Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

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I'm back from my 2nd test drive. It's been such a long time since I worked on this car that I'd forgotten that the computer also gives a temperature readout. Although the factory gauge showed cool, the computer reported the temperature to be 184'.

I don't know if I should have left well enough alone or not but I started to play around with the ignition parameters. The computer allows you to set initial and maximum advance from within the cockpit. The car was set at 22' initial and 34' total and for the total to be all in by 3200 RPM.

I bumped the initial up to 24' and it seemed as though the bottom end picked up some responsiveness the first few times I ran it through the gears. Next I decided to try a few more degrees of total advance. I didn't notice any changes in performance. So I decided to bring the total in a little sooner. First I adjusted it to be all in by 3200. It seemed as though mid-range power might have increased so I reset it to be all in by 3000. Keep in mind that I've been adjusting based on 'seat of the pants' feel and I don't have anything here to measure actual results.

Even though the car's responsiveness seemed to have improved overall, it began to experience some hesitation under load (almost like a backfire). I probably should have returned the parameters back to their initial settings but instead I kept messing with subsequent option screens the computer has. It switched to a screen that is normally used to sync the distributor's real timing with the computer's readout. Like an idiot I reset it. Boy it sure runs like crap now. I limped it home and back into the garage. From here I'll probably have to start over on the setup process.
 
SNKEBIT said:
That's it, junk it out. Beyond repair. I'll be there in the morning to pick up the pieces.:D
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LOL.

My son wants to install as many high tech performance upgrades as he can on his cars. (I'm very 'old school' so I consider fuel injection high tech). - But he'd gotten frustrated with trying to dial in this injection/timing control a while back. Worst case scenario is that the car will return to running the 750 Holley with MSD ignition. I'm still convinced that we'll learn enough about the setup before we're done that we'll get it to behave. Right now it's a matter of trying to school myself.

For the most part the car runs pretty good. But we don't have close to as much power as the 408 in the Barracuda, the 440 in the Duster, or the Hemi in the Challenger. It could be that we're expecting too much from this 383.
 
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After running out of propane for the garage heater I hit the internet to do research. The issues that we've had with the FAST 2.0 system are similar to the ones I've seen others complain about. A 'glitch' powers down the system's controller intermittently. I think someone found the solution.

I quote:

"I solved this problem and gave Fast tech the answer on 6/05/2014. The issue is caused by voltage spikes occurring in the +12 volt vehicle power supply affecting the pink ECU switched power control wire in the 2.0 main harness. My solution was adding a small inexpensive 600 DC volt, 82 PicoFarad capacitor between the pink wire and a good ground. Since the addition of the capacitor, I haven't had another issue with the EZ-EFI 2.0."



Several folks had given up on the system. Some sent it back. Those that hadn't had the problem and those that solved it - all seem to be extremely pleased with the performance. We'll see if I can make it work.


 
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I'd made the claim before that my Barracuda was a year-round daily driver. It was ever since I got it. But this winter I've barely moved it. Most of the time I've needed to use the truck whenever I went anywhere. Despite the cold weather I took it out for a spin today. I was surprised that I was able to drive through the snow in the back lot with those M/T cheater slicks. I decided to put it under cover next to the Duster for now.

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I've decided to begin by removing our MSD distributor and re-installing the one from FAST. It's been awhile since we had it in. I remember being upset that FAST didn't take the time to engineer their distributor so that it would fit in the 383. We had to grind the right head for clearance to the distributor cap. It always pisses me off when companies spend all of their efforts engineering their products to fit GM and then retrofit them for Mopars.

The swap is pretty simple. We left all of the wiring intact and readily available within reach. I unplugged the 2 wire MSD distributor connection and plugged in the 2 wiring connections for the FAST distributor. As long as the motor is indexed to 30' BTDC all that's needed is to drop the distributor in and aim the rotor at the #1 spark plug terminal.

It seems as though I've done the setup procedure for the FAST controller 100 times already. There is no need for memorization because the ECU screen walks you through the steps each time.

