'96 Silverado vs 2009 Outback

[Piotrsko]

From the test tech point of view: until you start getting data from various elements, everything is conjecture.

However: tires on the subie inflated to above 25psi?

[vteco]

Tires are properly inflated.

Engine is turning a consistent 1500 RPM with foot off gas after topping hill and heading down. Idle is normally half that. The engine sounds like a downshifted standard transmission with clutch out. Speed does not increase going downhill. The feeling of engine braking is palpable.

Theory is a nicer and more science oriented word than conjecture.

My theory is that there is engine braking going on in a pedal-off downhill coast.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by vteco

Enhanced engine braking.....! Heh, that's a new one, cr.

That was a claim from Nissan, about the electronic programming of its CVT fitted to the 1st-generation Murano. My only experiences with a CVT were in my mother's 2019 Toyota Yaris, mostly inner-city and with little to no steep hills to find out how the CVT would disturb engine braking. But anyway, as I drove it in a much more conservative way than my mother, I noticed she had to brake more often than I would expect her to do in a similar car with manual transmission.

[Piotrsko]

Easiest way to check for overrun is a intake vacuum gauge stuck somewhere on the intake port.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Intake port, or Plenum chamber?

[Piotrsko]

Wherever you can attach a fitting / hose after the air filter. Afaik, no need for accuracy, just indicated somewhere you are at maximum vacuum, whatever that happened to actually be. In the F 250 7.3 diesel, that has to be at idle, otherwise you are making boost from the turbo unless you are engine braking, maybe (I never checked) the 7.3 doesn't have throttle plates, the Intake is not regulated, fuel addition is the throttle

[Logic]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

Wherever you can attach a fitting / hose after the air filter. Afaik, no need for accuracy, just indicated somewhere you are at maximum vacuum, whatever that happened to actually be. In the F 250 7.3 diesel, that has to be at idle, otherwise you are making boost from the turbo unless you are engine braking, maybe (I never checked) the 7.3 doesn't have throttle plates, the Intake is not regulated, fuel addition is the throttle

No; after the throttle valve is the important factor for finding overrun.
After the air filter but before throttle will give you higher vacuum at full throttle where the air filter etc is the major cause of vacuum.

Also: Interesting that you consider personal testing to be of import here, but not elsewhere...