Quote:
Originally Posted by graysil80
so i just moved to Colorado and now live at 7980 ft ( used to live by the ocean ) on the trip out it ran worse and worse the higher we went starting harder and smoking more, then refused to run. did a lot of reading and im going to do all filters,and try checking chain stretch and drip timing, already did the valve adjustment ( almost all were tight) and started removing everything that doesnt make it run. i dont feel the need for ac or cruise control pretty much anything, but my main question for this tread is , what tricks or tuning have you diesel guru's found works good for high altitude.
|
You don't say what kind of car you've got, but since you're describing symptoms that would most likely be evident on a N/A engine I'll assume that for the time being. At 8000' you'll automatically have a power loss of about 25%. If you're putting out 100hp at sea level you'll be down to 75hp at 8000'.
Since the air is a lot thinner, during start you'll have less vacuum available to pull air into the engine so you'll have less air to compress and therefore generate less heat to start the engine. Good glow plugs will be essential.
On top of a N/A injector pump is a pressure compensator - kind of like the ALDA on a turbocharged engine. The purpose is to turn down the fueling at altitude. Since you're smoking badly, it might be that this is not working and you're overfuelling the engine.
On the last road trip, I went to start the car after a stopover in ABQ (about 6000msl) and it was hard starting and ran rough for just a bit. I was worried at first, then remembered the altitude.
Anything you can do e.g. valves, timing, filters etc to help the engine run better will help, but you're still at 8000'.
A/C can take power, but the cruise control doesn't have any effect.
The best thing for high altitude driving is a turbocharger or supercharger. It won't help it start any better, but you'll be able to maintain almost full power to about 10,000. I don't get full boost until 2200 rpm under load.