Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback
I hate insomnia. Worrying about it just keeps me up at night.
I didn't fall asleep until around 4 a.m. I suppose I had a bit of anxiety over the trip to check on the Roadrunner. I got up around 9 in the morning and headed out after grabbing a cup of cocoa. The night before I'd already prepped everything I thought I might need to take with me. They wanted my laptop with the tuning program on it and had hinted that if everything went well they might finish the car today. - So I had serviced the trailer and decided to take it with me.
It's normally about a 2 hour drive to Grand Island from where I live but the rain was coming down pretty hard and I ran into a detour that took me an additional 45 minutes out of my way.
Arriving just before noon, I was still able to make contact with the guys working on the car. They weren't very talkative but I dropped the computer off to them and told the guy at the counter I was going to rest for a while out in the truck. If they had any questions, - I'd be available there. Other than needing to find the location the tuning files were located - they took over from there.
After resting for a few hours I heard them drive the Roadrunner out of the garage when they took it for a test drive. 20 minutes later they still weren't back so I told the guys inside that I was going to run some errands.
I got back around 3 and went inside to check on progress. I had intentionally made myself scarce so they wouldn't get annoyed by having a customer looming over their shoulders but I'd really have liked to have watched the progress as it unfolded. Anyway, the news I got when I went inside wasn't good.
They weren't sure what was wrong. The ECU wasn't making the correct adjustments to match throttle position. It was running way too lean when they tried to accelerate and would sometimes backfire. Whenever they made an adjustment to fatten it up, - it'd run so rich that it smoked and was getting the plugs wet.
They suspected a faulty MAP sensor or O2 sensor. - Possibly both. They even considered the possibility that the ECU could have been at fault. One thing was for sure. The car wasn't coming home tonight.
I decided to run to Walmart to buy a thumb drive that I could transfer the program files onto. That way I wouldn't have to leave the laptop there. When I returned, they had found one problem. The relay that sends power to the O2 sensor's pre-heater apparently had gotten full of water and corroded inside. It's failure may have screwed up the O2 sensor but they weren't sure of that yet. The relay is in the portion of the efi wiring harness that's located in the engine bay. It's small and had no provision for mounting. We had simply left it dangle - not realizing it would be a potential source of problems.
At this point, I'm not sure how much longer they'll have the car there before it's done. If they have to order another O2 sensor & MAP sensor, it might take a week before they get the parts and install them. If they need to send in the ECU it could take a lot longer.
View attachment IMG_6725.jpg
I hate insomnia. Worrying about it just keeps me up at night.
I didn't fall asleep until around 4 a.m. I suppose I had a bit of anxiety over the trip to check on the Roadrunner. I got up around 9 in the morning and headed out after grabbing a cup of cocoa. The night before I'd already prepped everything I thought I might need to take with me. They wanted my laptop with the tuning program on it and had hinted that if everything went well they might finish the car today. - So I had serviced the trailer and decided to take it with me.
It's normally about a 2 hour drive to Grand Island from where I live but the rain was coming down pretty hard and I ran into a detour that took me an additional 45 minutes out of my way.
Arriving just before noon, I was still able to make contact with the guys working on the car. They weren't very talkative but I dropped the computer off to them and told the guy at the counter I was going to rest for a while out in the truck. If they had any questions, - I'd be available there. Other than needing to find the location the tuning files were located - they took over from there.
After resting for a few hours I heard them drive the Roadrunner out of the garage when they took it for a test drive. 20 minutes later they still weren't back so I told the guys inside that I was going to run some errands.
I got back around 3 and went inside to check on progress. I had intentionally made myself scarce so they wouldn't get annoyed by having a customer looming over their shoulders but I'd really have liked to have watched the progress as it unfolded. Anyway, the news I got when I went inside wasn't good.
They weren't sure what was wrong. The ECU wasn't making the correct adjustments to match throttle position. It was running way too lean when they tried to accelerate and would sometimes backfire. Whenever they made an adjustment to fatten it up, - it'd run so rich that it smoked and was getting the plugs wet.
They suspected a faulty MAP sensor or O2 sensor. - Possibly both. They even considered the possibility that the ECU could have been at fault. One thing was for sure. The car wasn't coming home tonight.
I decided to run to Walmart to buy a thumb drive that I could transfer the program files onto. That way I wouldn't have to leave the laptop there. When I returned, they had found one problem. The relay that sends power to the O2 sensor's pre-heater apparently had gotten full of water and corroded inside. It's failure may have screwed up the O2 sensor but they weren't sure of that yet. The relay is in the portion of the efi wiring harness that's located in the engine bay. It's small and had no provision for mounting. We had simply left it dangle - not realizing it would be a potential source of problems.
At this point, I'm not sure how much longer they'll have the car there before it's done. If they have to order another O2 sensor & MAP sensor, it might take a week before they get the parts and install them. If they need to send in the ECU it could take a lot longer.
View attachment IMG_6725.jpg