Engine build for high altitude.

[wycobra]

I am soon acquiring a Classic Roadsters car that has a Chevy 350 in it. I plan on building a 351W family engine for it. I live near Cody, WY where our most fun drives are from 6-10,000 feet. Does anyone have a great bulild for a stroker for use at high altitude in the 1000-5500RPM range?? Torque is king at high altitude. Someone in Colorado maybe?

[RICK LAKE]

wycobra Have you thought about a small blower or turbo for the 351. Dollar for dollar this may be the cheapest way to get the power you want at 10,000 ft. where the air is thin. Paxton or vortech both have easy kits to install. The adjustments will be for either carb or FI system. If you are running FI the injectors need to be bigger and the fuel pumps needs to be a min of 255lrs. with #8 fuel line to the injector rails. You would need exhaust work with turbos or turbo. The blower would be the simplest to install. Check height between the blower hat and the hood if carbed. FI should be no problem. Good luck Rick L.

[Jim Doak]

wycobra:

You'd probably be fine with a strong 351 like the sea level guys run. You could run a little more compression at your altitude but these cars are so light that you'll still have plenty of power, even though your engine will be "de-rated" because of the altitude.

I drive my car up to higher elevations periodically and it still has plenty of poop, even with my little bitty 345-horse crate 302.

By the way, I'm from Rock Springs (Sandy now), so I know about your concerns. You could buy a 351 stroker from Ford Racing (392) and you wouldn't be wanting for power.

At least that's my opinion.

[bobcowan]

It's not much differant than a low altitude build. You just want to increase your effective cylinder pressures a bit.

With a moderate cam, you can easily run 10:1 static. With a radical cam, 11:1 isn't a problem, either. I run 10.8 with a big cam. Unless it's really hot, I run mid grade pump gas without any problems.

[Kramer]

WyCobra,

I built my engine with the altitude here in Colorado in mind...(well I should say my engine builder did b/c I didn't do that much work myself). Bob Cowan is right though, it is really not much different...I will tell you that I eventually changed my mind on webers for my SO. I still like the look of them, but I eventually chaned my mind to TWM induction so my engine could breath a little better regardless of the altitude.

Kramer

[wycobra]

Does the TWM induction use a good enough air filter system that you aren't sucking dirt through the engine?

[Tom Kirkham]

For naturally aspirated engines, nothing helps "altitude sickness" more than cubic inches. You will also need to spend some time tuning your engine. If you get an off the shelf carb it will run rich...

[Kramer]

I haven't been able to find an elegante/functional air filtration system for the larger mouth horns on on the TWM, however there are nice filters for the small block systems..I have seen some screen types as well as K&N filter setups on the smaller horns that look great. I think I am going to fab my own for my set up.