Pa to Denver 454

You will not have any major hills on I70 after Wheeling, WV until about 90 miles east of Denver, CO. The hardest part of this route will be enduring the 12 hours it takes to get past all those Kansas wheat fields. And if one of those fields catches fire, all you will smell for the next several hours will be burnt toast... :(

Short story is your 454 will do just fine on the trip. :B

Gale Hawkins wrote:
By the way the 3500 RPM when climbing will help insure the 454 engine and transmission stay cool. When dragging out that Old Priest Run the engine temp gauge kissed the Red zone but did not enter it. I do not even remember looking that the transmission temp gauge.

I learned this last year during my first season with my 454. It's an '84 and only has a 3-speed TH400, but when it started to get warm on long grades I instinctively slowed down and it got even hotter. One day it was getting warm again, but I need to get around a slow-moving truck in order to get to a left-side exit. I sped up to about 70-75 MPH and the coolant temp dropped like a rock! Now I've learned to keep the RPMs up when it starts to get warm. I have a trans temp gauge, too, but curiously it was never hooked up. No wires to the lights or the sender. It's on the to-do list.

I don't believe there are any passes between Denver and PA, at least anything worth worrying about.

Since you will be in Longmont, if you have a chance and like micro-brews, stop by the Left Hand Brewery. Very good.

Estes Park is not far from Longmont either. Pearl Street mall in Boulder is another popular destination.

left hand

We did 8000 miles back in 2011 with our 1992 P30 454 TBI chassis that took us in a loop from KY through Badlands, Yellowstone, Great Salt Lake, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Yosemite, Carlsbad CA, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Four Corners, Roswell NM, Tx and back to KY.

The engine and transmission did just fine in the mountains and long grades.

Did quickly learn to keep the RPM's no less than 3500 when climbing. The only time I got concerned was when by error we took the Old Priest Run into Yosemite that we had to pull in 1st gear and I think max was about 1800 RPM. That was the longest four miles in my life.

A set of good spark plug wires would be good to have if yours is getting some age.

By the way the 3500 RPM when climbing will help insure the 454 engine and transmission stay cool. When dragging out that Old Priest Run the engine temp gauge kissed the Red zone but did not enter it. I do not even remember looking that the transmission temp gauge.

One thing that helped on that trip was we had just moved to metric tires which gave us a 2.5% lower gearing ration that helped with the hills and MPG. On the 5-30 mile grades I would get out of OD before we lost RPM because once the RPM is lost they are hard to regain. We did a lot of grades in 2nd gear so we could keep up our RPM's and to improve time and MPG. If you ever find your gas pedal on the floor on an Interstate you are in too high of a gear it seemed in our case.

Engine braking was all we needed for speed control on that trip but in some of the parks that meant 1st gear in a few places but 2nd/3rd were fine for engine braking most of the time.

It should be no problem what-so-ever for a trip to longmont, no matter whether you're on the 70 or 80. Once you get west of Longmont, is where the serious grades start. Snow will be a non-issue in June.

Going to longmont co for a wedding, which means we have to make it to longmont. Just wondering if if it would tax the 454 or it was reasonable drive.

Thanks for your help.

There shouldn't be any snow in the mountains Colorado in June, But I have seen it happen at or above 11000'. If you are only coming to Denver then no problem.