2006 Charger Daytona - loss of power on shifts - fnky help?

[crazy_luck]

Last week I was heading to another members house for a M&G. On the way there, the car would lose power and sputter during shifts, right after it shifted. I pulled over, did the key dance to scan for codes and it came up clean. I let it sit for a few minutes, called the member who was throwing the M&G and he suggested to remove the gas cap as it may have been a possible over-fill, causing issues with the evap-system. After about 20 minutes of sitting, I started the car and went on my way. The severe hesitation/bucking/bizare behavior wasn't there. On the way home from his place, as I was on the freeway cruising along next to the concrete barrier dividing the north/south traffic, I could hear a loud squeal if I turned the steering wheel to the right, but the pwr-steeringfluid looks good and there are no leaks (possibly a different issue, but it did happen the same night, so I'm mentioning it).

Well, all week we've had bad weather and I've been busy doing some design work at home and have not had a chance to get out and check the car out until today. As I was driving it, I could feel a definate loss of power in the shift - the RPMs don't really drop, but it seems to float between gears, not quite a slipping of gears though. When it shifts, I can hear the car almost sound like its back-firing. I have no leaks under the car, so unless they didn't add enough fluid when I had the O-ring replaced 5K miles ago, or added too much, I'm not sure what could be causing this.

My car is stock performance wise:
5.7L Hemi
43,700 miles
regular oil changes at 3K miles (due for one in 200 miles)
K&N drop-in air filter (does need to be cleaned, but I need to order a filter charging kit as no one stocks them locally)
e-cutouts that are open 90% of the time
still on factory plugs (checked them @30K, 33K and 39K miles and still looked good)

I'm more or less forced to run 92 octane fuel due to limitations of gas stations.


I need to get a basic idea of what may be causing this before I head to the dealer next week to have it checked out. I'll need to talk to the service manager I deal with about going with on the test drive to verify they reproduce the issue/feel its presence, that way I know they know what to look for.

[crazy_luck]

No one has any ideas as to what could be causing this? Really?

[crazy_luck]

Took it in today and all they did was reset the adaptive learning to stock and flash the PCM for the shift hesitation (TSB from 2005 - my car has NEVER had any of the computers flashed for anything). The shifts feel different, partly from the flash and partly from the reset - but I can't tell if the issue I had is still there or not. I guess we'll see in the coming weeks.