Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

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We finally got around to putting in the new replacement clutch rod kit today in the Roadrunner. The weather is turning nasty but after we were done we loaded the car on the trailer.

My son set up an appointment with an engine tuner in Lincoln, Nebraska for Monday. After all the struggles with the FAST fuel injection he decided to take it in. I still wanted to give it another shot. The last time we worked on the car was when we'd installed the Edelbrock heads & a set of tti headers. The need to replace the clutch linkage had put the car on hold. I really hate the idea of throwing in the towel on dialing it in ourselves but I can understand. I've been keeping myself busy with other projects, but he's been really wanting to avoid the frustration of another failed attempt.

The new backup camera worked great for hooking to the trailer. After the Roadrunner was loaded I couldn't get the Ford to shift into gear. It's got some form of electronic shift lockout on the lever. I know it needs to see an input from the brake switch. My brake lights still function but I haven't checked the switch to see if there are multiple sets of contacts on it. Instead I followed the procedure (with the e-brake) to bypass the locking mechanism. It was pretty cold outside and it'll have to wait until I have a chance to check it out inside the garage.

Keeping my fingers crossed on the tune. I'd love to stick around to see them troubleshoot the system but I doubt they'd like that. If everything goes OK I'll have one less vehicle on the yard for the city to ***** about. - Really looking forward to seeing that puppy run like it should too.
 
We finally got around to putting in the new replacement clutch rod kit today in the Roadrunner. The weather is turning nasty but after we were done we loaded the car on the trailer.

My son set up an appointment with an engine tuner in Lincoln, Nebraska for Monday. After all the struggles with the FAST fuel injection he decided to take it in. I still wanted to give it another shot. The last time we worked on the car was when we'd installed the Edelbrock heads & a set of tti headers. The need to replace the clutch linkage had put the car on hold. I really hate the idea of throwing in the towel on dialing it in ourselves but I can understand. I've been keeping myself busy with other projects, but he's been really wanting to avoid the frustration of another failed attempt.

The new backup camera worked great for hooking to the trailer. After the Roadrunner was loaded I couldn't get the Ford to shift into gear. It's got some form of electronic shift lockout on the lever. I know it needs to see an input from the brake switch. My brake lights still function but I haven't checked the switch to see if there are multiple sets of contacts on it. Instead I followed the procedure (with the e-brake) to bypass the locking mechanism. It was pretty cold outside and it'll have to wait until I have a chance to check it out inside the garage.

Keeping my fingers crossed on the tune. I'd love to stick around to see them troubleshoot the system but I doubt they'd like that. If everything goes OK I'll have one less vehicle on the yard for the city to ***** about. - Really looking forward to seeing that puppy run like it should too.

Got to love modern technology until it does not work.
Look how many 4 gen corvettes (84 up) are for sale dirt cheap, 95% of them have electrical problems, mechanically the the cars are sound, but you cannot buy parts for them reasonable.
 
Got to love modern technology until it does not work.
Look how many 4 gen corvettes (84 up) are for sale dirt cheap, 95% of them have electrical problems, mechanically the the cars are sound, but you cannot buy parts for them reasonable.


I'm grateful that they have a method for overriding that lockout but it's a pain in the butt when you have to keep repeating it. After the truck sat shut off and cooled down inside it worked again but stayed locked once again after the cab got warm inside. It sounds weird but I'm guessing there might be some heat directed towards the switch causing the plastic to expand & seize. - Probably won't check it out for another day or two.

I can't imagine trying to restore a new vehicle years down the road if they've sat for awhile. I imagine they'd be riddled with nightmare electrical gremlins.
 
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I can't imagine trying to restore a new vehicle years down the road if they've sat for awhile. I imagine they'd be riddled with nightmare electrical gremlins.

So true. Maybe an Arizona car but I think most of the copper would be so oxidized that you would need to replace the entire electrical system.
 
Veni. Vidi. Vici. (I came. I saw. I conquered.) Apparently that's what the Romans used to say when they were victorious.

Today we took the Roadrunner to the tuner. Veni. Vidi. Non vincere! (I came. I saw. I didn't conquer!) Things didn't go as well as planned.

We hauled the car back home without any progress. Spencer had thought the guy would have been able to troubleshoot & fine tune the FAST efi. He had talked to him over the phone and he said he could do it.

I'm not sure if this guy is good at engine tuning. Maybe he's capable of dialing things in when a system is already 95% where it needs to be. But I didn't get the impression that he had much experience with the FAST fuel injection and he hadn't bothered to research it before our scheduled appointment.

We had taken the time to dig up as much documentation as we could before we left. I downloaded & printed the most up to date spec sheets, instructions, and wiring diagrams. I even brought a copy of all the MSD info. To make it handy we laminated all 102 sheets that I had printed and put them in a ring binder. I figured we were prepared. Unfortunately I don't think the tuner was.

He seemed overwhelmed. At first he misread the manual (as we waited) and insisted we change our wiring to use the tach output from the MSD box as a signal for the FAST controller. I pointed out to him where it said NOT to do that if the FAST system is controlling timing.

Next he questioned whether or not we had the rotor properly phased. I honestly couldn't remember how we had things set. We had varied from the standard settings on advice from FAST's tech support and I wasn't sure where things were set now. When I suggested we verify correct phasing he became insistent that it couldn't be done without using a degree wheel. I told him we had already made certain that our TDC mark was accurate on the harmonic balancer using a piston stop and that we should be able to use timing tape instead of the degree wheel. He disagreed. Either I've lost too many brain cells to understand his reasoning or the guy was clueless.

We had taken along the factory phased distributor that we'd bought from FAST. When we were still running the cast iron heads we found that the right head had to be ground to give us sufficient clearance to install it. We hadn't tried it since installing the Edelbrocks. He wanted us to use it anyway. When I tried to do the swap I ran into the same issue that we'd had with the iron heads so I re-installed the MSD Pro-billet.

That pretty much ended our session. I've been mulling around some other ideas that I feel may cure our problems. Tomorrow's another day and I guess we'll see if we can figure this out on our own.
 
You laminated 102 sheets? Really? Wow.

Well... - sort of. I bought a whole bunch of those clear plastic laminating sleeves that you slide sheets of paper into. The plastic isn't bonded to the paper but at least they're better protected from grease. One other positive note about them is that they've got pre-punched holes to put them in a 3-ring binder. If I wasn't such a lunkhead I'd have thought to do this with all of the various car documentation that we use. It's much more organized. The sheets were only 10 cents each and the binder was $2.50. We put 2 sheets back to back in each of the laminates. Total cost $7.60 plus tax.
 
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Today we put the Roadrunner in the garage and turned on the space heater to let things warm up & dry off. After several hours we went to work.

Before bringing the car back from Lincoln yesterday we stopped at Speedway Motors to pick up some timing tape for the harmonic balancer. We had been using marks that we'd made with a paint pen when we'd worked on the car before. The new tape wouldn't stick until we scrubbed the balancer down with some paint reducer but stuck great afterwards.

From the time we'd first gotten the FAST system til now there have been a few updates to the instructions. I still believe they could use a new technical writer to make things clearer. Nonetheless, we felt compelled to start the process over of setting the system up. We compared the original instructions with the ones for the XFI Sportsman upgrade. The two wired in exactly the same but there were differences in setting them up.

It's hard not to get frustrated when you've repeated so many of the same steps over and over like we have but without verifying that everything is set correctly we'd only assuming things were right. My son has obviously heard the expression that "doing the same thing over & over and expecting different results is a sign of insanity". He wanted desperately to make changes.

We've got 3 distributors here. Two MSD Pro-billet distributors (one with the timing locked and a phasable rotor & one unmodified) and a distributor from FAST that is factory phased at 30'.

We had unsuccessfully tried the FAST distributor before. When we were running the iron heads we had installed it but couldn't get the car to run. I dreaded the idea of putting it back in. I knew we were going to have to grind the passenger side head for clearance. I'm still pissed that they never bothered to engineer the part to fit on the engine they sell it for.

The unmolested MSD Pro-billet was purchased for the planned 512 build. We'll drop it in if we give up on having the FAST ECU control ignition timing and set things back up with the MSD doing it instead.

The phased MSD distributor is already in the car. I am still hoping that we'll be able to make it work. I talked to FAST's tech support and they reassured that it's fully compatible the way we've set it up and so is our MSD Digital 6 Plus control box.

After attaching the timing tape we went about checking the rotor phasing again. I'm not sure whether or not we had it right to begin with because we had jerked the distributor out when we were in Lincoln to test fit the FAST distributor (and NO, it did not clear the Edelbrock head). Anyway, after we'd gotten everything set we cranked the engine over but it didn't want to run but it seemed to want to fire. It acted as though we had too much advance.

