Turbodiesels At High Altitudes

[dieselpower04]

Have you ever thought of getting a tune? Best $400 I ever spent.

Lol check out my build thread! Nearly 200 whp that gets 50-54 mpg!! Tune helped a lot

 

[gootie]

You should update your public profile to include the upgrade info. I looked there and thought you had a stock PD?

 

[Rockwater]

We'll soon be leaving on a road trip to Colorado...west of Denver.There's a spot we intend to visit that's 14K feet above sea level and which isn't that far from Denver which,IIRC,is about 5K feet above sea level.I've never driven *any* car at anything *near* that altitude but I've read that while gas powered cars have trouble at such altitudes turbodiesels have little or no trouble.Can anyone who's either familiar with such driving or is a propulsion engineer confirm or refute my assumption? Any tips or warnings would also be appreciated.Just hoping to know what to expect.

We drove to the top of Mt. Evans last year in our TDI. No problems at all except parts of the road which were still icy in places. No matter which car you drive, it will be a trip to remember.

 

[cmitchell]

I just returned from a trip that included some high altitude driving. No issues, but I did notice that it took more throttle to get up to speed, and there was some smoke when accelerating. Just wasn't as zippy as I'm used to.

 

[Ace Deprave]

I just drove from Louisiana to Colorado and back, with a run up I-70 from Denver to Rifle and back again. Absolutely no problems maintaining the speed limit up to the Eisenhower Tunnel and Vail Pass in both directions. I managed 44 MPG on that run also, so absolutely no complaints here!

 

[gootie]

mountain deiving

I just drove from Louisiana to Colorado and back, with a run up I-70 from Denver to Rifle and back again. Absolutely no problems maintaining the speed limit up to the Eisenhower Tunnel and Vail Pass in both directions. I managed 44 MPG on that run also, so absolutely no complaints here!

Ace
Nice run with a TDI. People who drive nonblown gassers through there really get surprised by the loss of power. If you do that run again it would be nice to have a scangage or TORQUE app ro see what the newer rigs show for temps, etc.

 

[need4speed]

My Pike's Peak story (Sept. 2010);
I drove a rented Ford gasser econobox up there. There was no discernible difference in driving performance. Other than, I wished I was in a Porsche.

Though, the day before, there was a helicopter crash on the mountain.
The helicopter was filming a driverless (ie. driven by computer) Audi, up the road to the summit. (I don't know if this was for a commercial, or a promo, or documentary, or what). The Audi was going for some kind of driverless car record.
The pilot was experienced in high-altitude ops, but somehow lost power and crashed.

The view up there, if the weather permits, is insane.

 

[jokila]

Just got back from two weeks in Colorado including crossing as high as 11,200 feet or so and loaded with gear and people. It was fine. I think i converted two more friends to the ways of diesel power. Their hybrids would have puked.

 

[Rual817]

Had a boss who had a Roadtrek (International motorhome Powered by Merc Diesel). He and his wife made a trip to CO. cpl yrs ago, and he said he got better FE going thru the mnts. Here in Texas he was getting low/mid 20's. In CO he was getting mid/high 20's.