Kent,
The elevation of my front door is ~6800 feet. I could easily tune the carb for this elevation. I've got a bent pushrod and the #4 cylinder but everything spins freely apart from that valve with the bent rod. I haven't taken the engine out of the engine bay yet so I haven't remove anything from the engine other than the valve cover and metal plate that covers up the pushrods. Right now my goal is a daily driver so I'm thinking the 216 will end up in the corner of my garage as a shrine. I'm not going to be entering this in any car shows so I'm not concerned about numbers matching, I want to use this truck the way my Grandfather did, as a truck and carrying/hauling anything and everything.
Rob
I drove my stock '51 with a 216 from AZ to the reunion in the Kansas City area in 2015. That is 1200 miles one way and I did it in 2 1/2 days each way, always driving during daylight hours. I did try to stay off the interstates but did quite a few miles on the Kansas tollroad and had to negotiate freeways in the KC area. The continental divide on Highway 60 is in west NM and is about 7800 feet and it met that challenge without a whimper. That may not sound very high to someone from CO but that is higher than any point east of the Mississippi. I buzzed along at 55-57 mph, got 15.4 mpg and had an absolute blast. For my efforts I won this tall trophy at the truck show for "Longest Distance Driven." Made me feel better about how my truck did not match up with the trailer queens (nothing against trailer queens, my '37 qualifies as one and it also has a 216). I even left all those giant Texas grasshoppers in the grill for the show, so everyone knew it made the trip on it's own.
To return to your question, I would advise you get your truck roadworthy with the current 216 and see how it does. Maybe it is on it's last legs and that will make your decision easier. Maybe you will fall in love with it and it will perform adequately for the tasks you challenge it with. Just see how it goes; you can always modify it later.
Kent
