High Altitude Driving

[golfNski]

I purchased an 84 Bronco with a 351 in it I believe.

I live in the Mile High city and bought the vehicle as a winter

beater to get me up into the mountains @ 12,000 feet above sea

level. The truck runs strong until I get it started on the climb up

and the horse power just isn't there, often having to shift down

a gear or two. One time it "died" on me in the parking lot of the ski

resort sounding like the cylinders were mis-firing but that was

a very cold day.

I've changed plugs, wires, cap, rotor and that helped a little but I'm

looking for a strong Horse Power boost for the mountain climbs.

Also when it's cold the engine has a hard time bringing the idle

down even after warming up for 20 min.

Any ideas would be great.

Thanks

 

[davids78bronco]

A carb'ed engine is a hard thing to keep adjusting, for that kind of constant altitude change. I have an edelbrock on mine right now, and even at 4500 ft, with 36" tires and stock gears and running a 429, I can still feel the difference in the mountains, and down closer to sea level. I've run Qjets before, and have never had to adjust anything, as I believe they're able to adjust themselves for that. As soon as I get my next one in the mail, it's going on the Bronco

 

[golfNski]

I'm sorry, what are Qjets?

Have a URL?

Much Thanks,

 

[Gunner]

q jets are just another form of a carberator. you can go to the edelbrock site they sell q jets as well.

 

[Gunner]

oh i forgot though they are a little more expensive.

 

[golfNski]

I will look into that, thanks.

Any thoughts on the below product?

http://ricksdistribution.com/tornado.html

 

[golfNski]

Oh, and I almost forgot....

Go Patriots!

 

[davids78bronco]

Don't buy that POS, or a fuel magnetizer, or anything else that claims to improve your fuel mileage, by using whatever's in a bottle - it's all snake oil

have you thought about converting to EFI? It's a little more expensive than a carb, but getting the parts from a junkyard will keep the price down, and the reliability higher than trying to piece together an aftermarket efi setup

 

[letrain]

what about a turbo??? i know it did wonders for my dads diesel when climbing at high altitudes, not sure if that applies to a gas hog bronco, but i know they sell them for it, just pumping more oxygen in is what you need. doesn't a super charger do that?

 

[Gunner]

yes a supercharger does that as well. for a big truck like a bronco that is gas powered a would recommend a supercharger before a turbo. for those who dont know the difference between the two here it is. my little lesson for today.

turbo runs oxygen into your intake manifold by using your exhaust gas to spool up the turbo than as it spools up you run the turbine which can produce up to 32 psi air running into a recommended intercooler than into your intake mainfold. yes a turbo is cabable of producing larger numbers in psi but due to the fact that it uses exhaust gas to spool up you get what is called "turbo lag" which is the time it takes for the exhaust gas to spool up the turbo.

a supercharger works on the same basis as a turbo other than it doesnt use exhaust gas it uses the enigines power via belts that run the turbine. if you have the centrifugal supercharger. there are three types but in my opnion i perfer the centrifugal. anyway since it uses the engines power there is no "lag" as soon as you rev up the engine you spool up the turbine. also there is less heat since you arent using hot ass exhaust gas. the only down side to a supercharger is it can only produce about half the psi. but unless you are wanting to run 10 second quarter miles 12psi or so is all you need to get great hp and tq. and i have found a supercharger on google. it isnt a centrifugal but it still serves its purpose. also i believe it was only $2500

i hope this helped

 

[hawk2100n]

Between 6 and 8 psi is all you need for that application. any more and and count on filling up one or twice a day. but then again, what do i know, i live 21 feet above sea level.