5800 ft Elev= Bring it on

[Ormand]

Boost vs Altitude..

Basically, the gage in the car is reading BOOST, not absolute pressure. Doesn't matter if it was installed in Denver, or in Dallas, the gage has one side open to the atmosphere, and the other side connected to the engine intake. If the air pressure in Denver is 13.7, and you are running 16 pounds of boost, the air in the intake is at 19.7 pounds ABSOLUTE. In Dallas, with the same boost, and air at 14.7, the absolute pressure would be 1 pound higher, or 20.7 psi ABSOLUTE pressure. So, in Dallas, there will be more pounds of air flowing, and more power generated. So, if you are in Denver, turn up the boost! In a "hot air" car, you can recover most of what is lost by altitude. With an intercooler car, you are also affected by the thin air, which won't cool the charge as well. But it's going to be cooler in Denver than in Dallas, so things even out.
(If a boost gage is reading anything besides zero when the engine is off, the gage is wrong. Think about it- if it's affected by ambient conditions, it isn't accurately reading BOOST..)

 

[TurboTnZ06]

I think I'm gonna just go as fast as I can without knock and the highest boost possible and not worry about the boost and FP readings being different, of course they will have to be changed to compensate for the new atmospheric conditions I'm at. Moral of the story is that my goal should be that everytime I go to the track is simply to go faster than the last time I was at the track without blowing up the engine or losing to a Mustang. Thanks for the help.

 

[tpabayflyer]

Re-center your boost gauge to show 0 with the engine off....
as a rule of thumb, you lose about 1" of manifold pressure for each 1,000 ft above sea level you climb...... your turbo will be spinning faster for a given boost level but you should have no problem getting 17psi at all....the air is less dense for sure but with the same level of boost you shoud run pretty close to what you did at sea level.. TBF

 

[8UWITH6]

From what I have understand, turbocharging helps prevent a loss of horsepower at high altitudes.