The last time we attempted to use the distributor from FAST we couldn't get the car to stay running. We repeated the programming steps several times and rechecked all of our wiring before giving up on it and putting the MSD distributor back in. I had worked on it at my son's place in Iowa and only had a narrow window of time to do the swap before having to return to Nebraska. I always figured that I'd give it another shot some day.

The MSD Pro-billet distributor. In order to use it with the FAST timing controls it was necessary to install a phasable rotor and adjust it to their specs.
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The FAST distributor is also billet aluminum. That fat cap gave us hell trying to fit against the heads.
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With the distributor swapped out and set according to the FAST instructions I went ahead and re-programmed the controller. The temperature outside never rose past the teens so I stayed inside while doing the work. At a certain point during the setup you're required to start the car and let it warm to 170'. I cracked the door open far enough to send most of the exhaust outside.

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Unlike the previous bad luck I'd experienced down in Iowa trying to use the FAST distributor, everything seemed to be working as it should this time. I'm not certain why. It may have been due to some scattered signal the system was picking up, that insufficient battery connection, or a number of other reasons. At any rate it seemed to be working like a charm now.


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1967 'cuda said:
With the distributor swapped out and set according to the FAST instructions I went ahead and re-programmed the controller. The temperature outside never rose past the teens so I stayed inside while doing the work. At a certain point during the setup you're required to start the car and let it warm to 170'. I cracked the door open far enough to send most of the exhaust outside.

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Unlike the previous bad luck I'd experienced down in Iowa trying to use the FAST distributor, everything seemed to be working as it should this time. I'm not certain why. It may have been due to some scattered signal the system was picking up, that insufficient battery connection, or a number of other reasons. At any rate it seemed to be working like a charm now.
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Crap. I was hoping your were gonna junk it out...................:protest:
 
I took the Roadrunner out for a test run after having reset the system. They don't recommend that you go out and really flog the car immediately because the FAST ECU is supposed to be 'learning'. That doesn't mean it can't be run through the gears at least once though.

Overall my impression was that the power improved quite a bit. Even though the car is still in the early learning phase it seemed more responsive through the entire RPM range. I never ran into any hesitation or any of the 'hiccups' the car had experienced before. I have no doubt that this is the best the car has run since we owned it.

Time will tell. I plan on continuing to drive the car each day to see if any of the issues come back. I will still need to pick up one of those capacitors and wire it in. My fingers are crossed.

I called my son to update him on the car's progress. After all the past experiences when we'd thought we had everything sorted out but ended up disappointed, - he's skeptical. The only way we'll know for sure will be the test of time. It will still be quite a while before he returns to Nebraska. I ought to know by then if the road chicken is ready to re-assume it's duties as his daily driver.
 
SNKEBIT said:
Crap. I was hoping your were gonna junk it out...................:protest:
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Just so I don't have any mishaps with it like I did with his '68 Chevelle. (I got broadsided while driving it.) The Chebby didn't get hurt that bad and I paid to get it fixed with all new sheet metal.

I always wondered if he was getting revenge when he wrecked my Barracuda. Hmm... I had to fix that one myself too.
 
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1967 'cuda said:
Just so I don't have any mishaps with it like I did with his '68 Chevelle. (I got broadsided while driving it.) The Chebby didn't get hurt that bad and I paid to get it fixed with all new sheet metal.

I always wondered if he was getting revenge when he wrecked my Barracuda. Hmm... I had to fix that one myself too.
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I ran into the dist clearance deal also. was really a mess w/ the victor raised port knock-offs on the 505. didn`t get that far w/ the tuning, yanked the engine out for some minor changes, just now putting it back in (too cold). might be asking some questions on the fast system later tho, since you`ve got some exp. w/ it -bob
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famous bob said:
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famous bob said:
I ran into the dist clearance deal also. was really a mess w/ the victor raised port knock-offs on the 505. didn`t get that far w/ the tuning, yanked the engine out for some minor changes, just now putting it back in (too cold). might be asking some questions on the fast system later tho, since you`ve got some exp. w/ it -bob
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It's been a real roller coaster ride with the FAST 2.0. When we first installed it we immediately noticed a power increase. We didn't know enough about it at first to be certain that the bad behaviors were anything other than part of the normal learning process. Information was sketchy online and there was no one around here that we could ask for advice.

