So I just moved up to 7000' elevation from sea level and I notice that when my truck is started for the first time in the morning, I don't have much to any turbo for at least 5 minutes. I assume this is due to the elevation but I'm not sure. Has anyone else experienced this phenomenon? If so is there a simple solution besides letting the truck run in the driveway for 5-10 minutes before driving. When I pull out of my neighborhood, its onto a busy street so I kinda need that get up and go.

Thanks, Im new here.
Scott

 

I don’t have an answer but I’m interested in the responses.. what year is your truck? What oil do u run? Any significant temp changes from sea to mt Everest?

 

It may have something to0 do with the temperature. It may be the computer is limiting boost till the engine gets some heat in it. . Do you have absolutely 0 boost for 5 to 10 minuets? Depending on the year of your truck the waste gate could be bad. I am just guessing here.

 

I will sit in the truck next time I start it and watch the boost and engine temp to try to determine at what point to I get boost. Thanks for your reply

 

when you start do you let it idle for a min or so or just start put in gear and go?? on my 03 7.3 in cool to cold especially morning I try to start and let it sit idling for a min or so and NO hard acceleration for the first 5 mins or so. that might help now with the cooler climate you get at 7K especially in winter.

depending on your current oil the 15-40 might be a bit thick.. maybe the 5-40 to try..

 

Turbo lag is pretty much evident on ALL turbocharger equipped vehicles -- light weight low mass turbines help reduce lag, but it's still there.

Absent codes, I'd say it's behaving as designed for cold ambient warm-up (i.e. VGT Closed - pushes exhaust gases across the vanes of that turbo, increases exhaust pressures in the exhaust manifold and into the intake)

You'd get codes, other issues if that VGT actuator, other components were faulty.

BARO, air temp, etc are inputs into the PCM and again (not sure of your year or on-board diagnostics - there are changes across model years) the underboost, overboost (closed loop monitors) typically flag issues so you'd (hopefully) get error codes.

 

Thank you for the insight. I will be switching to a better suited grade of oil next week and other than that I will remote start her and wait a bit now that we're about to get snow. Amazingly my wifes car, which is "sophisticated German engineering" doesnt come with remote start on the key fob, you have to use some POS app to do it and it takes over a minute sometimes just to send the signal to the car....smh

 

I live at 6000' elevation. I do not idle mine after starting. I get in, start it and go. I don't notice any more turbo lag after initial start than during normal operation. Then again, I am pretty easy on the accelerator all the time. I run 5w-40 engine oil.