Jump to content

Anyone driving at higher elevations?

BKK

By BKK
in Engines & Drivetrain

 Share

Recommended Posts

BKK Enthusiast

BKK

Posted
Posted

Have a ‘15 Silverado 5.3 all stock. Currently at sea level but moving somewhere that’s at 4200 ft elevation.

 

Anyone have any experience with what kind of performance loss I should be expecting? Planning on a CAI+Tune+cat back exhaust but that’s it for performance mods.

 

Really makes me consider an Ecoboost if I didn’t just buy this truck and those Fords weren’t so damn expensive....

UnlimitedMatt Enthusiast

UnlimitedMatt

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, BKK said:

Have a ‘15 Silverado 5.3 all stock. Currently at sea level but moving somewhere that’s at 4200 ft elevation.

 

Anyone have any experience with what kind of performance loss I should be expecting? Planning on a CAI+Tune+cat back exhaust but that’s it for performance mods.

 

Really makes me consider an Ecoboost if I didn’t just buy this truck and those Fords weren’t so damn expensive....

I live outside of Denver, around 5400 feet above sea level.  I also tow up to 9200 ft.  I can tell you that you will notice a loss of power but not enough to sell your truck. Of course with a turbo or supercharger you will not notice it as much. 

 

Check out the TFL (The Fast Lane Truck guys) on YouTube, they do the majority of their truck testing at a mile high.  It will give you a better perspective on driving at a higher altitude. 

Mike GMC Enthusiast

Mike GMC

Posted
Posted

I live outside Denver as well.  You will definitely notice the difference.  It's most noticable right off the line.  Cruising speeds and even highway passing are not nearly as noticable.  When I had mine down in Galveston last year, it wanted to spin the tires off the line all the time, up here, not so much.

 

 

  • 3 weeks later...
Bash74 Enthusiast

Bash74

Posted
Posted

You can tune for altitude so there is not to much difference. I have a tune for when I am in high altitude areas like Colorado, then one for when down in south Texas especially with different octane ratings available between the areas.

Sent from my SM-G975U1 using Tapatalk

Darksky Enthusiast

Darksky

Posted
Posted

I’m at 6000’ in Colorado as well. It’s not that different, certainly not enough to sell your truck. Unless you’re leaning that way already. The issue that I have is that 91 octane is premium here. 93 octane pumps are few and far between.

Grumpy Bear Senior Enthusiast

Grumpy Bear

Posted
Posted

0.5 points decrease (R+M)/2 per 1,000 feet of elevation increase for normally aspirated motors.

 

So two points covers 4K feet and you have some cushion. 

 

Source: 

William M. Steckle
SAE Transactions
Vol. 98, Section 4: JOURNAL OF FUELS AND LUBRICANTS (1989), pp. 667-678
 
The physics hasn't changed. I lived in Denver and Salt Lake City for years. Still visit my daughters there.
 
This below hits the nail on the head. Bonus? EVERYONE'S car that isn't forced induction has the same response...level playing field :) 
 
 
 
On 5/18/2020 at 6:58 PM, Mike GMC said:

I live outside Denver as well.  You will definitely notice the difference.  It's most noticable right off the line.  Cruising speeds and even highway passing are not nearly as noticable.  When I had mine down in Galveston last year, it wanted to spin the tires off the line all the time, up here, not so much.

 

 

 

diyer2 Senior Enthusiast

diyer2

Posted
Posted

My 2012 lives from 6 K - 9500 feet.

Doesn't bother me.

Most noticeable when towing.

Would I buy another truck? Hell No!

 

I'm not in a hurry.

 

:)

  • Like 1
  • 10 months later...
Red Blocker New Member

Red Blocker

Posted
Posted

I'm planning a 'Bucket List' road trip this summer, one place I want to go is up Pikes Peak. What is it, 14,500 feet? Sounds like I should bring some 93 octane with me to put in before I go up, are there other things I should do? I'm not in a race or anything, and I baby my truck since she's already at 230,000 miles.

Thanks for any tips and tricks.

2020-05-03 17.31.38.jpg

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Latest Articles

  • Posts

    • KARNUT
      AFM Experience

      By KARNUT · Posted

      When I bought my 14 GMC I turned it off with an handheld programmer. With my 16 Odyssey I left it on solely because I didn’t have much money in the vehicle. There’s a device to turn it off that’s a little more involved. The GMC at 72 MPH the deactivation was on very little the deference was 1/2 mile per gallon. The Odyssey is on over half the time at 72 mph. 
    • BCShopAuto
      07-13 interior door swap to Denali

      By BCShopAuto · Posted

      Anyone ever thought about switching the interior door panels from the base model to the Denali style? I’ve seen that you basically have to cut, sand, mold, paint, the window switches together to get the look right. Is that the main reason people don’t bother doing the swap? Seems like the only method that is easy I guess, without having to mess around with wiring and stuff.
    • garagerog
      Low fuel pressure after installing new fuel pump

      By garagerog · Posted

      Replace the fuel pump with an OEM AC-Delco.
    • Gilkey96
      Low fuel pressure after installing new fuel pump

