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MountainGoat
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Tow mode keeps it from lugging the engine.
mtsoxfan
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One thing I do dislike is when I use cruise and when going down a hill, it downshifts. I know it needs to to maintain set speed, but I'd rather get the gas mileage...
JoeC
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Yes, it indeed does that, and also just general 'engine braking'.
Sometimes I 'disengage' cruise on a long down hill to get the head start speed on the next uphill.
(But I always check, as best I can, for de'cops; as that's their favorite place to set a trap)
Superdannyboy
Well-Known Member
Yea it would be nice for an option in cruise control to hold it in 10th gear
got3fords
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Doesn't the fuel shut off when coasting downhill? I thought I read that somewhere.
P. A. Schilke
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Hi Doug,
Way back in 1983, I built the first Light Truck EFI engined truck. A 1983 Ranger 2.3L Lima motor with EFI. Hand wired the whole engine harness...Processor the size of a briefcase in the passenger foot well. The calibration was rudimentary. It had fuel cutoff as part of the calibration... Been around for quite a while....
Building this single vehicle and then learning of the calibration, I got quite good at calibration much to the Engine Calibrators dismay. And a large part of the 1985 Ranger 2.3L had my calibration parameter installed...And I was a chassis Engineer...not an engine engineer... I use to like to just plunge into stuff and learn like crazy...
best,
Phil
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Frenchy
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Except the Ranger does not lug. Unless the transmission has a major problem(wich it doesnt) it will not lug at all.
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That's awesome!
While I've never attempted anything that intensive, I've dabbled in a bit of MegaSquirt tuning in my day and that was enough of a headache.
I'll dive into something. But only so deep until another squirrel comes along to chase.
Whereas you, sir, dive all the way to the bottom.
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erty176
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Uhhh turn up the radio so you can't hear the engine and tighten your seatbelt so you don't feel the tug? But seriously as others have said just hit the plus button on the shifter and see what gear it's in. If it's not downshifting properly get it checked out.
khyros
Well-Known Member
So everything said thus far is correct, but let me elaborate.
1) Yes, the fuel shuts off in those circumstances. An i4 engine like this is going to have about ~30Nm of torque needed to just turn everything when it's around idle speed. Obviously the higher the engine RPM the more torque it requires to turn. So if you're either decelerating, or going down hill, you can stop fuel injection, allow the engine to engine brake at 30Nm or so, not consuming any fuel, and not wearing out your brakes. Also note that since this is a direct injected engine, it's much more efficient of a fuel shut off than the EFI system Phil discussed from back in the 80s. Port fuel injection leaves a ton of fuel in the manifold (and relies on there being liquid fuel in the manifold). This is where the old saying of 'if you're just going to shut of your car for 30sec or less, it's more fuel efficient to just leave it running.' Our engines are direct injected though, which means fuel is directly injected into the combustion chamber, and does that for each combustion event. So you can literally turn off a single event with no residual affects on future events.
2) Cruise control is not the most fuel efficient system out there. There are numerous instances where I could elaborate on that, but let's just stick with this one specifically of going down a large hill. There are effectively 3 options. A) you let the cruise control attempt to keep you at 70mph. It will downshift into 8th/7th gear to increase the engine speed, thus increasing the torque to turn, which is being driven by the wheels. You arrive at the bottom of the hill going 70mph, and using 0 fuel. B) you disable the cruise control and do nothing. The engine turns off fuel injection since you're not requesting any torque from it. You stay in 10th gear. You don't convert all of your potential energy into kinetic energy because there's road losses, but you find yourself at the bottom of the hill using 0 fuel and going 80mph. C) You accelerate and charge down the hill... after all, you can accelerate easier here with the assistance of gravity, and then have more kinetic energy to get you up the looming hill on the other side. You consume some fuel going downhill, but find yourself at 100mph at the bottom of the hill.
In every system and drive conditions, B is going to be a better choice than A. There are going to be instances where C is the best, and times where C is the worst. That's going to depend on the vehicle and road and engine and the like. But if you notice large semi trucks often fall under category C - diesel engines generate a ton of torque, but they do that by having a ton of boost, which requires a ton of diesel. So if they can use a moderate amount going downhill, then they can go uphill using only a moderate amount. Moderate + Moderate < A Ton in their case
.
3) Yes, hitting the + button on your shifter will toggle the gear display on your cluster.
4) Tow mode will make your vehicle more likely to downshift and provide more engine braking. This helps keeps speeds in check and under control when you have a trailer behind you. Brake fade used to be a huge issue, and engine braking was a way to limit it. But it's still a good thing to do if you have a heavy load and are going down a long downhill.
But none of that actually provides you with any tangible response. Perhaps you can rephrase your actual concern and what your experiencing, and whether you think there's something wrong, or you're just curious about why it's acting a certain way.
1) Yes, the fuel shuts off in those circumstances. An i4 engine like this is going to have about ~30Nm of torque needed to just turn everything when it's around idle speed. Obviously the higher the engine RPM the more torque it requires to turn. So if you're either decelerating, or going down hill, you can stop fuel injection, allow the engine to engine brake at 30Nm or so, not consuming any fuel, and not wearing out your brakes. Also note that since this is a direct injected engine, it's much more efficient of a fuel shut off than the EFI system Phil discussed from back in the 80s. Port fuel injection leaves a ton of fuel in the manifold (and relies on there being liquid fuel in the manifold). This is where the old saying of 'if you're just going to shut of your car for 30sec or less, it's more fuel efficient to just leave it running.' Our engines are direct injected though, which means fuel is directly injected into the combustion chamber, and does that for each combustion event. So you can literally turn off a single event with no residual affects on future events.
2) Cruise control is not the most fuel efficient system out there. There are numerous instances where I could elaborate on that, but let's just stick with this one specifically of going down a large hill. There are effectively 3 options. A) you let the cruise control attempt to keep you at 70mph. It will downshift into 8th/7th gear to increase the engine speed, thus increasing the torque to turn, which is being driven by the wheels. You arrive at the bottom of the hill going 70mph, and using 0 fuel. B) you disable the cruise control and do nothing. The engine turns off fuel injection since you're not requesting any torque from it. You stay in 10th gear. You don't convert all of your potential energy into kinetic energy because there's road losses, but you find yourself at the bottom of the hill using 0 fuel and going 80mph. C) You accelerate and charge down the hill... after all, you can accelerate easier here with the assistance of gravity, and then have more kinetic energy to get you up the looming hill on the other side. You consume some fuel going downhill, but find yourself at 100mph at the bottom of the hill.
In every system and drive conditions, B is going to be a better choice than A. There are going to be instances where C is the best, and times where C is the worst. That's going to depend on the vehicle and road and engine and the like. But if you notice large semi trucks often fall under category C - diesel engines generate a ton of torque, but they do that by having a ton of boost, which requires a ton of diesel. So if they can use a moderate amount going downhill, then they can go uphill using only a moderate amount. Moderate + Moderate < A Ton in their case
. 3) Yes, hitting the + button on your shifter will toggle the gear display on your cluster.
4) Tow mode will make your vehicle more likely to downshift and provide more engine braking. This helps keeps speeds in check and under control when you have a trailer behind you. Brake fade used to be a huge issue, and engine braking was a way to limit it. But it's still a good thing to do if you have a heavy load and are going down a long downhill.
But none of that actually provides you with any tangible response. Perhaps you can rephrase your actual concern and what your experiencing, and whether you think there's something wrong, or you're just curious about why it's acting a certain way.
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