Thinking about taking my 84 300D on a trip to Wyoming and am wondering how the OM617 performs at 7000-9000'. In trying to wrap my head around this I am thinking the turbo will be allowed to spool faster with the thinner air and the ALDA should reduce fueling. I am expecting less performance and a substantial strain on the cooling system when climbing high passes.

Does anyone have experience at this altitude?

The turbo makes up for the altitude difference. At low engine speed, before the turbo spools up, expect a power loss. There are a few guys on TDI Club who say they outrun everything else in the mountains because of the turbo.

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Rick Miley
2014 Tesla Model S
2018 Tesla Model 3
2017 Nissan LEAF
Former MB: 99 E300, 86 190E 2.3, 87 300E, 80 240D, 82 204D Euro
Chain Elongation References

oilburn.........,

I had my '80 300SD in the rocky mountains near Vail CO and it outran everything on the road. Engine had about the same power as at sea level above 2500 RPM but was super slow when accelerating from a stop until the turbo had a chance to spool up.

These engines are altitude compensated so nothing has to be adjusted. They won't smoke at high altitude like a 240D or older MB Diesels.

I haven't had any overheating problems at high altitude. But when you go on an upgrade 20 miles long, the engine naturally gets hotter than on the level.

P E H

I'm at 8000 ft and my 300D turbo runs as good here as it does at 3000 ft (at my winter digs). I did have an '82 300D turbo that had low compression and it also ran well at 8000 ft, but was hard starting at that altitude.

Cheers,
Wes

Is that fuel smoke you are talking about there?

Coincidentally we are also talking about a trip to Wyoming for frontier days. My MB is non-turbo and I have heard that a non-turbo 300D will barely run at altitude.

TwitchK.

Yes, I mean black fuel smoke. Without altitude compansation the fuel mix is too rich at high altitudes. Engine runs OK but just does not have much power. All NA engines lose power at higher altitude.

I had my 240D in the Smoky Mountains and it smoked like crazy. Not much power either at the higher altitudes. So you have heard right about a non turbo not having much power at altitude. If it has 60 HP at sea leval, it might have 30 HP at 10,000 feet. What a difference a turbo makes at high altitude.

P E H

My TD did very well on pikes peak (14,410ft). It started to choke around 12k-13k feet with lots of black smoke at full throttle, but I do have the fuel settings a little high but once the turbo was above 5psi (2400rpm) I had no power problems at all. I was even passing V8 SUV's and a ricer! If it wern't for that darn blue VW golf 1.8T on riding butt the whole way up....