High elevation, why you need a Turbo, Supercharger, or V8 swap in your L.C. (1 Viewer)

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I live in colo up in the Rockies, I can run 70 mph up Eisenhower and all way across the state on 37s and 5.29s key like said above is turning off overdrive before climb and don't be afraid to rev
 
Yeah, we hardly ever go below 5,000ft. If explaining how long it will take to get to any location along I-70 in or past the Rockies, I'll usually express it in normal driving time and then again in Land Cruiser driving time.
Running ethanol-free gasoline brought back a bit of pep at those altitudes.
 
Learn your Land Cruiser and use 2nd gear.
At ~7000lbs basically stock drivetrain and 35's I have no problem keeping up with traffic going up hills. Often Im asked traveling with other Land Cruisers "is your LC SC" nope I just use 2nd gear.
I have another turbo charged 80 series and the only time I miss the power is in town.

Phil,

Just to clarify, you are still running 4.10s, correct?
 
Phil, i laugh every time i watch that video. remind me, the % grade and elevation???
does the cpu cut ignition beyond redline?
do it again, this time slow to 35-45 mph and accelerate back to 65 mph to simulate truck and passing.
 
Good thoughts. As soon as I find a 6L80 I will be heading into the LS Swap.

My mailbox is at 7000' and my driveway is a 6% grade.
 
yeah I always wondered how people deal with this. my '97 on 33's is pretty damn slow in the bay area. Painful to drive up to the mountains. I can't imagine living in Denver etc.
37s on a 97 TRD SC makes all the difference man, 75mph easy all the way from Bama to Boston
 
Phil, i laugh every time i watch that video. remind me, the % grade and elevation???
does the cpu cut ignition beyond redline?
do it again, this time slow to 35-45 mph and accelerate back to 65 mph to simulate truck and passing.

Ive taught more than one Coloradian to drive up hills

7%+ starts at ~3200' 3.3 miles later ~4200' I also had my 600# trailer behind me:flipoff2:

Never seen it at redline but I have pulled the same hill at 4600RPM because no jeep is going to pass me going uphill:popcorn:

As for the your other test everything has it limits
 

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Try the climb with a 3FE (155 hp) and you may not complain much about the 215 HP 1FZ. That mentioned for those with 3FE, shifting the transfer case to LOW (7 pin mod preferred here) will get you up to 30MPH and there is always a place to pull over at the top to shift back into HIGH. Daily commute would be AWFUL!
 
2nd gear trick makes my truck overheat :( Turbo was actually easier on the truck from a water temp standpoint :eek:


You might want to check your fan clutch, I always run cooler once the RPM gets up.
 
I've owned my 94 Land Cruiser going on 2 1/2 years, and during all that time it has taken my wife, and i everywhere we wanted to go. We would do 1, or 2 day camping trips in the cool winter months all over the desert southwest. There are some really cool places to check out in the desert when it's not a 110 degrees in the shade, plus it's alot less life threatening.

Anyway over the last 2 years I've been slowly working on making us a small expedition trailer to carry all our camping gear. The reason we wanted an expedition trailer, with it set up as our base camp we would no longer have to break camp each time we wanted to use our truck to do some exploring.

So this past weekend i finely finished our expedition trailer. So we make plans to try it out first by heading off to the cool mountains where we've never been camping with our L.C. the camp ground elevation there is a little over 7000 feet. During our drive there we encountered some 6, and 7% uphill grades. I have to say that the extra weight (1250 pounds) of our expedition trailer with camping gear did not effect the performance of our truck to much in the low lands.

Once we started climbing up 6, and 7% grades above the 2500 foot elevation mark, performance started to noticeably drop off. The higher we climbed in elevation pulling the extra weight of our trailer, the worse our performance got. By the time we got above the 6000 foot elevation mark, if we had to drive up a long 6% grade we were lucky to be going 45 MPH by the time we reached the top.

On flat highways above 6000 foot it seemed like the truck was down 50% on power. If you needed to pass a slower car, you needed to wait till there was a really BIG gap in oncoming traffic. When we got to the area where we were planing to camp (above 7000 feet), even driving at off road speeds, there was a VERY noticeable drop off in engine power. I hate to think what Mud members living in the Rocky Mountains deal with.

So yes, i feel if your planing to live, drive, or explore out west in the upper elevations, it would be wise to invest in a Turbo, Supercharger or V8 swap to compensate for this lack of power. This is Just my 2 cents, YMMV.

If this is the wrong place to post this, please feel free to move it.
But, you still weren't the slowest car on the road if you were looking to pass someone

Maybe you just need more patience or a lighter load. You spent more money to make camping more convenient to now feel the need to spend several thousand on power upgrades that will create its own set of issues. See how we are?? More, more, more..... which just leads to more.
 
I was able to go between 65 and 70 mph headed to Grand Juntion from Denver with about 600lbs of gear for a 3 day trip on the kokopelli trail. Im runnin 4.88s and 315s all natural. Ive learned where i need to get up my momentum and switch off OD. To me going west on I-70 from denver isnt as bad as going east to denver. Hopefully i can remedy the situation with an LS motor or for wishfull thinking a 3UR.

