Mountain driving

[adam76wag]

For you guys that drive carburated FSJs up in the Rockys...do you ever have any trouble coming up from sea level? I used to take my TJ up to Ouray but nothing with a carb.

[Heimeken]

I took the chop-top to Ouray this year, previously sitting in DFW. I had to lean out the jets on the Edelbrock and advance the timing from 10 to 15 degrees. Ran great.

The stock carburetor adjusts well, but the timing has to be advanced.

[adam76wag]

Looks like your rig is ready for Black Bear. Nice!

[grand_wag_85]

Just prepare for vapor lock

[babywag]

I have to advance my timing significantly @ higher altitudes.

Vapor lock also is a PITA if/when it rears it's ugly head.

[Carleysjeep]

I took my waggy to Ouray and like Heimeken said, carb and timing adjustments are in order. I didn't change jets, just leaned out air/fuel ratio screws.
When we got to Santa Fe, it started vapor locking really awful. It took us 2 1/2 hours to drive across town with no traffic. :eek: Probably a 20 minute drive under normal conditions. Next day I installed a electric fuel pump and had no more vapor lock problems.

[fulsizjeep]

Vaporlock is a subtle foe. Some deny it up to the point of the obvious at times. Electric fuel pumps help but anything to vent the engine bay of hot air is also a good idea. I had to remove my hood to get over Wolf Creek Pass once. What a pita. It is better to change jets and metering rods if you are running an Edelbrock or AFB. On the Holleys, a set of 60 or 62 main jets does the trick. Most 2150 2bbls and 4350 4bbls can be tuned fairly easy too. I am learning to rely on timing by vacuum. I use a light to know I am in the neighborhood, but toss the vacuum gauge on a direct intake port and tune for highest vacuum at idle and retard just a hair. I mean, it works for us here running highways at 7000-9000 feet pretty regular.

[Serious Johnson]

The first few years I had my '83 Wagoneer it was totally stock (2150 carb). Each summer I drove from 1,000' in South Carolina to 12,000' at my cabin in Colorado. First time I tried it without doing any tuning. The old girl barely ran at 12,000', pretty quickly clogged the catalytic converter, and got less than 2 MPG. I cut the cat off, advanced the ignition timing a good bit, and picked up a junkyard carb that I rebuilt & jetted down a few steps. I forget the numbers -- been a while. Oh yeah, also added an auxilliary electric fuel pump.

It got along more or less OK like that. I drove it back East in that configuration, but soon changed the carb & timing back to get decent driveability. So each year I'd stop at 7,000' where my favorite bar is to swap carbs (just quicker & less smelly than re-jetting a 2150) and change timing. Now fuel injection does all that for me.

S.J.

[adam76wag]

I'm impressed you drove all the way from SC. My family and inlaws drive from north TX to Colorado and Arkansas in our TJs and that is a haul! Now we have one to many kids to fit in the TJ so we are getting the Wagoneer set up for the trips. I hate to change to fuel injection now since I just rebuilt the stock 2bbl and there are several other things that need to be worked on to make my rig reliable. Fuel injection will have to be on the wish list though. Sounds like it is the way to go in the rocks.