For years I was water mouthing on the EFI installs you could see from time to time. But being on the wrong side of the pond, the Fast and the first Holley injection were simply too pricy to even consider them. When the 4bbl to EFI affordable units came on the market, I had to get one of these.
I've looked at Fitech but went for Sniper in the end purely based on what I saw/red on installs on forums, videos... I knew I'd be on my own as nobody I know run these over here and Holley's forum was at the time a very active place with tons of usable tips/help.
Installed it on my 73's 4V Cleveland. Because it's still not on the road, I can't say much about how it really performs. Hope I will in a near future.
If of any help, here are my pros/cons of the Holley Sniper.
I went for the master kit. black ceramic.
2 weeks later door bell...
First impression was great. The unit, the wiring, pump etc... comes beautifully packaged/protected in foam, labelled and well documented.
As a total noob, I was kind of overwhelmed. I knew bits of all the parts, but all together, it's hard to know where to start. No way back.
the stuff in the box:
Pros:
The unit, unlike Holley carbs, really well machined and finished. The wiring are beautiful and well organised. The labels and all connections well documented.
The ceramic finish is beautiful. I went for it because the anodised or zinc finishes they offer would be less durable under the wet air that we have here.
Otherwise, I would have loved the gold finish.
Cons:
In the master kit they provide some chevy or generic stuffs for brackets, pump block-off plate. Useless and cheapo for a Ford install. Wish they had a Ford version.
Just like the hose ends they provide, prolly ok on some cars, you need more for our cars.
The install:
Pros:
The unit, wiring + sensors are spot on, all fits and install nicely. the length of the wire in harness are all well thought and fit perfectly, at least for a cleveland.
Cons:
while the unit and provided components are great, unlike the promotional video's, its nowhere near what you need for a plug and play install. Tons of additional brackets are required and needs be made. Think here of throttle body to accel cable, tubings, fuel connections, pump supports, fix the lack of kickdown support etc... Lots of custom work required if you want it nice and safe.
They also do not provide must have safety details, like an inertia switch or give you tips for smart wirings aside the necessary to make it work.
No bracket or nice way to fit the handheld screen other than a cheapo double tape.
They provide some stainless thingy to hold the o2 sensor, but no bung to weld on the headers. No matter how well you install, its gonna leak at some point and doesn't look good.
I did weld a bung for a durable install.
The first start
I'll start with the cons
Cons:
My unit came with the butterflies bit too tight and the very important one liner on how to setup the IAC wasn't printed in red bold letters to tell me how important it was and how it needs to be set before start. As a result, the car did start right away but ran very poorly to end up with a flooding condition. Hours forward to find out what was wrong and how to fix. It was explained in doc, totally my fault, I was simply too stressed to really grasp how important that was, as on first start, you also deal with inspection of safe electrics, make sure there's no fuel leak etc.. So in that regard, they should be preinstalled a tab more open so it would start but give you higher rpm which would be easyer to understand than a flooding condition. The throttle spring is really hard, I still have to look for a way to make it more progressive.
Pros:
Once set up was finally as expected, its simply amazing. Even in garage alone, the car isn't the same. You feel, see, hear and even smell its a modern car. If primed, car starts so fast, I'm not sure if the starter even turns
After that:
Pros:
So far since the install, no matter if car was still for weeks, warm or cold. it starts before starter makes a turn. Runs perfectly, exhaust is super clean, (as far as a v8 exhaust fume can be). The tank level, probably me not good with carb tuning, I had to refill the tank on regular intervals. With EFI, much less fuel is being used. Very curious to see what the consumption will be once back on the road.
Cons:
Because mine was a first gen, the provided handheld monitor with touch, now known for some child sickness went nut and was going from screen to screen and pressing button was challenging. No where near wat you expect now days from a touch screen. I've received a replacement from Holley, no question asked. The help from holley staf on their forum is great and responsive.
Another issue with first gen, was that the base table was too rich for very cold starts in winter. You can't have access to the table until the device has passed the learning period.
No biggy as normally its done in matter of hours, but for a garage queen like mine, I had to export to stick, read into the provided app to fix, (they expect everyone uses this misery OS known as Windows, so as mac user you must create a window partition to run their soft). This bugs in the table has been fixed and the edit/read software updated few times, so in that regard Holley is doing ok.
All with all, it's not as in the promo videos done in few hours, at least for a 7173. So far I find it really fantastic, the car is a totally different beast now.
I'm sure the fiTech would do fine too, but as I'm now familiar with the Holley, what you get and how to install it, I know for sure, my 429 will receive a sniper too.