Some of our problems were definitely our own fault. We had gotten the in tank pump from FAST and at one point one of the hoses blew loose inside the tank. They supply it with special heavy duty hose clamps that can be clamped hard enough to withstand the high pressure the pump puts out. But it was difficult to tighten them when working through the small access hole we made in the top.

When we finally got to the point that we knew the 'glitches' should have already gone away but hadn't, we contacted FAST seeking tech support. Although they were pleasant enough to deal with the only advice they gave was to re-check every connection and make certain that all wiring was isolated from the car's existing electrical system.

We did re-route some of our wiring. The biggest change we made was with the 2 main power connections that went to the battery. FAST really insisted that we needed to modify them. We were running an MSD box that also insisted that it be connected directly to the battery. It seemed impossible to satisfy tech support from both. Eventually we moved the positive side of the MSD supply to the starter relay. That helped. At that point we thought we'd finally gotten our problems solved.

(As a side note I noticed that Freiburger is using an OPTIMA battery that has top terminals AND side terminals. It looks like he may be feeding his MSD box off of one set and his FAST 2.0 off the other.)

We were still using our MSD box and Pro-billet distributor to control the ignition timing up to this point. The FAST 2.0 was only controlling fuel delivery. New problems emerged when my son decided he wanted to take advantage of FAST's ability to control timing.

In order to use the MSD distributor it was necessary to lock out all advance mechanisms it had. That was easy. It was also necessary to 'phase' the distributor. MSD sells a special phasable rotor that we purchased. It took me awhile to understand the purpose of phasing the distributor.

For the FAST controller to control the timing the distributor has to have a specific relationship with the engine. The distributor is supposed to be clocked on the #1 cylinder when the motor is at 30' BTDC. By using a phasable rotor you are able to adjust the distributor's reluctor so that it aligns with the magnetic pickup when your aimed at the #1 spark plug tower. Without doing that your timing will be off.

Even though we believed we had been careful we started to experience big headaches. - Hesitation and intermittent engine stalling. We repeated the complete setup process several times but were never able to totally eliminate the bad behaviors. Part of our research involved watching and re-watching Freiburger's videos that he had made when he installed the FAST 2.0 on his '70 Hemi Superbee. He sure made it look simple. Over time we were finding more and more reports of people having the same issues that we were experiencing.

My son decided to purchase the FAST distributor to replace the MSD Pro-billet. I've always had good luck with MSD equipment and doubted it would make any difference. FAST says it's 'pre-phased' so there's not supposed to be a need for a special rotor. Apparently the magnetic pickup is supposed to be better aligned with the reluctor when the rotor points at the wire towers.

The FAST distributor was a pain from the get go. It wouldn't drop in to place because the larger diameter (GM design) cap would not clear our cylinder head. We didn't have to do a lot of grinding, but we did have to do enough to gain clearance. After setting it up for the FAST distributor we couldn't get the car to stay running. As we went through the controller's Setup Wizard and came to the portion where the car needed to be started it was difficult to start. Any increase in throttle made it die. I'm not sure what the problem was but we tried several times before we gave up and re-installed the MSD distributor.

Right now I'd guess that our timing was way off. We had checked it several times. We even verified that the harmonic balancer was accurate by doing a top stop check. Sometimes when you're pressed for time (as I was) you make mistakes. I only had a narrow window of time to do the distributor swap at that time so I wouldn't rule anything out.

