High altitude TRs

[Dr.drivability]

Thinking of moving back to the Colorado Springs/Denver area and wonder what the difference is in performance and tuning on our cars vesus carburated cars. I was stationed at Ft.Carson from 1988 to 1993 and loved it! I remember what a pain in the a** it was to make my vette run at that alt. between jets, power valves and timming curves. Am I up for all this again? Will my GN run as good in Colorado as it does in Michigan? Wife egar to retun home! Please, let me know what I would be be up for!!
Thanks, Dave

 

[NM Tom]

The computer will take care of the fueling changes for you. You should not have to do anything. You wil lose some power though. I'm at 6000 ft and have no tuning issues.

 

[Lee_Burough]

Welcome Home

The military also brought me to COS. Town has changed a lot since 93!

Your GN will loose about two PSI coming from less than 1,000 ft elevation, if you leave the wastegate rod set the same length. Other than that, the feedback system should compensate for the altitude on its own. There are still one or two stations with 93 octane....Your quarter mile time will be about .5 or .7 second slower.

8 inches of snow last Friday....30 inches in the last two weeks....Was 0 F yesterday morning in my yard. You sure you want to come home?

 

[corymc]

Army also took me to COS i just drove out there before xmas in my explorer and relized that it ran like crap had no power and i dont use that 95 octane crap out there either. I drive back to MI and my explorer runs great again. I think think the alt will make your car run alot weaker. I didnt notice it so much when i lived there but driving there and back i could tell a huge difference.

 

[Lee_Burough]

Army also took me to COS i just drove out there before xmas in my explorer and relized that it ran like crap had no power and i dont use that 95 octane crap out there either. I drive back to MI and my explorer runs great again. I think think the alt will make your car run alot weaker. I didnt notice it so much when i lived there but driving there and back i could tell a huge difference.

Just wait until you get OLD....I'm running a lot weaker lately without any excuses

 

[corymc]

oh i meant 85 octane crap that they sell out there not 95.

 

[TurboTnZ06]

You'll loose boost. Have to adjust the wastegate rod when you get to altitude.

Spoolup is slower if you have a big turbo. You'll want 400-600 more rpm stall.

You'll lose a few tenths in the 1/4 mile.

When I moved from Dallas to Denver, I was running 11.8 @ 115. In Denver with no other changes I ran 12.1 @ 113 with the same amount of boost.

Finally I ran 11.2 @ 123 to 126.5 mph in Denver (Bandimere). When I moved to sunny FL my first pass was a 10.921 @ 126.95 takin it easy at Bradenton.

Good thing is at altitude you can get away with a little more timing from my experience. And the pump gas suxks!!!! In Denver, go to Duggan's petroleum if you need real gas:biggrin:

 

[Roc87]

The difference seems to be less with a turbo'ed car than a N/A car. Won't have to change nothing, as the computer feedback will adjust everything, you might get away with a little more timing for same amount of boost, and as others have said you'll have to adjust boost to bring it back up for the lack of air. Pueblo (or whatever is close to Pueblo, it's been 4 years) does have a decent drag strip though, was able to get a better launch there than the track here.

But figure at around .30-.49 slower in the 1/4

 

[Silver Fox]

Eric,

I need to hook up with you and check out your hood and flares. As soon as the roads clear up let's meet up. I'm in the NE.

Rob