I seem to remember there being some kind of high altitude kit for carburetor equipped vehicles. If I remember correctly, my 1982 Toyota Celica had one. No idea what it looked like and I never had to do anything to or with it. But it might be something to look into.
Not really. Holley/Edelbrock generally end up on hot rods that rarely travel more than 50 miles from home, not much of a draw to make them run anywhere...
Toyota did have a neat setup for that though, I have bumped into that in my research.
Ford variable venturi carbs are also supposed to be really good for elevation... if you find a good one and get it to work right.
i found this which is intriguing.
thecarbcheater.com
Anyway I need to pull mine apart and see what jets and rods are in it. From there there is a formula I don't have handy, you add so much percentage for like every 1000 feet. I have it in my book upstairs.
Each of those numbers is a certain jet/rod combination. So if I am 17 right now and need to add a certain percentage more fuel I just go up until I get to a number that is as close to the percentage as I want.
I need to do a bit more research to dial it in, like see if I can figure out an average altitude for the route. Yeah, it might peak at 12k but if it averages around 8k (pure speculation) I will set it for that and let it run a little rich at high altitude. Otherwise as we drive all day and vary altitudes constantly I will spend more time dinking with the carb than driving which I do not want to do.
Its not perfect but pretty much everything we are going to do was probably ran first by a surplus WWII Jeep with a carb first so I don't feel it is impossible to do with a carb.
I wish I could get EFI in it but as time gets closer that doesn't look very likely. But then going on the trip anyway is only slightly more likely at this point.