I drive a 300sd to 1500ft from 300ft(Central Valley), then get into my Sprinter and drive about 17,000 verticle foot every day in 150-250miles. I check it with my GPS. The turbo shrinks hills. My Sprinter hauls up hills(as high as 8k) like no other vehicle and gets 20mpg with a loaded dual rear wheel box van painted brown. I fuel it every day and check MPG.

Last year I hooked to a one ton GMC 6.2 diesel tow truck with a empty carhaul trailer behind it(tow truck ran out of fuel) and pulled it a mile at 6 thousand feet with about 3 thousand pounds of freight in the Brown Sprinter. It was spinning the rear tires and shutting down because of the traction control. I eased off the throttle and pulled the 6% grade with no problem. I admit I never let it out of first gear because I was not sure what it would do when it shifted. But it got to 20mph! The tow truck driver was blown away(and very happy).

I bought the 300sd because I like the turbo diesel in the sprinter. It does not pull as hard as the Sprinter, but it runs great even to 8 thousand feet. I don't think you need to do much to the 300 Turbo to make it run at altitude.

When I had my '81 300D NA in Denver (5K feet) there was a noticeable and unpleasant power loss.

When I drive my '90 300D Turbo at Tahoe (6.5K feet) I did notice much difference.

Thanks for your comments.

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Sure but by that logic we could say the oxygen content of atmosphere around the returning space shuttle is different than sea level.

I kinda thought we were talking about the world were we drove our cars.

My Mercedes isn't quite that powerful.

That's great!

I'm sorry, I do not know what a sprinter is?

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Here is a Sprinter.

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Is it a MB diesel?

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Love the snow

Mercedes builds it, tagged Dodge, Freightliner, Mercedes. I am not sure if anybody else got them. I have been driving them since 03-04 not much to say bad about them. I can say they are nice to me. My GPS says 7-10 hours of driving a day and I feel pretty good getting out of it at the end of the day.

I can't wait for the snow to come back!

International (Freightliner?).

GT2256V was prone to controller failures and a 2k replacement not covered by warranty made alot of ppl unhappy. I'd love to have one.

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http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

Our first one were SRW and they were not good. They made it to about 170k before UPS crushed them. Most died with a trans failure after 60k of shuttering. They all blew turbo hoses and had counterbalance issues. We had one go into a ditch at 70mph and it had 1800 miles on it. I tried to get the engine but UPS has strict rules with taking one out of service. It got crushed. UPS also learned(again) that sheetmetal does not work well in our system. We had many rear clamshell doors ripped off and bent beyond repair. The side doors always had problems. The 10k oil change was too short for UPS as well. They wanted 15k(PMI) and found that air filters were plugging and sucking them through blowing the turbo/engine. The one I am driving now has been pretty much flawless other than normal maint. needs. This one has 124k. Remember though if you want to test toughness put them in a UPS truck. Not much looks very good after 6 monthes on a route. I mean everything gets beat or breaks. I cant wait to see how long our new telemetrics lasts. That is the new "Eye In Sky" that takes GPS to a new level. They can now get into the vehicle computer and watch everything we do. Backing distance, idle time, bulkhead door, speed, seatbelt, throttle position all can be watched from afar.

Welcome, Fresnan....

geez, I'm glad my 1975 Formula doesn't have one of those GPS thing-a-ma-jigs....

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Did you just pass my 740 at 200 kmh in a 300SD?????

1978 300SD 'Phil' - 1,315,853 Miles And Counting - 1, 317,885 as of 12/27/2012 - 1,333,000 as of 05/10/2013, 1,337,850 as of July 15, 2013, 1,339,000 as of August 13, 2013



100,000 miles since June 2005 Overhaul - Sold January 25th, 2014 After 1,344,246 Miles & 20 Years of Ownership

It doesn't get any higher than this in the USA.


Its a little rattly, but what can you expect for 8.5psi air pressure and 28* injection timing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSFUj3sr4ek

So how's it perform? Reduction in absolute power? Obviously, there is less airflow at the same boost pressure.
Lack of power? Absolutely not. Even with the turbo "disabled" (vanes open), at 14k feet it still accelerates nicely. With the turbo the power and acceleration doesn't feel much different than at 10k' lower, just a hint of extra lag.

So if you're feeling a drastic loss of power going up only 5000' then your ALDA has a broken capsule, your injection/cam timing is off or your compression is down quite a bit. 5k should be insignificant to engines without a carburetor.

Here is my old wagon with the T3 turbo 7 years ago on Pikes Peak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtEvPIBq9OU

My wife described the power loss as 'significant' but that's very subjective. When we were up in Big Bear in June and I was driving, I didn't notice it running all that differently. What I did notice was a sporadic slight roughness at idle in the higher elevations. Perhaps the capsule could be suspect???

IP and cam timing are all spot on (both slightly advanced) and boost is around 14.5 psi @ WOT. I think the biggest thing my wife is noticing is how different the car feels taking off when the 2-1 downshift feature is working and when it isn't.

I drive my 1975 Formula everyday and it is putting 311 RWHP and 325 lbs RWTQ to the ground, so everything feels slow in comparison to me after driving it for a while...Robert

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Did you just pass my 740 at 200 kmh in a 300SD?????

1978 300SD 'Phil' - 1,315,853 Miles And Counting - 1, 317,885 as of 12/27/2012 - 1,333,000 as of 05/10/2013, 1,337,850 as of July 15, 2013, 1,339,000 as of August 13, 2013



100,000 miles since June 2005 Overhaul - Sold January 25th, 2014 After 1,344,246 Miles & 20 Years of Ownership

We live at 4400 ft/asl now and for some reason, the car has just been running great. When I drive down to work, at 1300 ft/asl, the car doesn't run as well. This is the exact opposite of how it used to act when we lived at 440 ft/asl and visited here at 4400 ft/asl.

I think you may be onto something with the capsule inside the ALDA.

__________________
Did you just pass my 740 at 200 kmh in a 300SD?????

1978 300SD 'Phil' - 1,315,853 Miles And Counting - 1, 317,885 as of 12/27/2012 - 1,333,000 as of 05/10/2013, 1,337,850 as of July 15, 2013, 1,339,000 as of August 13, 2013



100,000 miles since June 2005 Overhaul - Sold January 25th, 2014 After 1,344,246 Miles & 20 Years of Ownership

The new 413 CID engine is in the car now and RWHP is up to 415 with room to grow!!!!

__________________
Did you just pass my 740 at 200 kmh in a 300SD?????

1978 300SD 'Phil' - 1,315,853 Miles And Counting - 1, 317,885 as of 12/27/2012 - 1,333,000 as of 05/10/2013, 1,337,850 as of July 15, 2013, 1,339,000 as of August 13, 2013



100,000 miles since June 2005 Overhaul - Sold January 25th, 2014 After 1,344,246 Miles & 20 Years of Ownership