How High Have You Driven Your Pinz?

[4x4Pinz]

highest offroad in the pinz was Argentine Pass in Co (approx 13200) and Pikes Peak (approx 14000) on road also in Co. My pinzies are tuned and set to run at 1200ft in the valleys of AZ. They did well although a very noticeable lack of power. Did nothing to them other then pull the hand throttle out so they would idle at around 1100 rpms. This made them more driveable at lower speeds. since we were only visiting and not spending much time (around a week) at higher elevations I did not feel it was worth the effort to change anything.
My trucks were running either stock setups or pertronix ignition at the times.

I need to get back there now with the SSI installed and see how it does at higher altitudes. I regularly get above 6000 on outings in AZ but still don't do anything different to the trucks.

[McCall Pinz]

AFAIK, the biggest danger is a lean condition when you come back down from altitude. I've known some VW's that have burned up a valve driving from Utah to California. Jetting for low elevation and climbing higher just means you have too much fuel for the low oxygen. I don't think there's a lot of damage from that though.

[Twin Pinzies]

My two 1974 710M tour trucks live in Telluride-8750 ft. and go up to 13,220 ft. (Red Mtn overlook above Imogene Pass, CO.) every single day throughout the entire summer. Often times, they each do it twice daily.
We just passed our 11th season with the same trucks.

[nicholastanguma]

All you Colorado lads, have you experienced a lot of vapor lock in summer heat at Rocky Mtn elevations?


And how much better is Jim's 2.7 big bore engine w/ torque cam at elevation than the standard 2.5?

[Twin Pinzies]

All you Colorado lads, have you experienced a lot of vapor lock in summer heat at Rocky Mtn elevations?


And how much better is Jim's 2.7 big bore engine w/ torque cam at elevation than the standard 2.5?

Vapor lock? Yes. The problem was solved (mitigated) by wrapping ALL of the fuel lines with insulated/reflective tape and switching to premium gas.

Power loss? Not sure if I feel any difference at all between the pass tops and the valley floors to be honest. I will say that my trucks DO start much quicker and easier down low though.

I run stock engine displacement and up until this season, I was running (stock) lower elevation carb jets. After swapping to #55/#125 jets, my trucks ran about the same... but with much less exhaust smoke.