One important characteristic of diesel engines was overlooked in the answer to the question on ‘Jake brakes.’ Conventional gasoline engines are throttled. When you lift your foot off the gas, a valve closes off airflow to the cylinders. During the intake cycle the piston pulls a vacuum against the closed throttle valve. This pumping loss, coupled with the cutoff of fuel injection and friction through the engine and driveline, is what causes your car to slow down. Diesel engines aren’t throttled–their power is metered by fuel alone–and therefore slow down more slowly.
Hey Granville - welcome to the SDMB. Glad to have you.
We like to have a link to the column in question when you post in this forum. No biggie, you’ll know next time. I got this one for you.
All you gotta do is paste the URL of the column - and the board software turns it into a link automagically.
So diesels don’t have engine braking?
I don’t think that’s a valid interpretation of the OP, rather diesel engines have weaker engine braking.
Just for clarification, the info on Jake brakes is not a column by Cecil but a Staff Report by JillGat.