      By Gilkey96 · Posted

      Hello, first time posting here. I have an 03 Chevy 1500HD with the 6 liter gas engine. The truck ran fine until the fuel pump died on me and had to get it towed. Replaced the fuel pump with a precision pump from O’rileys and changed the fuel filter while I was there. The truck will run and drive now but it wants to idle around 500 rpm when in drive and it tries to stall if you touch the gas. It drives fine though, just doesn’t want to idle. Put a fuel pressure gauge on the rail and only have 50 psi. I guess these trucks should have 55-62 psi to run right. I thought the regulator might be the issue because when I would unplug the vacuum hose it jumped to 56 psi. Replaced the regulator and no change. The only thing I can think of is that I was sold a faulty fuel pump. Any help would be appreciated because I’d rather not have to take the bed off again if I don’t have too. Thank you!
    • diyer2
      AFM Experience

      By diyer2 · Posted

      I've been wrenching on GM trucks for 17 years. And I need to get something off my chest because it's been weighing on me for a long time. After all that time, all those motors, all those people standing in my bay, I've figured out there are really only two kinds of owners. The ones who already know about this. And the ones who are about to find out the hard way. A guy came into my shop a few weeks back in a 2018 Silverado 5.3. Sharp guy, maybe 35. Knew his truck cold. He'd been on the forums, read the threads, done his homework. He only rolled in so I could double-check a little module he'd already plugged in himself. Wanted a second set of eyes on it. Ten minutes, in and out, drove off happy. Two days later, a completely different story walked through the same door. Older fella this time, in a 2016 Sierra. Gorgeous truck, clearly babied, not a scratch on it. Wedding ring. Looked like a guy who took care of his stuff. He was in because his engine had started knocking on the way to work. And by the time I got the valve cover off, I already knew it was too late. Lifter collapsed. Cylinder 5. Camshaft chewed up. The whole top end shot. Same kind of truck. Same motor. Same roads, probably the same dealer. The only thing separating those two men was information. I've been at this since 2008, and I've worked on everything GM puts out. Silverados. Sierras. Tahoes. Yukons. Suburbans. Escalades. The 5.3 and the 6.2. Doesn't matter which badge is on the tailgate. They all carry the same problem. So here's the information one of those guys had and the other one didn't. It's called Active Fuel Management. AFM. GM started building it into their V6s and V8s back in 2007 to squeeze out a little better mileage on the highway. Maybe a mile or two a gallon. All to hit government fuel economy numbers. The way it works, the motor quietly shuts down half its cylinders when you're just cruising along. And the little lifters that pull that off have a tiny pin inside them that's constantly clicking in and out. Lock, unlock, lock, unlock. Hundreds of times a drive. Thousands of times a week. Eventually one of those pins wears through. The lifter drops. And it starts grinding the camshaft down like a chisel on butter. And what nobody tells you is that the shudder you feel around 40 or 50 mph? That's the system cycling. Every single time. Here's what really gets me. The pre-2007 trucks, the ones without AFM, they're bulletproof. I've got customers still daily driving them with 260,000 miles on the odometer. Not a problem in the world. GM took a perfectly good motor that would have lasted a lifetime and bolted this system onto it. And it is wrecking engines that should have run forever. The guys who hang around the forums already know all of this. So do the techs. They handled this years ago. They didn't sit around waiting for the dealership to mail them a warning letter, because that letter is never coming. It's the guys who figured somebody would've told them who end up on my lift. And I want to be clear, because this part matters. Maintenance has nothing to do with it. I've torn down motors with barely 30,000 miles on the clock. I pulled apart a Tahoe last summer with 24,000 on it. Practically a brand new truck. Owner had it less than a year. Spotless oil. Best synthetic money can buy, changed early every time. Made no difference. I've seen guys with full dealer records, every interval stamped. Made no difference. The oil changes were never the problem. The pin was. And no amount of babying that truck stops that pin from cycling every single time you drive. That's the part that eats at me. These are good motors. Take the AFM out of the equation and a 5.3 or a 6.2 will run 300,000 miles and never blink. So a few years ago I started telling every single owner who comes through my doors the exact same thing the smart guys already knew. Get yourself a FullForce disabler. It plugs right into the port under your dash. Couple of seconds and you're done. It just tells the computer to leave every cylinder running, full time. No more cycling. No more beating those lifters back and forth every time you turn the key. It doesn't reprogram anything. Doesn't touch your tune. And unplug it before a dealer visit and there's absolutely zero trace it was ever installed. I've had customers come back at 40,000, 60,000, 80,000 miles after I put one in. Zero issues. The trucks run smoother. And the lifters aren't getting beaten to death every single drive. I won't sit here and tell you it's magic. A lifter that's already damaged is a lifter that's already damaged, and this won't un-ring that bell. But it takes away the one thing causing all that wear in the first place. That's the whole game. You don't need a five-thousand-dollar delete. You don't need an expensive tune. You don't need to tear anything apart. You just need to stop the cycling. I'm not writing this for any company. I'm writing it because I'm tired of watching the guys who didn't know pay four and five figures for it. I'm tired of being the guy who has to break the news. I'm tired of knowing that the guys who did know fixed the whole thing for the price of a tank of gas, and the only difference was that somebody told them first. If you drive a Silverado, Sierra, Tahoe, Yukon, Suburban, or Escalade from 2007 or newer with a V6 or V8, you've got AFM. You've got those lifters, and they're cycling every single time you drive. So be the guy who already knew. Not the one I'm scraping metal out of next month. EDIT: A bunch of folks asked, so here it is. The one I put my faith in is FullForce. This is where to find it: https://www.tryfullforce.com/products/fullforce™-afm-dfm-disabler They back it with a 60-day guarantee too. I've handed out more than I can count and not one's ever come back to me. Not one. See less

  • GM-Trucks.com Clubs

  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...