the mountain slow enough and combine that with a gear that will allow me to not use my brakes at all. I usually do this in neutral and just ride my kinetic wave, unless the grade is so long that I will enter any curves on the downside at a speed that would necessitate braking, then I use a gear and usually put it in neutral part way down the mountain in order not to waste all the energy I put into climbing the hill. This has become a real tactical game with me. How can I roll down the mountain most efficiently, energy-wise, without taking the curves so fast that I have to use any braking, engine or wheel.
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