It's a great day, no more POS Sniper!

[SquareRoot]

But, but...none of that is implied in Holleys advertisements. I guess that's the part the bugs me. They say, bolt it on and go. The "$elf learning" feature will make life great. I'm not saying it doesn't have potential...I guess. My ecu died in less than a month.

 

[4WDKC]

But, but...none of that is implied in Holleys advertisements. I guess that's the part the bugs me. They say, bolt it on and go. The "$elf learning" feature will make life great. I'm not saying it doesn't have potential...I guess. My ecu died in less than a month.

Just used the auto tuning feature on my friends Dominator controlled turbo 6 liter, he forgot to correct for different size injectors he was using than in the tune he loaded. I dont like the all in one units for the reason mentioned before about the ecm being on the engine and lack of available parts if something were to go bad.

 

[MikeB]

Chevytalk.org? its been really slow on that forum for awhile, Danny or Doug was on there and another guy wrote auto tuning software for that system and was selling it for like $15. There is a Facebook group for Holley EFI now, I assume thats where they all hang out now.

Yes, very slow on the EFI forum these days. And the CT "Performance" forum has slowed way down, too. That's possibly because of constant bickering and name-calling (on the Performance forum) among self-appointed experts.

Doug F. at Holley is a good guy and helped me with a problem I had many years ago with a crappy finish on an intake manifold. He also told me about dyno results for various SBC manifolds -- his and the competition's. And he was very honest about it. I'll have to check out that Facebook group, although I haven't made the jump to EFI yet.

Speaking of good guys at Holley, I've bought a few items at their eBay store, and they are very responsive before and after the sale.

 

[Best truck design]

I ran an Edelbrock Pro-flo for a decade. Never had a single issue with it. I'm convinced using factory developed parts will almost always be more reliable than the aftermarket.

Running a 750 Quardra jet on my Big Block in my Chevelle unbelievable drive ability and power!

 

[Matt69olds]

I’m sure I’ll get lots of disagreement, a Q-Jet is the ultimate street carburetor. The biggest reason for the bad reputation they have is because people don’t understand how the work, don’t understand how to make the proper calibration changes, or flat out don’t know what they are doing. The Q-Jet by design is a very sensitive carb, when you start making performance changes to the engine that detailed carefully designed factory calibration is useless. The Q-Jet is the only carb from the glory days of the muscle car to be modified to work with the every more restrictive EPA regulations of the 80s

 

[Kim Burke]

I agree. I have rebuilt and tuned many Edelbrock carbs (the ones loosely based on the Carter AFB). Even bought and sold them on eBay for awhile. They are great for guys who don't want to mess with carbs beyond setting idle mixture and speed. However, even the most basic Holley carbs can be fined tuned for perfect transition from idle to moderate throttle to wide open throttle using various pump nozzles. pump cams, and power valves.

About new Edelbrock carbs working right out of the box: I've found they tend to stumble just a little right off idle, and can benefit from more initial spark advance. Also, every last one of them that I've worked with has had heat soak (hot start) problems, which I think is caused by 10% ethanol fuel boiling out of the float bowls. The float bowls essential sit right on the hot intake manifold, unlike Holley float bowls which are surrounded by air. Back in the heyday of the AFB, and even when Edelbrock started making the carbs (in the 80s?), there was no ethanol in gasoline, so I doubt there was a heat soak problem. By the way, a phenolic or wood spacer will help the problem a little, but not solve it 100%.

Just found this article about Edelbrock heat soak. Some good ways to at least partially cure the problem.
http://www.edelblog.com/tech-tips/resolving-heat-soak

Finally, kudos to Edelbrock for having a very nice owners manual. I have used their calibration charts with great success when living at altitudes from 600 ft to 9000 ft.
https://www.edelbrock.com/pub/media/wysiwyg/documents/carb-owners-manual.pdf

I installed an Edelbrock on a 327 brand new out of the box and it never started without approximately 10-15 revolutions. It bothered the crap out of me but it always started.

