Vail Pass

What kind of engine power are u loosing? How heavy are you

 

I climb the first part of vail in 7th, I'm around 30 mph, that's with a Cummins 500 and around 75k

 

Running in the mountains the idea is to climb with out overheating the engine , transmission and rear ends. Keep your RPM high when climbing.

The higher RPM during a climb works the engine less.. Drop to a lower gear and keep your RPM high and if you have a manual switch for your fan clutch turn it on when climbing a mountain. The problem I have is overheating the rears. Years ago I had transmission overheating problems until I installed a bigger transmission cooler.
If you have transmission and differential temp gauges you should not go over 275 degrees..
If you do not have temp gauges for the trans and rears..then forget it your only need to watch you water and engine oil temp guage.

 

Either the 7th injector is not shooting or the second turbo haven't kicked in yet..

 

Can you give a bit more detail than "losing power" and "smells"? Thin air and high elevation wreaked havoc on car bed vehicles, but usually the ECMs in the FI vehicles automatically compensate for the lack of oxygen, unless...

...some numbskull Beancounter put his tune in the ECM to "save fuel" by detuning the engine.

When I was a company schmuck, I had a Columbia with a 430 Detroit and a 9 speed top 2 transmission (8 and 9 shifted automatically as needed). The beancounters got the green light and cut our trucks from 430 to 350 HP. Losing power was an understatement. It didn't run hot, it died. 4 times they had to tow me out of the Rockies on the same load. 4 times! Truck had 100k on the odometer. They finally repowered the load and sent me north, then west through Wyoming, where the head went.

OR

they have it set up in a way that detuned the engine if the EGTs get too hot to prevent you from cooking the motor, forcing you to downshift

 

at that altitude all trucks loose some power, no oxygen.... NEW truck, now burning that power robbing filter without enough oxygen... we can speculate all day for you.

 

What kind of engine?


Without knowing more, my generic advice would be to run at the speed where you no longer need to use full throttle.

 

I guess we're wondering what you have for past reference if anything. Vail is steep and if you're heavy, any truck is going to struggle to the top. You might see it as "losing power", the engine see's it as "dang! WTH?! Where's the top of this stupid hill? This is the most work I've ever done in 3 months! What happened to the flat land of Ohio and such?"

 

Hell been years since I climber Vail with a legal load,,love going up the mountain grossing over 100K and passing trucks with legal loads,, 600hp ISX
first time I ran across I-70 in Colorado in 73 I was running a 318 Detroit,,lot more fun now