So I'm back in Flagstaff, AZ for college and there's definitely a noticable performance difference as expected, specially with a 3.slow. At 7,000 ft here, there's only 80% of the 02 there is at sea level. Now I know I can unplug the battery which will reset the computer, but is there any other adjustments I can make to make this thing perform better at this altitude?

...man this is when i had some a turbo going.

 

Stuff more oxygen into your motor.. that's about it! As Gnarls says, that costs money.

Honestly, I dont know if unplugging the ECU does anything for you, at least not on the early 22REs (the 3.slow may be different). Unplugging assumes some learning capacity in the ECU and I believe the early EFI systems are simply reactive based on closed loop operation. Honestly, in closed loop you're probably operating at the same mixture you are at sea level.

I took a 5.4L V8 Ford into Colorado last month. At 8-9k feet, it'd hardly hold 70 mph up an 8% incline. I can't imagine how that would have gone in a toyota.. I was looking, but didn't see any!

 

You must not have been looking very hard! They're EVERYWHERE around here! j/k! lol!

 

There is not a whole lot you can do. You might get a little help from the ISR mod and a drilled out airbox with a performance air filter... But not much.

 

You probably thought they were bicycles if you were still doing 70. LOL

 

that's what i was thinking...geez i'm really hurting then if you lose 4 all around for every 1000 ft. (120hp and 150 ft/lb...ouch) well i've drilled that airbox out and i've been wanting to do the isr mod.
thanks guys,

 

That's why I want a turbo...

 

That must have been some sort of freak traveling Toyota-free vortex - Toyota trucks are pretty freakin' popular around here. A 3.slow 4Runner will hold 70 just about anywhere. You have to row the crap out of it but it will do it. Heaven help you if you have to check-up on a really steep section - you'll be over in the right lane with the semis!

 

ah i think you're talking about my trip up here...lol well i've actually been pretty surprised at how well my 3.0's done up here. it is a huge pain in the a$$ have to put the pedal to the medal the whole way up, but if you keep her around the peak torque (which i believe is 3200 rpm) then you can keep your speed up pretty well.

 

Are you looking into regearing too? Lower gears = increase torque to the wheels. I see lockers are in your future too

 

I would have passed you no problemo. I don't call my new 4Runner the "wheezing yak" for nothing; it does great, even at 11,300 ft I was able to go any speed I desired!

That being said, without forced induction there isn't really anything you can do to tune an engine for altitude.

 

Even SC'd motors lose horspeower (and a couple psi of boost) accordingly since they still only have a certain amount of air to work with and they are dependant on the engine still. Turbos on the other hand can still hit max boost pressure but it'll take a little longer to hit it but it still will hit it.

NA and most SC'd motors still lose about a second (at our 5800ft dragstrip) while turbos won't lose as much.

My turboed Eclipse easily took down a Z06 Vette by about a half second (13.2 vs 13.6s) a few years back up here but down at sea level the Z06 would edge me out in the 1/4 due to the Z06 getting it's ponies back.

Most NAand SC'd street cars lose about a full second up here.

Even top fuel cars lose a couple of tenths at our altitude.

My truck is a little weak at 11000ft but it'll still pull highway speeds fine and off road it's not noticeable.

 

Amen to that. My oxygen sensor conditioner was not even kicking in half the time over 10,000 ft, because the critical pressure for it was set at 3 psi (3psi over sea level, so 17.7 psi absolute pressure). So even with my supercharger putting out about 6-7 gage psi, I wasn't able to get enough pressure in my engine.

When I get an EGT gauge, I'm going to need to try an even smaller pulley (2.1" maybe) and see where that gets me.

Atmospheric pressure's a finicky mistress.

 

a trd sc would be nice...but it looks like turbos are the way to go these days. anyone turboing the new tacos/4runners?

i dunno about regearing yet cause it's still my dd and i need it to cruise back to CA. i try to keep it around 85-90 on the freeway and i think w/ lower gears i'd be sacrificing that.

 

I don't think there are any Turbo kits for the 3.4 that are Cali SMOG certified.

 

CA is so gay when it comes to emissions... luckily i past last month so i'm good for 2 yrs.

when it comes to toyotas and turbos...i wanna see toyota come midsize diesel. i think they'd own the truck market even more.