Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

360DartGT66 said
I think the odds of ANY home-tuner to get to the same result as a professional with a dyno and experience with the equipment are zero.
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Abodybomber said
X2.. I love F.I.,Mopar provided only a couple programs,for the 300-380 Magnum crates. Mopar Action pushed hard for that,and finally got it. I know a couple old time hot rodders: one embraced the dyno roller(likes 5.0/4.6 engine swaps..), The other embraced multiple passes on the Vericom 2000 ( yes ,one still works nowadays..), with his carbed setups.(Rats,SBC& wedge Mopar strokers..) One takes days to do it,the other takes hours,at a higher price: much quicker. That wide band O2,is a really good middle ground option.( never tried one,an option with time)...
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I'm feeling old, tired, and worn out. When I was much younger I didn't have enough experience with cars to know what I was doing with them most of the time. I relied on the guys around that had been racers for advice and often bought used parts from them. Back in the day, - any increase in performance from stock was considered a success. It wasn't hard to feel like you were running with the big dogs when the fastest cars around were 12 second cars. I might not have been as fast as them but at least I felt competitive.

I'd taken a long vacation from working on cars after I got married and had children. My time was occupied by other things and I really didn't think I'd ever get back into the car hobby. It wasn't that I lost interest. I just didn't have the time or money to devote anymore.

It seemed as though the days of hotrodding were dying. New cars sucked and the old cars were disappearing. I got involved with computers and eventually the internet. One of my biggest joys was playing race simulation games and it re-kindled my interest in cars again. When I discovered that I could find classic iron for sale online it made me dream about possibly owning a musclecar again. - And when I learned that I could not only get hard to find parts online, but also find tons of information about building every aspect of a car - I was hooked. Like an addict, I couldn't get enough.

I started to feel as though there was nothing I couldn't do. - If I came across something I didn't know how to do - all I needed was the internet to show me the way. I may not have had the big bucks to make every dream a reality but I was able to do things I couldn't have done before. With access to the internet it was like having the world's largest library at my disposal. Every day was like being back in school and I was eager to learn.

But skip forward to today. Now I feel old. Sometimes it seems as though my brain is full and there's no capacity for new info. I'm struggling and getting discouraged. I've screwed up on basic things that make me angry with myself. The pushrod problem was a prime example. I should have caught that problem long ago. I can't help but feel that turning the efi over to someone else to finish is another failure on my part. I concede that dyno tuning is far superior to tuning by ear but nonetheless I feel that most others would have gotten the car done quicker and with far fewer mistakes.

I'm always grateful to all you guys on this site that have offered advice and encouragement. It's kept me in the game.