I called FAST and one of the things they asked was what voltage the battery showed while cranking. I wasn't sure so we checked and were reading 9.2 volts. They said it will not start unless we have at least 10 volts. So I figured that either the battery was too low or we were getting a voltage drop through the circuit feeding power to our ECU (or both). I knew we couldn't go any further until we cleared this hurdle so I got off the phone. We put a trickle charge on the battery after disconnecting it from the car. I didn't want to risk frying another control box.

Three hours later we reconnected the battery and cranked the motor over. It started but it ran like crap. The only way to keep it running was to keep feathering the throttle. On previous attempts we had contacted FAST and they had told us to play a bit with the physical rotation of the distributor when at this point, so I tried rotating it back & forth to see if I could get it to smooth out. It didn't seem to make much of a difference. I don't have exhaust ventilation set up in the garage so it was starting to get nasty inside within a few minutes. We went ahead and shut it down. Tomorrow I've got to get some tubing set up so we can let this thing run longer. We're supposed to get the motor up to 170' before adjusting any parameters in the ECU's program.
 
Hey john,I have the FAST Throttle body XFI sportsman on my Hemi. I would get rid of the phasable rotor and just run your distributor with the standard rotor.I had the phasable rotor in mine and the stupid thing kept moving. We tuned mine in without it. Also verify timing on your engine with the distributor and what the computer is showing it might be off.What is your voltage when it starts? What Fast system do you have.
 
Hey john,I have the FAST Throttle body XFI sportsman on my Hemi. I would get rid of the phasable rotor and just run your distributor with the standard rotor.I had the phasable rotor in mine and the stupid thing kept moving. We tuned mine in without it. Also verify timing on your engine with the distributor and what the computer is showing it might be off.What is your voltage when it starts? What Fast system do you have.
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It looks like you're running an MSD distributor. How did you phase it? Did you modify your shaft to align the sensor with the reluctor? When we'd had the car running before I'm not aware of any issues with the phasable rotor moving from where we set it but we only put a few hundred miles on it.

We got into the program far enough today to adjust the initial timing. The car fired up and ran but it's running pretty rough so far. We've got a major header leak on the passenger side coming off the head and it seems to be misfiring. I'm hoping we didn't damage the #1 piston yesterday. We forgot we had a piston stop in when we cranked it over. We were pretty close to top (about 9' BTDC) and the starter never bogged. I suppose a compression test is in order if the miss persists.

After charging the battery yesterday the voltage is showing around 10.4 volts (while cranking) after we'd made a number of start attempts.
 
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I just ran the standard MSD rotor. I had it phased originally and I couldn't get it to run right.
I had it on the dyno and the phasable rotor came loose while we were tuning. We took it out
and they were able to time it in. I just had it back on the dyno last weekend and they tuned
the injection in. MY setup is a little more complex than yours. The Techs at Fast aren't very helpful there kinda buttholes.I would Call Rich at www.FastManEFI.com He is a fellow member on the FBBO site. He is real familiar with the Fast system.A really nice guy and you can pay him a few hundred dollars and he will help you tune VIA email. What he does is help you get the car running and then he'll have you do a data log and send it to him.From there he will set up a tune for your car and send it back. Also He is a Mopar guy so he know our cars. Don't get to discouraged It took time but my system works good. My last Dyno Pull was 903HP and 957 Torque.
 
In some ways the original system (the FAST EZ efi 2.0) was easier to set up than this XFI Sportsman upgrade.

The first time we got it to fire up we damn near gassed ourselves out of the garage.It only ran a few minutes before we shut it down. It wouldn't have been long before we'd have mimicked the old exhaust chamber at San Quentin. I ran to Menards today and picked up some flexible foil exhaust venting so we could get rid of the bad air.

We've had one heck of a time getting the car to start. Every indication was that we had too much advance. On a normal first start it's simple to adjust the distributor but with the FAST controller you're supposed to 'lock' the distributor in place at a set point. After starting the vehicle and getting it warmed to 170' you're allowed to go into the tuning program and adjust settings. Regardless of where the distributor is set, you're unsure when the FAST controller is actually sending the pulse to fire.

