Just wondering what I could do to my Quest 650 to get a little more power on vacation. On our vacations we go to Colorado where we ride at elevations approaching 14,000'. During the rest of the year I live at an elevation of around 2,700'. Is there anything other than jetting that can help my performance at high elevations? gas additives? air filter mods?[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

 

Your not going to make the power that you make at sea level but if you keep the fuel mixture right you won't lose too much, if you do nothing and jump up 5k feet the mixture will go "rich" and you lose allot. Go down 1 jet size for every 3000 feet or so, and most stock machines are running rich off the showroom floor so keep that in mind to.

 

somewhere I saw an aviation chart showing power loss at certain elevations. I sometimes ride at 5500' and I think it was a 15% drop from sea level, something you can deffinately feel even with jetting changes.
14,000' is way up there, I'd guess the power loss would be pretty noticeable. This is why piston airplanes were running turbos way back in history. Oxygenated fuel packs extra oxygen in the fuel but displaces a little fuel to do it. Since you would run rich at that altitude you should be able to get away without changing jetting but the stuff is spendy, around $10 a gallon. After opening the exhaust and free flowing air filter, cams and piston would be the next step.

 

well first thought would be take off the airbox lid but not sure that would be the case with the bombs, sounds like for you a couple spare jets would be the answer, or a new fuel injection system, and at 1400 dollars the 3 dollar jets might be a better option.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

If you dont go in deep water, this may work, for you, and ive had good luck with it.
Cut about 5, 1" holes in the air box lid and while in lower altitudes, keep them closed with duct tape. As you go up in altitude, remove the tape covering the holes, one at a time til you have it running good. Then when you get way up there, remove the cover completly. Bring tape along to cover the holes as you go down in altitude.