It has been many years since I last drove a petrol vehicle, but my gut feeling is that a diesel engine provides much more engine braking than a petrol. I have been told many times I am wrong, but none-the-less, I am still convinced I am correct.
Talking last night about engine braking and specifically about jakes brakes on larger diesel engines being banned in many towns in the USA
What Is a Jake Brake and How Does it Work? – Matheson Inc.
www.mathesoninc.com
The manual it will clearly depend what gear is selected, and the resulting speed of the engine, but in general the diesel does give more engine braking.
Now your talking about some thing different, in the old days there was a throttle, and as the name implies to stopped the air going in, but today we have fuel injection, so not so sure any more. But if I look at my Sorento the diesel version only revs to 4000 revs, where the petrol can go to 6000 revs, so it is not that straight forward.Thanks, that has always been my impression, and something I have struggled to convince others of. Why there should be such a difference, I am not sure - both compress air in their cylinders, then release the energy rather like a spring. The big difference is the compression ratio, plus a diesel can suck as much air in as it likes - whereas a petrol will be working under a partial vacuum in the cylinders under a closed throttle.