Hill driving with Fiesta 1.0 Ecoboost (uphill & downhill)

[Jeipii]

Since Ecoboost has had a share of problems with cooling and the engine has really low friction I wonder how it fares when driving up or down a large hill.

I would appreciate if people would share their experiences related to these two cases:

1. Does the engine cook itself if one drives up some long and steep mountain road? Theoretically in this case one would probably use 1 or 2 gear and the engine would use some amount of turbo boost for a long time which could induce a lot of thermal stress to the engine (no wind cooling effect since slow speed but engine is working semi hard?) Or maybe the engine has so much torque and power when in 1 and 2 gear so it wouldn't need that much boost all the time?

2. How does the engine braking work? I mean even in the 2nd gear Ecoboost doesn't have a lot of friction so that gear wouldn't be best for braking with engine when driving some mountain road downhill. Maybe the 1st gear would work for this? 

[ThaiFiesta]

I’ve experienced the first when driving up a mountain in traffic. The altitude probably didn’t help with cooling either. I’ve added a proper gauge to measure the actual temp rather than using the non-linear indicator the car comes with. 

Engine braking works as per any other car. 

[cjay1]

the engine has some braking but not a lot. sometimes you have to use the brakes but never had any issue with overheating brakes or brake fade.

the engine has never overheated on any Welsh mountain I have been up. but if things are hot the coolant keeps circulating around the system after the engine been switched off.

 

[jbell]

I had my brakes overheat coming down the bealach na ba. Never had any other problems with hills. 

[Bobr]

The Ecoboost 100 doesn't seem to have as much engine braking as i have experienced with other cars.