Colorado Wheeling

[Rick King]

Looking for a little helpful info. Me & some buddies are planning a trip to Colorado near Creed & Silverton. We are taking our Broncos to do some wheeling on the trails. I have been told that we will be at aprox 14000 ft elevation. My Question is how is my truck with a four barrel carburetor going to do at this elevation. What can or should I do to get it to perform adequately. 302 / MSD ignition / 600cfm edelbrock / Performer intake / Headers. This is my first trip to Colorado & would like to get ready for it instead of fight with it when I get there. We are going the first week of August. Thanks Rick

 

[1sicbronconut]

EFI it;D or bring some smaller jets.

 

[Wyldebill]

Where are you from? Or more to the point what altitude are you jetted for now? You probably won't see any trails over 11,000 to 12,000 feet and even then you won't be at that altitude long. You will most likely have to adjust you air idle screws just to keep it idleing and the only other thing that might help is run your timing around 11 or 12 BTDC. You most likely won't need to rejet the carb unless you are running rich where you are at now.

 

[uncle ray]

IMO factory jetting is going to be way too rich for you.

find out the elevation of the trails you expect to run and follow edelbrocks jetting guide in the owners manual for the carb and you'll be close enough. get the rods and jets ordered up well before the trip, swap them out when you get here and have a worry free trip.

i tend to tune towards the lean end at the lowest altitudes i'll be running, figuring if it's too rich, then it's only going to run worse the higher i go. so i run lean, so it richens at higher altitudes and will run slightly better if anything, but definitely not worse due to being too rich. there is no need to run excessively rich at high altitude, in fact i figure the higher you go, and the more power you are losing due to the altitude, the more important it is to have the correct air/fuel ratio so as not to lose even more power.

 

[mustangtoby]

I think Imogene is the highest (and most beatiful) pass up there, from Ouray to Silverton. It tops out at 13,114 feet. I have been over it with stock jets in older Fords many times, just won't run very well, which can be kinda spooky. If I remeber right, on a normal motorcraft two barrel I run #48 jets for my local elevation (7,000), and they work OK but not great on Imogene. Hope this helps. Let me know when you are going for sure, I am local and may run up that way.

 

[Rick King]

I am from Texas , a little south of Dallas. My Buds are from Western Oklahoma. We are planning on leaving Aug 1st or 2nd & staying untill the 8th or 9th. This will be my first trip up. I am really looking forward to it. Just trying to get some usefull info on what to expect & what will be needed so my truck will work good & we can have a good time. Rick

 

[DonsBolt]

read this
will guide you how to tune the carb

http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive_new/mc/carbs_acc/pdf/carb_owners_manual.pdf

 

[uncut69]

With the Edelbrock, the metering rods/needles are easy to swap out. When I ran the carb, jetted so I could select the proper rods for sea-level, 5,000 ft. or nose bleed, 10,000+ ft. ;D