Back on topic. See original post for update

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2005 CRD "Ol' Blue"
Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time.
My build page- RL Komodo Rear and TJM Front Bumper, armored, lifted, JBA Steel D30, 4.10s and ARB air lockers.

Bugnout.

Do you have a lift pump? if not could that possibly explain your high altitude extra crank times?

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Atlantic Blue 06 CRD Limited (his)
Joined by a 2000 XJ Classic (hers)

I have an in tank lift pump. I usually let it run for the time it takes me to put my seat belt on before I crank. I don't think fuel pressure was the problem. I changed the fuel filter prior to the trip, I have the Racor fuel head, and thought the hard starting might be due to some air, so I opened a the bleed screw twice and got nothing but clean diesel out.

It was very consistent behavior. above 8000 ft and engine warm, started hard. Cold engine was better, but still more than normal cranking time. Symptoms went away once we got to Gunnison CO which is about 1000 ft lower at 7700 ft.

No other performance issues at all above 8000 ft. acceleration, torque, ran smooth etc

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2005 CRD "Ol' Blue"
Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time.
My build page- RL Komodo Rear and TJM Front Bumper, armored, lifted, JBA Steel D30, 4.10s and ARB air lockers.

At high altitudes like that, you need to be in 4lo to keep the trans as cool as possible; I forgot this fact and got a trans temp light during Safari. Since it's essentially dirt roads up there, it's weird to put er' in 4lo but it's reality. The fans can't spin any faster but the air gets a lot thinner so cooling efficiency goes down. This is most-likely why you has temp spikes. It's been a reality for me that I've chosen to accept.

As far as the hard starts, I don't know. We had 3 CRDs with us and I know for a fact 2 of them were un-messed with (3rd not so sure) but none of us had any problems with starting even at 13K feet.

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2006 CRD http://www.UtahPowderCoatings.com/ http://www.gorecon.com/ I'm kind of a big deal.
RL rear bumper, ARB front bumper, Mile Marker winch, Power Tank, Skids by Mopar & Skid Row, RL Super Skink Sliders, 235/85R16 MTR, Air Flow Snorkel, DTT, 4.10 gears, Frankenlift II, Katskin leather, JL Audio stereo, Rosen video.

I split time living at 7300 and 9200 feet. Just got the GDE tune, no issues at 7300. We'll see about 9200 soon enough.

When we took our first trip out to the Yellowstone area and spent some time at 12000' feet, we never had any issues regarding cold or warm startability on either of our cars; however, that's not to say that there could be some difference when accounting for vehicle-to-vehicle variability.

We are taking another trip out to the Denver area for altitude testing so we will make it a priority to investigate this at the various altitudes up to Loveland and make sure there isn't an issue.

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Providers of wholly developed aftermarket solutions for the KJ CRD.
(248) 977 - 9531

Pics are always worth a thousand words. Thanks Bug.

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Manure green 2005 CRD sport4x4, GDE Hot tune, Cat Gut, OE skids, Draw tight hitch, Duramax lift pump, 160K on multiple varieties of fuel, XM radio, Escort live with Redline, fog light mod, GPS, Icom IC7000 all band radio call sign KC9QPF, Grabber AT2s on Soft 8s, FIA grill blanket.