Pikes Peak trip!

[Dave WM]

I made is, Orlando FL to Pikes Peak Co in my 75 280z. Left Thursday noon, drove to Phenix City Alabama (about 400 miles). Have family there so stayed the night. Left early about 2am Friday, thru Bham, on hiway 22 to NW AL, then thru a little bit of MS, and then AR. Took a north turn up thru the Ozark mountains toward MO. from Joplin the garmin took me to Wichita KS via rt 400 (2 lane, 180 miles dead of night, yikes). North from Wichita to I-70, then across to CO. Arrived at Pikes Peak about 1PM Saturday.

in AR I lost my brakes (replaced a drum slave cylinder a few weeks ago, did not tighten a line fitting, so I did a McD parking lot fix with help from a passer by to bleed the brakes. The only other casualty was I lost my radio somewhere in KS (not a fuse checked the both). Not a big deal as I prefer to listen to the engine :)

Other than that Dat Boi handled the trip great, but I did find the operational ceiling of the Bosch L jet tronic system. On the way up past the 13 mile shuttle stop (about 11,400 ft) I suddenly lost power and the engine stopped and could not be restarted and run for more than a few seconds. I was on a fairly steep incline, on a section with no guard rails, a steep drop off on one side and a steep wall with a bit of a ditch on the other for shoulders. After a bit of panic (am I going to have to back down this thing) I managed to get the engine to run long enough to make a multipoint turn around on the narrow road. Got the nose down and got back to the shuttle launch area. I took the shuttle to the top.

With hind sight I prob should have removed the air filter before the final accent, maybe that would have helped. My guess is with the thin air, the AFM flap just presents too much of a restriction for the engine to overcome, but that is just a guess. I seem to recall some discussion about a altitude compensation device for the L jet tronic.

Getting down was uneventful since engine braking meant I did not hardly have to use the brakes at all.

I have a lot of video (including the fail, should be interesting to watch. Will post up later and link.

 

 

 

 

 

[SoCalJim]

Wow!  Great road trip, Dave!

If I recall correctly, the 1975 CA-market Z cars had altitude compensation or sensing devices for emissions.  Strangely enough, my May 1975 Z does not have this device.

[Dave WM]

8 minutes ago, SoCalJim said:

Wow!  Great road trip, Dave!

If I recall correctly, the 1975 CA-market Z cars had altitude compensation or sensing devices for emissions.  Strangely enough, my May 1975 Z does not have this device.

Mine is a pretty early one as well (also a CA car), I don't think it has one, not sure where to look. I just got thru doing some reading, seems the issue is too rich a running at above 4k, Did not sound rich to me when it died, more like the fuel pump cut off, sudden loss of power, no rough running etc... I wonder if the altitude compensator was really for 12k and up maybe a whole new set of problems. Guess I could always turbo charge!

[Mike]

Need pics!  Sounds awesome!

[Dave WM]

30 minutes ago, Mike said:

Need pics!  Sounds awesome!

working on it, I am video challenged, recorded everything upside down, trying to flip and then download.

[240260280]

Wow great adventure!

[Dave WM]

video near the top. the engine cut out takes place about 1/2 thru if you want to cut to the action.

 

Edited September 20, 2019 by Dave WM

[w3wilkes]

From the video it looks like you made it above tree line which I think is about 11,700 feet on Pikes Peak. When you walked around at the stop place could you feel the altitude? Being from Florida I would think you'd feel it.

Edited September 21, 2019 by w3wilkes

[SoCalJim]

Green ‘75 Zs should be good for at least 14,000 feet.  Just sayin...?

[Dave WM]

11 hours ago, w3wilkes said:

From the video it looks like you made it above tree line which I think is about 11,700 feet on Pikes Peak. When you walked around at the stop place could you feel the altitude? Being from Florida I would think you'd feel it.

I little bit, I started walking around on the trail at the top (14,000), thought about walking down it, but a bit too rocky, after messing with that a bit I could feel it but not much really.

[Dave WM]

10 hours ago, SoCalJim said:

Green ‘75 Zs should be good for at least 14,000 feet.  Just sayin...?

I would like to hear from others that have been to the top to know if they made it no problem. Other than that the car was perfect for the whole trip (about 4,000 miles in just a few days).

[Labubre]

Excellent !!!