At any rate my son brought the Roadrunner back to me several months ago when his Challenger was completed so he could swap cars. Actually, he only brought it part way back to me. It died en-route and I had to meet him in Iowa and trailer it back here. We didn't spend a lot of time working on it the next day. After going through the FAST Setup Wizard again we got it running but it developed a loud noise on the left side of the motor. It took a while to trace it down to a broken valve cover baffle that was hitting the rocker arms.

As we looked the rest of the engine over we discovered that the new MSD Blaster 3 coil was damaged. The inner windings had come loose and would pull out of the coil tower. Luckily we had a new ACCEL Super Coil on the shelf that we'd purchased for the Charger. My son was eager to leave with his Challenger so we stopped working on the car after that. It sat ever since. My son didn't want to drive it again until we were sure it was fixed properly.

I had other project work to do so the Roadrunner became a lawn ornament until a few days ago. It wouldn't start until I charged the battery and found the loose connection for the FAST power supply. We had disassembled and reassembled things so many times that I can only speculate when the wire had come loose. I don't know if it was a factor in problems all along or if it was a recent issue.

With more time to work on the car I decided to try the FAST distributor again. So far everything is working good.
 
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You OBVIOUSLY have more time than I do. :D





Seriously, I would have junked the RR. Let the guy from wisc come scrap it out.
 
I just returned from my second day of test driving the Roadrunner. The learning process is supposed to involve driving at various sustained speeds and loads. Most of the driving that I've done is inside of our small town at speeds between 25 and 40 MPH. I did take it out of town a few times again and cruised around 60.

So far there haven't been any problems but the car's behavior gradually changes as the ECU 'learns'. This time out I could tell that the power level at 2300-2400 RPM seemed flat. I know from past experience that I need to be patient. Tomorrow that flat spot may change or disappear. I'd like to go into the program and change some of the parameters but you're not supposed to mess with them too much during the early period when the ECU is learning.

The issues we had seem to be gone but I wouldn't say we're tuned for maximum power yet.

Having patience with this system has been one of the most difficult things about setting it up. Because the settings evolve as it learns, it's unlikely we'll know for certain the problems have gone away in the next few weeks. I'm optimistic right now. I haven't seen any of the tell tale signs of issues that we'd seen in the past.

The fine tuning later on will be the fun part. Once the system has stabilized and isn't making constant adjustments on it's own, we can go in and play with timing and fuel enrichment.
 
Aargh! OK. - The Roadrunner is still running good. BUT. I noticed the other day that the dash lights didn't come on when I hit the light switch. I didn't worry too much. I thought I'd check the fuses and find one that had aged out and the ends lost their solder's conductivity. The car has all new wiring that was done before my son purchased it.

Before checking the fuses I looked to see if I had any tail lights. I knew they received power through the same fuse. Yup, no tail lights.

The Roadrunner's fuse panel is accessible through the glove box. There's a cardboard cover that has to be removed to get to it. Sure enough there was a bad fuse. It hadn't gone bad on it's own. It was burnt.

It was late and I didn't have any spare fuses handy so I thought I'd test the circuit by jumping power across the holder. The second I did I saw the alternator gauge needle swing to the full discharge side. I immediately pulled the jumper figuring that I've got a dead short somewhere. But where?

I popped open the trunk to inspect the tail light wiring. Everything looked perfect but I pulled out each of the sockets and moved them away from any grounds. The problem is still there.

Next I disconnected the wiring harness from the back of the dimmer thumb wheel. The problem still is there.

I hate working under dashes. A floor shifter makes it even worse. My next move is to try to remove the light switch and see if something's gone haywire there. I suspect that may be where the problem lies because the switch was not tightly secured to the instrument cluster. At the very least it's been missing a screw anyway and needed that to be taken care of.

I really hope that I don't need to pull the seats although it would make it easier to get under that dash.
 
The mailman just dropped off another package. My son is having a lot of his online purchases sent here.

