Quote:
Originally Posted by swoody
Ah, great info, thanks! I guess I'll have a run on it, and see how high it goes in 2nd. If I can manually disengage OD, should I just disable it, or would I have to disable it and then downshift to 2nd? Will just disabling it give me any engine braking?
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Gear skipping won't hurt an auto, it's just a bigger speed change for the engine. There is talk of more wear, since the transmission has to cope with higher engine speeds without "stepping up", but I don't buy it. I've done this stuff for years now, and any additional wear is apparently not appreciable.
Anyway - If you want to disengage OD first, do it. You will get
some engine braking, but not much, as you'll only grab another maybe 500 RPM. It might be enough to slow you down if someone pulls out a little too close, to prevent you from having to touch your brakes to drop 3 MPH until they can get up to speed... Only you'll know how you're comfortable with your transmission though.
You don't
need to disengage OD first, though. Your transmission will lockout OD electronically if it's an electronic OD setup, as soon as you change gears.
If you have an electronic transmission, almost any that I've heard of that have a "real" TCU will actually shift for you before you get to redline, so you
can't blow up your engine by overspeed.
My wife's '94 GP (Granny) will do this. I put it in 1st gear if I want to make a run with it, and don't shift at all. It automatically shifts each gear @~5500 RPM. I've never gotten out of third and into OD. The car doesn't have enough power to go much over 130, if even that fast without a tail wind.