According to the laptop we had kept retarding the signal until we were set at 4' BTDC. After a number of start attempts we got the car to fire up. I put the timing light on it and found that our (real) initial timing was actually around 40'. I'm surprised it ever started at that setting. No wonder we were having trouble. It idled on it's own and we let it run for around 5 minutes before shutting it down.

After a discussion with my son he decided not to make any further adjustments without tech support walking us through the next steps. The instructions are pretty fuzzy regarding whether you're supposed to sync the computer with the real world timing by using the program, by distributor rotation, or a combination of the two.


 
I just ran the standard MSD rotor. I had it phased originally and I couldn't get it to run right.
I had it on the dyno and the phasable rotor came loose while we were tuning. We took it out
and they were able to time it in. I just had it back on the dyno last weekend and they tuned
the injection in. MY setup is a little more complex than yours. The Techs at Fast aren't very helpful there kinda buttholes.I would Call Rich at www.FastManEFI.com He is a fellow member on the FBBO site. He is real familiar with the Fast system.A really nice guy and you can pay him a few hundred dollars and he will help you tune VIA email. What he does is help you get the car running and then he'll have you do a data log and send it to him.From there he will set up a tune for your car and send it back. Also He is a Mopar guy so he know our cars. Don't get to discouraged It took time but my system works good. My last Dyno Pull was 903HP and 957 Torque.


Damn impressive numbers!

I've been saying all along that FAST needs to hire a new technical writer for their system. The internet is full of threads about problems people are having setting up the injection. Guys like me are having a heck of a time understanding what's going on inside their program. Without a full understanding of the way the program is written you're really in the dark setting it up.

There are enough positive reviews out there to keep me from wanting to throw in the towel yet. I'm still pissed that the distributor they sell for big block Mopars doesn't fit without grinding your heads but it seems to be par for the course when you're dealing with aftermarket parts on a Chrysler. Most everything is engineered for them damn Chebbies and we're just an afterthought!

I've read a lot of FASTMAN's posts on the CPGNation site and he seems to know his stuff. Although I'm not ruling out your suggestion to have him set up our system I still prefer to keep banging my head against the wall a while longer. I'm hoping that I'll learn the most by overcoming each obstacle one at a time as we hit them. My fear is that if someone else breezes us through the process that we'll never be able to troubleshoot problems in the future. - Of course, that doesn't mean that I'm going to avoid seeking advice when we hit a brick wall.

I love automotive electrical work.... - NOT!

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Yesterday we called Keith Black to order the Hemi. This is a brave new world for us and at this point we're relying on advice from Keith Black and MRL for component selection. After a discussion with Ken Black it was decided to wait to put in the order until we receive their catalog and discuss options with Mike. Originally Mike had suggested having the camshaft relocated higher in the block but Ken didn't think we'd see any benefit with the planned 4.5" stroke. There was also a discussion about head and intake selection that would effect how the block would be configured.

Our target of 1000 HP hasn't changed. It sounds as though it'll be easy to attain without getting too exotic. - No need for block girdles, roller bearings, etc... Ken did have suggestions about rod choice and gear drives that we'll discuss with Mike after the catalog arrives.
 
Yesterday we called Keith Black to order the Hemi. This is a brave new world for us and at this point we're relying on advice from Keith Black and MRL for component selection. After a discussion with Ken Black it was decided to wait to put in the order until we receive their catalog and discuss options with Mike. Originally Mike had suggested having the camshaft relocated higher in the block but Ken didn't think we'd see any benefit with the planned 4.5" stroke. There was also a discussion about head and intake selection that would effect how the block would be configured.

Our target of 1000 HP hasn't changed. It sounds as though it'll be easy to attain without getting too exotic. - No need for block girdles, roller bearings, etc... Ken did have suggestions about rod choice and gear drives that we'll discuss with Mike after the catalog arrives.

John,that's going to be one mean bastard..
 
John,that's going to be one mean bastard..

I'm hoping that it stays streetable. One of the reasons we've been keeping in touch with Mike at MRL is because of his reputation for building high HP street motors that don't grenade on you. We know he values his reputation and considers reliability when he configures an engine for every horse he can. That having been said, I have to wonder if this thing will be too much to handle. I guess the more power you get used to the more power you want. The 520 that my 408 produces seems pretty tame to me now.
 
