[OT] Engine braking

[Adam Wilson]

On Tue, 30 Jul 2013 15:43:36 -0700, Walter Bright  
<newshound2 at digitalmars.com> wrote:

> On 7/30/2013 12:16 PM, Adam Wilson wrote:
>> Back driving ("compression braking" in the automotive world) is indeed a
>> recommend procedure in modern cars. My dad (ASE Master Tech) recommends  
>> it as a
>> way to save wear on the brakes and is as you've noted, quite an  
>> efficient use of
>> energy. Heck, it's one of the first things he taught me how to do when  
>> I was
>> learning how to drive.
>>
>> Toyota took it one step further and built a capability into the Prius  
>> where the
>> electric driveline reverses it's polarity and uses motors to slow down  
>> the car
>> while simultaneously recharging the battery as the car slows down  
>> instead of
>> using the brakes. It's called regenerative braking. Needless to say, we  
>> don't do
>> brakes very often on Prius'.
>
> If the engine *is designed for it*, that's a different story entirely.  
> The engines I work on were not designed for it.
>

Well Toyota's Prius engine is just a simple powerplant with no connection  
to the road whatsoever, it's just a really cool technology. And electric  
motors are very different beasts from IC motors. :-)

-- 
Adam Wilson
IRC: LightBender
Project Coordinator
The Horizon Project
http://www.thehorizonproject.org/