Forum Discussion

4x4ord's avatar
4x4ord
Explorer III
Jul 21, 2019

Engine braking now vs then.

In 2009 I towed our 5ver over the Creston Salmo pass in BC with an 03 Duramax. I manually placed the truck in low gear and listened to the engine rev to over 5000 rpm as it struggled to hold back the gcvw of about 21000 lbs... about 35 mph. Second gear was a run away. In 2011 I went over the same pass with the same trailer using a 2011 Powerstroke. The engine was able to hold the trailer back in 2nd gear at about 3600 rpm and 45 mph. This year with 25000 lb gcvw my 2017 Powerstroke had no trouble what so ever maintaining 55 mph in 3rd gear at 2900 rpm. It was just a matter of setting the cruise and letting the automatic exhaust brake do its thing. There are a couple tighter bends in the road that prompted me to brake slightly to drop a few mph and then press resume on the cruise. The turbo boost would rise or fall depending on how much exhaust braking was required to maintain 55 mph. I was very impressed.
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  • JRscooby's avatar
    JRscooby
    Explorer II
    Jul 21, 2019
    The first time I pulled a load with a diesel I realized that the diesel would not hold the load back as well as the old spark plug motor. Then I found the joy of a Jake.
    A test I would like to see is same size gas engine compared to diesel/exhaust brake with same weights
  • jbc28's avatar
    jbc28
    Explorer
    Jul 21, 2019
    4x4ord wrote:
    In 2009 I towed our 5ver over the Creston Salmo pass in BC with an 03 Duramax. I manually placed the truck in low gear and listened to the engine rev to over 5000 rpm as it struggled to hold back the gcvw of about 21000 lbs... about 35 mph. Second gear was a run away. In 2011 I went over the same pass with the same trailer using a 2011 Powerstroke. The engine was able to hold the trailer back in 2nd gear at about 3600 rpm and 45 mph. This year with 25000 lb gcvw my 2017 Powerstroke had no trouble what so ever maintaining 55 mph in 3rd gear at 2900 rpm. It was just a matter of setting the cruise and letting the automatic exhaust brake do its thing. There are a couple tighter bends in the road that prompted me to brake slightly to drop a few mph and then press resume on the cruise. The turbo boost would rise or fall depending on how much exhaust braking was required to maintain 55 mph. I was very impressed.


    They do work well. If you were using cruise the service brakes may have been coming on too.
  • SidecarFlip's avatar
    SidecarFlip
    Explorer III
    Jul 21, 2019
    Never like the term'Jake Brake'. Jake Brake is a trademark of the Jacobs Corporation not a type. There are 3 types, compression brakes (jake), exhaust back pressure brake (Blue Ox and others) and mechanical retarders.

    Not sure which type different builders use. I have a Blue Ox on my 1997 7.3 and it works quite well actually bit I only use it manually when the need arises.
  • Cummins12V98's avatar
    Cummins12V98
    Explorer III
    Jul 21, 2019
    Modern exhaust brake equipped trucks are DA CHIT!!!

    33k combined down several miles of 14% locked in second maintaining 30-35 with cruise control on. Brakes nice and cool at the bottom!



  • Gulfcoast's avatar
    Gulfcoast
    Explorer
    Jul 21, 2019
    Sure wish I had an exhaust brake on my Cummins 5.9, but I simply can't afford $1500 for the kit and $1000 labor. Surely there's something out there cheaper.
  • Old-Biscuit's avatar
    Old-Biscuit
    Explorer III
    Jul 21, 2019
    "In 2009 I towed our 5ver over the Creston Salmo pass in BC with an 03 Duramax. I manually placed the truck in low gear and listened to the engine rev to over 5000 rpm as it struggled to hold back the gcvw of about 21000 lbs... about 35 mph."

    2003 Duramax LB7-----REV Limiter set at 3250 rpm

    :H



    I have a US Gear 4" exhaust brake on my 5.9L Cummins
    Truck/trailer combo 22k
    Exhaust brake 6% grade----55 mph
    Glad to see exhaust braking OEM ------ great tool for diesel trucks
  • Chris_Bryant's avatar
    Chris_Bryant
    Explorer II
    Jul 21, 2019
    Old-Biscuit wrote:
    "In 2009 I towed our 5ver over the Creston Salmo pass in BC with an 03 Duramax. I manually placed the truck in low gear and listened to the engine rev to over 5000 rpm as it struggled to hold back the gcvw of about 21000 lbs... about 35 mph."

    2003 Duramax LB7-----REV Limiter set at 3250 rpm


    The rev limiter won’t do anything for an engine braking over-rev, but if it’s limited to that 5k can’t have been good for it.
  • ktmrfs's avatar
    ktmrfs
    Explorer II
    Jul 21, 2019
    Old-Biscuit wrote:
    "In 2009 I towed our 5ver over the Creston Salmo pass in BC with an 03 Duramax. I manually placed the truck in low gear and listened to the engine rev to over 5000 rpm as it struggled to hold back the gcvw of about 21000 lbs... about 35 mph."

    2003 Duramax LB7-----REV Limiter set at 3250 rpm

    :H



    I have a US Gear 4" exhaust brake on my 5.9L Cummins
    Truck/trailer combo 22k
    Exhaust brake 6% grade----55 mph
    Glad to see exhaust braking OEM ------ great tool for diesel trucks


    nope! duramax with grade brake or exhaust brake shuts off fuel and will rev to 5000rpm. friction increase as the cube of RPM so doesn't take much increase in rpm to increase braking.

    If duramax goes above 5,000 it will shift up a gear regardless of what the gear slector is in. That's why the tach goes to 5K. And why GM eliminated the redline above 3200 because people weren't reading the diesel suppliment owners manual on how the grade brake/exhaust brake works and what rpm it can go to.

    To the OP's comment. I had (son now has) an 04.5 duramax with grade brake only, and now a 15.5 with exhaust brake. While the grade brake feature provides significant retardation, it is no where near as effective as the exhaust brake.
  • FishOnOne's avatar
    FishOnOne
    Nomad
    Jul 22, 2019
    4x4ord wrote:
    In 2009 I towed our 5ver over the Creston Salmo pass in BC with an 03 Duramax. I manually placed the truck in low gear and listened to the engine rev to over 5000 rpm as it struggled to hold back the gcvw of about 21000 lbs... about 35 mph. Second gear was a run away. In 2011 I went over the same pass with the same trailer using a 2011 Powerstroke. The engine was able to hold the trailer back in 2nd gear at about 3600 rpm and 45 mph. This year with 25000 lb gcvw my 2017 Powerstroke had no trouble what so ever maintaining 55 mph in 3rd gear at 2900 rpm. It was just a matter of setting the cruise and letting the automatic exhaust brake do its thing. There are a couple tighter bends in the road that prompted me to brake slightly to drop a few mph and then press resume on the cruise. The turbo boost would rise or fall depending on how much exhaust braking was required to maintain 55 mph. I was very impressed.


    The 2020 Super Duty's will have even a stronger turbo so it'll be interesting to see if there's better exhaust brake performance to an already great performing exhaust break.
  • rhagfo's avatar
    rhagfo
    Explorer III
    Jul 22, 2019
    Gulfcoast wrote:
    Sure wish I had an exhaust brake on my Cummins 5.9, but I simply can't afford $1500 for the kit and $1000 labor. Surely there's something out there cheaper.


    Look around, you can get the kit a bit cheaper, and $1,000 to install is a rip off.

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