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I'm hoping that it stays streetable. One of the reasons we've been keeping in touch with Mike at MRL is because of his reputation for building high HP street motors that don't grenade on you. We know he values his reputation and considers reliability when he configures an engine for every horse he can. That having been said, I have to wonder if this thing will be too much to handle. I guess the more power you get used to the more power you want. The 520 that my 408 produces seems pretty tame to me now.

It's taking the time,& learning new tuning,& a new outlook.. It flat takes time,cash,& experience. Guys like Mike at MRL, make it that much easier. ( and the quality of the product, is controlled....)
 
It's taking the time,& learning new tuning,& a new outlook.. It flat takes time,cash,& experience. Guys like Mike at MRL, make it that much easier. ( and the quality of the product, is controlled....)

Mike's been great. I know when we were still going with the 512 build his advice kept us from choosing components that wouldn't have gotten us to our target HP. I highly recommend him to anyone that is looking for an engine builder. In my opinion a person should still to do a lot of legwork researching direction to figure out their needs. - And Mike is one of the best resources.
 
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And I don't buy from ...,yet^^^^^ He is that good.. I just don't have the duckets ,at any soon moment.
 
And I don't buy from ...,yet^^^^^ He is that good.. I just don't have the duckets ,at any soon moment.

When it comes to buying more car parts, my wallet's gotten pretty thin. My son's still got available coin that should keep the UPS guy busy.
 
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I'm hoping that it stays streetable. One of the reasons we've been keeping in touch with Mike at MRL is because of his reputation for building high HP street motors that don't grenade on you. We know he values his reputation and considers reliability when he configures an engine for every horse he can. That having been said, I have to wonder if this thing will be too much to handle. I guess the more power you get used to the more power you want. The 520 that my 408 produces seems pretty tame to me now.

Try the boosted Viper world!!!! 1000 hp to the wheels is the norm. After you drive a bunch of them, the 500 hp stockers seem like turds. Then you get in the daily driver, omg!!! It's never enough. After a while, you get used to it. You're buddy you're giving a ride to is scared shitless. You are just on a Sunday cruise. lol

John, it's well worth the few hundred bucks to have somebody tune over the phone/internet. Couple-three hours you're done. If the tuner has a lot of experience, that's a piece of mind. Blown up a few thought I could do. It is soooo easy to do, one minor mis-calculation...... oh well, pull engine, start over. Get sick of that scenario after a while. :burnout: Add to that the occasional bad gas scenario, just magnifies the "mis-tune" problem. Before you know it, you have some other issues that pop up and chase your tail trying to find an issue that should have never been there cuz you thought you could tune it yourself.................
Just words of wisdom here. I can build it, take it apart, transform it, but leave the tuning to the experts. That's their specialty. :glasses7:
 
Try the boosted Viper world!!!! 1000 hp to the wheels is the norm. After you drive a bunch of them, the 500 hp stockers seem like turds. Then you get in the daily driver, omg!!! It's never enough. After a while, you get used to it. You're buddy you're giving a ride to is scared shitless. You are just on a Sunday cruise. lol

John, it's well worth the few hundred bucks to have somebody tune over the phone/internet. Couple-three hours you're done. If the tuner has a lot of experience, that's a piece of mind. Blown up a few thought I could do. It is soooo easy to do, one minor mis-calculation...... oh well, pull engine, start over. Get sick of that scenario after a while. :burnout: Add to that the occasional bad gas scenario, just magnifies the "mis-tune" problem. Before you know it, you have some other issues that pop up and chase your tail trying to find an issue that should have never been there cuz you thought you could tune it yourself.................
Just words of wisdom here. I can build it, take it apart, transform it, but leave the tuning to the experts. That's their specialty. :glasses7:


My original Roadrunner was rated at 335 HP. After tweaking it when I was young I might have had it closer to 400 HP. The Duster puts out 517 HP, - the Barracuda -520. The numbers have always crept higher. WHEN WILL THIS MADNESS END??

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I didn't realize you were pushing that much power with your Viper. I know Spence's Challenger is supposed to ave 425 but it's such a comfy SOB that you don't get the same sensation of speed that you do in the old cars. When I see pictures of some of the old altereds it looks like they'd be a handful without the big power.

As far as the tuner goes, I haven't ruled it out. - But I'd like to think that if someone else can figure this stuff out, we should be able to too. That last tuner guy we went to didn't seem to be the sharpest knife in the drawer, - and he makes a living doing it. I don't think we'll be going back to him. FASTMAN sounds like a better option.


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