Heres a good link from CDOT listing colorado passes with the grade percentage if anyone is interested.
Maximum Grades on Colorado Mountain Passes —
 
Will putting it in 2nd or switching the od off still allow the trans to lock up on a 94? I would hate to over heat the trans.

In a side not i dont mind going slow other than the safty issue. I just hate to rev the crap out of the motor if i dont need to. It just feels direspectful to the old girl.
 
you'd be pushing low range hard on the freeway. Plus you'd have to pull off to transfer. IMO not worth it.

I hauled my fully loaded rig on 35's an 4.10's with the trailer in the photo below over I-70 to moab. Thats through the eisenhower tunnel and over vail pass, the slowest I got was 45mph and that was on the last 200 yards of climb up to the tunnels. I was holding around 50-55 most of the way up. If you're going slower with the 1fz-fe you may want to look into a tune up.

Eisenhower is about 11,600', so it's a good climb, but you're mostly lower. Good to hear that things move along a little quicker than I thought possible (I hope.)

Where I was thinking that Low Range on the road could be handy is down on the 2-lanes in the San Juans. Around Silverton, I can end up staying a lot of the time just below tree line, which is 11,000ish. Highway 550 is about the closest thing to a freeway and I don't get in a hurry on it anyway. Yep, getting in and out of Low could be an issue, but I'm familiar with the grades, so know when to duck off and commit to a different range

Went camping for a week while working security so loaded up every bit of luxury I could just to test things, include 25 gallons of water. The truck were a bit doggy on long hills, definitely could use some fuel system treatment to knock things loose and a couple of other things (air filter needs cleaned, etc) and that's in the flatlands. Still, a thorough equipment diet is probably a good idea when going to the mountains, it's a hard habit to break off just throwing in more stuff because it fits and you might need it vs will need it and what does it weigh...

How much does that (good looking) trailer weigh, just to give me an idea?
 
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Try the climb with a 3FE (155 hp) and you may not complain much about the 215 HP 1FZ. That mentioned for those with 3FE, shifting the transfer case to LOW (7 pin mod preferred here) will get you up to 30MPH and there is always a place to pull over at the top to shift back into HIGH. Daily commute would be AWFUL!

That 3FE is just like a Tortoise. Long Lived, Never gets anywhere fast, and useless on it's Top.
 
You might want to check your fan clutch, I always run cooler once the RPM gets up.
I have a bottle of 20k sitting in the garage, just haven't had time to re-juice the fan clutch. Hoping to do it next free weekend (which are few and far between these days).
 
I live in colo up in the Rockies, I can run 70 mph up Eisenhower and all way across the state on 37s and 5.29s key like said above is turning off overdrive before climb and don't be afraid to rev

The key is the 5.29's and not stock gearing. Another member said it was easy with 4.88's and 315's. That's no apples to apples comparison right there. The stock gearing and larger tires is simply miserable on the high elevation passes.

Also comparing a 2nd gear run up a 6-7000ft elevation road, I'm sure those guys were keeping up with traffic. However, try the same thing going over the Eisenhower tunnel, Vail pass, or Kenosha and you will be running closer to 45-50mph. Anything you do to compromise momentum and you are pretty much stuck at a lower speed until you reach a downhill section.

If you want even more challenging try a West to East summit of Wolf Creek pass. This will see you dropping a stock geared truck into 1st gear several times before you reach the top. At times speeds will be down to 10-15mph and you have to work the motor hard to get back up to anything reasonable.

Even traveling across the flint hills of Kansas can be annoying. Set your cruise control at 70mph and the truck will hunt between 3rd and 4th the entire trip due to the constant hills and wind currents. I know with my current setup I wouldn't dare dragging a camper out West with me. That would be a long miserable drive.

In conclusion, its perfectly doable to drive a stock motor, stock geared cruiser around all the time. However, there is a certain comfort to being able to keep up with traffic. Every time I hit the highway I think how nice it would be to set my cruise control and let the truck run effortlessly in 4th gear the whole way.
 
The key is the 5.29's and not stock gearing. Another member said it was easy with 4.88's and 315's. That's no apples to apples comparison right there. The stock gearing and larger tires is simply miserable on the high elevation passes.

Also comparing a 2nd gear run up a 6-7000ft elevation road, I'm sure those guys were keeping up with traffic. However, try the same thing going over the Eisenhower tunnel, Vail pass, or Kenosha and you will be running closer to 45-50mph. Anything you do to compromise momentum and you are pretty much stuck at a lower speed until you reach a downhill section.

If you want even more challenging try a West to East summit of Wolf Creek pass. This will see you dropping a stock geared truck into 1st gear several times before you reach the top. At times speeds will be down to 10-15mph and you have to work the motor hard to get back up to anything reasonable. SNIP

Yeah, Wolf Creek Pass was another place I was thinking of where Low Range might do better than Second Gear when loaded with a trailer. Lots of sections where there's an extra Slow lane to take advantage of. When you're only going to be doing 15 to 20 mph anyway, might as well make it easier on the truck.

Big tires and/or lower gears simply aren't in the budget, even assuming a taller truck would fit my garage and my needs.
 

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