Originally Posted by Rock Chuck
Originally Posted by high_country_
There are a few ways this happens,

Compression braking in a gas rig uses the engine to slow the vehicle, not very effective in a diesel UNLESS the diesel has some type of gate to create vacuum or backpressure. 12v cummins.....no luck, 7.3 up fords....luck.

There is also a retarding feature in some auto transmissions that use the converter to eat up load. Early transmissions had troubles trying to redirect load through different bands....fords would chew reverse band by down shifting manually. Allison retarder was/is awesome.
My '08 Dodge 6.7 Cummins has an exhaust brake, not compression. It's a little less effective but a lot quieter. Mechanics say to use it all the time, not just on hills. They say that during the braking cycle, it will keep the crud blown off the turbo and make the turbo last longer.



That's the "gate" to produce backpressure. The only down side is it can float valves in extreme situations. Factory setups have enough safeties in them to make it nothing to worry about.

Originally Posted by BrentD

I would not buy something that runs on any kind of primer given the possibility of primer shortages and even regulations. In fact, why not buy a flintlock? Really. Rocks aren't going away anytime soon.