 

[SquareRoot]

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[rpcraft]

I’m sure I’ll get lots of disagreement, a Q-Jet is the ultimate street carburetor. The biggest reason for the bad reputation they have is because people don’t understand how the work, don’t understand how to make the proper calibration changes, or flat out don’t know what they are doing. The Q-Jet by design is a very sensitive carb, when you start making performance changes to the engine that detailed carefully designed factory calibration is useless. The Q-Jet is the only carb from the glory days of the muscle car to be modified to work with the every more restrictive EPA regulations of the 80s

Any carb is sensitive to air intake changes vs burn rate. You have to have the mindset that you can't just change your intake and exhaust without jetting the carb. Small things done from one end of the truck to the next make a wide impact.

 

[Matt69olds]

I ran a Q-Jet on my Olds for years before I swapped to a Sniper. I had modified, tweaked, experimented until I had it pretty well dialed in. My best ET had been 11:64,knocked down 15mpg pulling a small utility trailer on Drag Week, best 60 ft was a 1:56, and was very reliable. Try doing all that with a Holley. . I have yet to duplicate the quarter mile performance with the Sniper, however the best 60 ft improved to a 1:51, 1/8 mile times improved to a 7:32, and mileage went up a little to 18.4. I have yet to try the Sniper pulling the same Drag Week trailer. I’m sure I will eventually equal the Q-Jet performance, the biggest advantage is no more excessive crank time after the car dits for several days. Today’s gas evaporates much faster than the good gas from years ago. The float bowls are empty after a day or 2.

 

[Scott Zimmerman]

i have my Sniper running ok now
i ditched the onboard regulator after it was bad out of the box and the replacment was also

then it had a ecu failure but not heat related

i use the progressive linkage
out of the box is a joke as far as pedal feel

i say shame on holley for making us all non compensated BETA testers

it ahould have been deeply discounted or free and thank god this was not my daily driver I would have lost my job

 

[SquareRoot]

Glad to hear it's working for you. The whole Sniper experience was a nightmare for me. The Holley engineering Dept must have got dropped on thier heads over this one.

 

[86Peter454]

I ran a Q-Jet on my Olds for years before I swapped to a Sniper. I had modified, tweaked, experimented until I had it pretty well dialed in. My best ET had been 11:64,knocked down 15mpg pulling a small utility trailer on Drag Week, best 60 ft was a 1:56, and was very reliable. Try doing all that with a Holley. . I have yet to duplicate the quarter mile performance with the Sniper, however the best 60 ft improved to a 1:51, 1/8 mile times improved to a 7:32, and mileage went up a little to 18.4. I have yet to try the Sniper pulling the same Drag Week trailer. I’m sure I will eventually equal the Q-Jet performance, the biggest advantage is no more excessive crank time after the car dits for several days. Today’s gas evaporates much faster than the good gas from years ago. The float bowls are empty after a day or 2.

this does kinda make sense.

according to engine masters (show on motor trend on demand if anyone isnt familiar) carbs almost always make more top end power but drivability is almost always better with efi.

just curious did you go down or up in cfm over your q-jet to efi?

 

[bluex]

Glad to hear it's working for you. The whole Sniper experience was a nightmare for me. The Holley engineering Dept must have got dropped on thier heads over this one.

I highly doubt it, for every one that had a horrible time with one like you there are 3-4 more that have had no issues. I'm going to the Holley tuning school in August. I'll ask them about it for you....

 

[Frankenchevy]

I highly doubt it, for every one that had a horrible time with one like you there are 3-4 more that have had no issues. I'm going to the Holley tuning school in August. I'll ask them about it for you....

Hopefully more than 3-4 more. If I have any issues, I’ll probably be **** outta luck. I’ve had mine uninstalled for over a year and I don’t recall the length of the warranty. Hope to fire it this week.

 

[SquareRoot]

I highly doubt it, for every one that had a horrible time with one like you there are 3-4 more that have had no issues. I'm going to the Holley tuning school in August. I'll ask them about it for you....

That ought to lead to a secure full-time job. Lol