Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback
You know Mitch, we've definitely had second thoughts about the conversion after reading so many people having problems with it. Our own experiences have probably been similar to those folks. If it wasn't for guys like Joe that went through the frustration and eventually got it to work (and work REALLY well) we'd probably have a carb back on the car now.
There's no doubt it's been a struggle but we've been slowly learning more & more as we go. I'm glad we didn't take the car in and have someone else set it up right after we bought it. They say you learn from your mistakes and it's true. We still haven't mastered the FAST efi yet but we know much more about it than when we started. Most likely we'll have FASTMAN walk us through the final tune but we'll have a better understanding of his steps when we do.
I don't pretend to know everything when it comes to cars (or anything else) but I'd like to think I'm not becoming one of those people that has someone else do all the work for them. There's nothing wrong with going to others when you run into a brick wall but I think we're still a few feet away from hitting it.
I guess I didn't exactly make myself clear on this subject. I wasn't bashing your efforts at all, I encourage that. Learning everything you can about what you are working on is paramount to doing it correctly. Having said that, I have short term memory issues that make it really difficult to "learn" new things. (accident related)
I am a pretty smart guy but teaching myself to "learn" a computer, (which is what you are trying to do, somewhat,) is near impossible without ALOT of time spent.
That is one of the reasons for having someone that does this on a regular basis and knows what they are doing, do the job. I have been down the same road you are on right now many times. Finally came to the conclusion that it's FARRR CHEAPER to have an expert do it for two main reasons.
1. All the crap going on in my life doesn't permit the cost of time loss/ gain in the endeavor. Plus, I am always second guessing myself if I have everything in correct parameters.
2. One little miscalculation anywhere in the set up or drivability can be disastrous. It may act and drive alright but really isn't. Setups that took me weeks of studying and work led to bad outcomes with thousands of dollars flushed down the shitter. :violent1: So, not only did I loose time in the study aspect but also monetary repairing some things that would have only cost me a few hundred if I hadn't been a stubborn stingy fool who thought that tuning isn't that hard, I can do it, anyone can...............
One more thing, tuning a car to get the most HP out of it is an art. But realize it is tuned to the nats ***, no room for error. On a street car, this is stupid. One tank of bad gas and the engine is junk. Saw this numerous times.............
Just putting out words of wisdom here. Not saying anybody here can't teach themselves how to tune a car. I am just saying, don't fool yourself into thinking it's not that hard......
Oh, and don't forget drivability. A lot of people just tune the dyno, bad idea.
Hope this helps. :D:cheers: