Elevation vs tune road trip

[horizontalkev]

In the next 4 months I am planning a trip with my 99 Eclipse gsx from Kansas to Flagstaff, AZ then from there to Fresno, CA. My question is if my car is tuned for Kansas where the elevation is like 1600 feet, then travel to Flagstaff where the elevation is I think like 7500 feet.. Will this mess up my tune or will the ecu automatically compensate for the different elevations without problem like normal cars would?

And lastly.. Should I trust a dsm with this kind of trip? I've corrected many wrongs from the previous owner (fuel pump/sending unit, wiring so on) and no telling what else was done cheaply... Six bolt swap with 30,000 miles. 73,000 on odometer.

 

[spyderdrifter]

You can trust a DSM with a road trip, I've done many myself. With a couple DSMs. I went from Fayetteville, NC to Colorado Springs, CO to Watertown, NY with the same GST Spyder. never had any issues.

 

[horizontalkev]

You can trust a DSM with a road trip, I've done many myself. With a couple DSMs. I went from Fayetteville, NC to Colorado Springs, CO to Watertown, NY with the same GST Spyder. never had any issues.

I can imagine you had significantly different elevations you traveled through, no tune issues?

 

[GoodbyeSTI]

I took a day trip that went from low to high elevation and then back again. I did notice my fuel trim's got a ways off. All I did was reset the fuel trims on link and they were fine after that.

 

[Rock2610d]

I live at 7400 ft and I think the car will adjust to a point. First thing I will note is that the ECU will halt the learn mode once the baro reading gets below 22.9 in HG. Which for me happens at about 7100 ft.

If you plan on staying and driving in elevation very long I would recommend tweeking the fuel out a little. Because the ECU drops learn mode you may run quite rich.

Your power and fuel mileage will both go down. Along with your vacuum readings. You might want to set boostest to read 7500 ft as soon as you can. It will help make boost and vacuum readings closer.

Good gas is hard to find at 7500 ft. Typical octane is 85, with premium at 91 with lots of ethanol in it. So watch knock.

Oh and let some air out of your tires. 32 psi at 1600 ft will be close to 40 psi at 7500 ft.

Just another note: if while you are at 7500 ft your baro is less than 22.9 than resetting fuel long term trims will not help....no learn mode.