Driving at altitude

[simonsg Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close simonsg]

Hi Just looking for some advise. We are driving a Prado 150 GX from Malaysia to the U.K our route will take us over a few high mountain passes up to 4500m. Will the Prado be able to cope with this without stalling or not to much loss of power.

[maxjj Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close maxjj]

sure , why not. I gather you are talking about a turbo diesel.
It will most likely loose some power, but due the turbo providing boost the affect will be less than a naturally aspirated engine.

I reckon the passengers will feel the high altitude more than a turbo diesel.

[r4ndll Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close r4ndll]

Much less issues than a petrol or a normally aspirated deisel. I don't know the specifics of the 1KD, and happy to be proved wrong, but Turbos generally overboost what's required for the engine, and dump the excess through a waste gate. So as altitude increases you'll have 'spare', for want of a better term, as you rise to maintain the air to fuel ratio. You'll lose some power at some point after that and probably get some excess smoke but should be ok.

I'd be more worried about the temperatures dropping too low and the diesel waxing. There's a reason they sell alpine deisel!

[Gavx Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gavx]

If you have seen (or ridden in) any of the buses that cross the passes you would realize that your prado will have no problem at all.

[cfryback Find all posts View Profile Close cfryback]

If you have seen (or ridden in) any of the buses that cross the passes you would realize that your prado will have no problem at all.

May or may not - though modern ECU's might cope.

Drove tour coaches and snow grooming equipment in Canada before moving to Aus.

The snow cats were "pre-tuned" for 10,000 feet (about 3000m) and the mechanics at the tour bus company did the same with the older two-stroke coaches. Newer one's were tweaked a bit.

Will it loose power? My bet is no - but with a big *BUT* how much depends on how well the ECU copes with compensating. This is usually done at MAP sensor, and should be OK.

Smart driving and understand what your engine is telling you. Even with the 425HP 11.5l Detroit Diesel equipped coaches with "smart" ECU's watching rev's and just knowing that you needed to shift down is what it is all about. As one of the mechanic's told at higher rev's in the passes allows the engine to draw in more air, rather than burning more fuel at lower rev's.

Kinda obvious, but this is based on, well 13 year old information!