It's a new aluminum water pump housing for his Charger. The last one we had we ended up using on the Roadrunner when we installed the fuel injection and needed a housing that had 2 ports for temperature sensors. I'm glad that this one is already polished. I had to polish the last one myself and it was a pretty rough casting.

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We already had the electric pump. I'll have to buy new stainless fasteners again. I won't be able to install that new COOL VIEW thermostat housing until we figure out what we're going to use for a water neck. The upper radiator hose has to clear the 3" blower belt so my son's leaning towards using formed stainless tubing with rubber hose.

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An hour after the mailman delivered the water pump UPS showed up with my helmet for the Duster. I started planning the graphics for it. The Barracuda helmet was OK but I think I want the black Duster helmet to be a little wilder.

I went online looking for pictures to give me ideas. Most of the images I found had the feel of the modern wraps instead of the 'old school' vibe.

It's difficult for me to explain the difference but I hate the look of the wraps. Things are rarely proportioned correctly to the background they're put on. Everything seems disjointed and none of the designs seem to flow with the body lines of the cars. It's like 2-year-olds do the design work. Most guys with the equipment haphazardly zip out some random background from a file on their computers and add numbers and text. They know nothing about layout.

Enough of that rant. With my luck the helmet will probably turn out crappy. (but at least it won't look like a wrap!!!)

These are some of the images I found online:

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I still haven't found the short in the light circuit. I pulled off the left door sill plate and could see that they did run the wiring through the wiring tray as it should have been. I wasn't sure whether or not they'd run it down the center or the floor instead. The wiring is loomed nicely with no signs of damage.

I managed to remove the light (rocker) switch. Although I couldn't see any physical defects on it I could see the pink wire that went into it was distorted from heat. It looks as though I'll have to tear the instrument panel out to find where the short is and to inspect the rest of the wiring. As much as I hate to do it, I think I'll pull out the seats. My back is too sore today to spend any more time contorted under the dash.

Like every other car we've ever bought, the Roadrunner came with several small flaws from the previous owner. While giving my back a break from the dash wiring I decided to tackle a few of those flaws.

The wing windows did not close properly. The glass strikes the chrome metal framework when they close. I went ahead and re-adjusted them. They work great now.

It takes a great deal of effort to roll the left door glass up and down. I'm tearing into them next.
 
1967 'cuda said:
An hour after the mailman delivered the water pump UPS showed up with my helmet for the Duster. I started planning the graphics for it. The Barracuda helmet was OK but I think I want the black Duster helmet to be a little wilder.

I went online looking for pictures to give me ideas. Most of the images I found had the feel of the modern wraps instead of the 'old school' vibe.

It's difficult for me to explain the difference but I hate the look of the wraps. Things are rarely proportioned correctly to the background they're put on. Everything seems disjointed and none of the designs seem to flow with the body lines of the cars. It's like 2-year-olds do the design work. Most guys with the equipment haphazardly zip out some random background from a file on their computers and add numbers and text. They know nothing about layout.

Enough of that rant. With my luck the helmet will probably turn out crappy. (but at least it won't look like a wrap!!!)

These are some of the images I found online:

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There's something about a personal touch ,that wraps don't have (to me,anyway) . The human concept of art, seems too generic without a personal passionate touch. Just my thoughts...
 
After pulling the interior left door panel off I inspected the window mechanisms for problems. There is a floating anchor bracket that ties the window front guide to the bottom of the door. It had 2 spot welds that had both broke loose. I am so glad I've got the welder now. It only took a couple of minutes to align the parts, clamp them together and weld it up.

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There is supposed to be some form of anti-rattle material where the adjusting rod slides onto that bottom pin. It's missing.

I checked the window for alignment and everything looked pretty good but I noticed a slight mar on the top edge of the glass. I could see that it hits the roof rail when the door closes. When I went to adjust the top stop I saw that it was missing. CRAP! I guess I'll have to hunt one down from someone.

The only other thing that seemed to need attention was the grease on the rollers. It was caked and hard. I cleaned it up a little and sprayed all friction areas with silicone.

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