Elevation change ??????

[pookie]

My wife and I are planning a trip up to the MTN's of NC later in the summer. The elevation of our town where I do most of my driving is 668 feet, the elevation where we are going in NC is 5505 feet. Will I experience any problems with the car when changing elevations to such a degree? I should also note that the motor is pretty stock with the exception of Bursh headers and a different muffler. I did a search and some people complained of a lack of power. I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced any problems.

Thanks in advance

[Bill Douglas]

My '79 SC became very gutless in the mountains and at first I thought I was driving around with the e-brake on. The car is tuned to where I live which is about 2 meters about sea leavel, and the mountains, I don't know but it was below the snow line. I didn't do anything to the car, and it didn't break down and started fine. So, all in all, don't worry and enjoy the trip - just don't expect too much power when you are up in the clouds.

[Jim Sims]

You will lose about 3% of your horsepower per 1000 ft of elevation gain. You'll be down about 17% at 5500 ft. Cars without mixture compensation will also run rich. Jim

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by pookie
I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced any problems.

no real problems like carbs. The CIS is very forgiving at altitude.
Maybe some pinging if you load the engine at low rpms. The slight loss of power may make you inclined to shift a little higher, go with it. If your doing an incline keep the rpms higher than your normal.

[fintstone]

You will definitely feel the loss of power...but so does everyone else, so your car will seem slow to you, but will perform relatively the same in comparison to other cars there who will also be performing worse than at sea level..

[Hoffman912]

id rather be at 5k than 12k. these old cars can run like ass at altitude. but 5k isnt that bad. when youre 2 miles up on etses pass in rocky mountian national park thats when you prey.