Sounds like a good idea. The ship isn't actually disabled, but the engine is turned off. No engine wash as well.
AND, individual engines on a ship would also turn off the engine glows for that part of the ship. The Sathanas for example has a LOT of engines, If you disable the main engine it still has a glow (and engine wash) until you disable ALL the engines, where ALL the glows will be disabled. Also, as you disable individual engines, the ship would get slower too, the bigger engines will have a bigger penalty on speed, i.e. if you disable the lower left small engine on a Sathanas, it wouldn't slow much, but if you disable the main engine it will slow to a limp.
Will probably take up table entries.