just wondering,when driving uphills(mountain highway roads)is it good for your engine todrop downto 4th gearthen go to around75-80 mph @ 4500 rpm for a the lenght of the drive up to the top? give or take slowing down for cornering and other vehicles around. the reason i ask is when i start climbing up the hills on 5th gear,it would start to bog down to about 55-60 mph and it seems to hurt the engine so i decide to drop down to 4th and then it start to pick up but i'm afraid that it might overheat the engine. i would appreciate anyone's opinion/advice about this. thanks!

 

It is far better to downshift than to lug the engine in top gear.

 

This is a good point by Tex here...lugging the engine at any speed is not good for any engine...

 

you could just do what i do, get going like 80-90 in fifth so you can have it at high RPM and make enough power to make it to the top, cops dont really like that though.

 

thanks for the response guys, yeah i would normally do what you do live2rice, but halfway upthere i start to bog down especially those type of hills that gradually gets higher and steeper. then you notice your slipping away from everyone else but the 18 wheelers . so i figured i'd drop down and see if i could pick it up, and it does but i was just afraid to hurt the engine by overheating it. i did try it last night on I-90 and left the saturn ION coupe after he try to leave me on the uphill, man,when my rpm reach past 4500, that engine came alive! felt really good thanks again fellas!

 

leave it in the lower gear...hondas autos now do that on their own...