Sorry, supposed to say "DX". (What would SX be? A Nissan/Honda frankenstein hybrid of sometype?)

Question for those of you who operate your Civic's in high altitude:

I live in Colorado and recently took my Civic DX up to Idaho Springs, which resides just under 8,000 feet sea level. Problem was that on the way up the engine simply didn't respond anywhere near as well as it does at 5,280, logically. Lower air pressure and steep grades suck. I usually would perform this trip using four-wheel drive vehicles; Subaru's and the like, with automatic transmissions. Now I had to get my downshifts fine-tuned of course, and my on-the-fly lesson in driving seemed to work somewhat well, but I still felt like I was revving a little higher than I wanted to; I simply expected somewhat better performance.

So, aside from continuing to hone my driving habits on steep-grade highways, are there any reasonable modifications I might be able to do to my car to help it perform a little better up high? I'm considering picking up a K&N filter for my stock box to see if better airflow might help a little, but is there anything else that might do it some good?

This might sound like sort of a "duh" type question, but I really am curious if I can get a little better performance u[p high for the sake of engine/transmission strain and gas mileage.

 

-when you start the climb at morrison, leave it in 4th and floor it. don't lift. don't go up in gear. use fourth gear.

-your car should be able to maintain 65MPH. even at the tunnel.

-its a honda, even with a swap.....its all 4th gear, for extended periods of climb. you'll always be doomed if someone/truck pulls into your lane and you have to slow. just use the upper end of the the tach.

 

Good to hear a response from someone up there. I kept having to ram it into third a lot of the time because of the trucks; didn't feel good at all to do, and it still didn't give me much help. I mean, when I saw the signs posted as "Min. Speed 55 MPH", I started to freak out a bit.

I appreciate the strategy.

No modifications would do me good though?

 

-none, its a honda.

 

Modifications would help a little bit but you would still struggle to make it up.

Unless u swap for a more torquey motor, ur only option is to keep the RPMs up