altitude Question

[Dvldog 8793]

Howdy
I'm taking my '84 6.2 G20 van to the mountains for the first time this year. Are there any secrets or warnings that I should be aware of for higher altitudes and NA engines? I don't ever remember having a problem with the Hummers and CUCVs in the Corp, but I'm just trying to make sure!
Thanks in advance!
Conley

[DmaxMaverick]

There should be no problems you don't already have. You may notice a slight loss of power and a little more smoke the higher you go. It depends on the elevation. Anything less than about 4000 ft. probably won't change anything enough to notice. If you stay long enough to let the engine cool down to ambient temp, it may start hard(er). It helps to give it an additional glow cycle. Turn on the key, wait for the glow light to go off, turn key off, then on and start as normal. Adding a cetane booster will definately help all areas.

Just curious. How far do you have to drive to find a mountain? Where are they? I've traveled through the mid-west and east coast areas and only found hills. Nothing I would consider a problem for your vehicle. I guess it's all relative. My home is at 1500 ft, and from here I can see mountaintops up to 14,000 ft, including Mt. Whitney.

Have a nice trip.


On edit:
Just noticed your sig. That '95 an LT? If so, nice catch. Those suckers run!

[Dvldog 8793]

Howdy
We live in northern Minnesota and are going to Yellowstone. Not real huge mountains, but still a real change from what the truck is used to. We'll be cutting across North Dakota and Montana then down. It's the first trip for the van(ebay :D ) beside when I drove it back from Neb. Really a MINT truck, never stored outside and maintained.
Yes the Caprice is a 95 9C1 police that I got from a good friend that is a Deputy. They are LT1 with some other mods and no limiter on the computer. We've had it at 145MPH w/ the light-bar still on. Don't really know what the true top end is, I'll have to find out someday! tongue.gif It was his cruiser since new. It more or less is something for me to take out when I think I need make smoke with something other than the tailpipe! :D
It ain't like my GTO but as far as new cars it goes pretty good!
L8r
Conley

[Thermal Jock]

I live at 7000 ft and regualrly cruise over 10k mtn passes. I've driven gas and NA diesel and turbo diesels. Most important to watch engine temps and EGT's (unless I'm in my bosses Duramax, it just goes no matter what's in the way).

My Burbie gets 17-+ at home. On a trip to Oklahoma and back I got 19-20 on the interstate, and that's with a giant rack on top, 4"lift and 33's.

Just my opinion---There seems to be an altitude level for every vehicle in which your power and mileage start to really suffer-- like around 9500 ft or so. Humidity in the mtns is also a major factor. It's usually dry here, and I notice on humid ddays there's a very noticeable increase in power. (Hmmm---- water injection?)

[jcomp]

My truck is a low altitude model, and I drove it around down in denver for a few years and up here (7800 ft) for another year with regular trips up into the mountains with no problems. At least, no problems while it was NA.

Interesting (possibly) related factoid: a NA engine loses approximately 3% of it's horsepower for any given RPM for every 1000 ft above sea level. The book I read this in was mostly about gas engines, but my Wrangler (seat-of-pants) dynamometer seems to verify this for my 6.2.