sniper, terminator, LS

[viperman]

Hi all,

In the middle of a debacle. i drank the cool aid and bought the entire sniper catalog,...tank, hyperspark,controller, etc...

I had the RFI gremlins, then some drivability issues. I am no tuner, but wondering if tuning it will change everything. The tuner says he can't be responsible for two weeks from today if he tunes it, thinks snipers are junk as well.....a lot of videos on this as well. Everyone is kind of saying these things are junk and I should go the terminator...keeping the ecu out of the climate...much better, yada yada, another 3K upgrade....

I was hoping you guys had some real advice on this...or do i just go LS swap. I am not really craving performance, but I need this thing to be reliable so the wife and kid can drive it and not have ANY ISSUES..or I will listen to bitchin' and crying and you spent all this money and the car isn't even reliable to drive to work on a perfect sunny day....you get my drift...I love EFI and the fuel economy and such, but I never ever had an issue with carb and would drive this thing coast to coast with a lot of confidence.

I want to hit the key and drive, not download, update, and tweak..and tuning costs money...


Thanks,
JR

[Jk918]

Sniper is a pretty solid system, if you have an engine in good condition to put it on.

[Tsaints1115]

I have two Snipers on two different makes, Ford and Chevy, and have had no issues with either. Attention to detail in doing the wiring is a priority to their success.
As far as a reputable tuner, Andrewb70 on here is the guy who's tuned both of my cars as well as gave me the pointers towards a successful install.

[Mr Nick]

Snipers are hit or miss. I've had one since they were first available, and yes I had gremlins to work through. I had my professionally remote turned, and overall it's very good, but not perfect. I'll never go back to a carb, but if I were to build another car it would have Holley Terminator X Stealth, at a minimum.

What engine is it on? SBF seem to have more issues than others, due to the ECU being so close to the front mount distributor.

[viperman]

Running a BBC, so the RFI issues are all resolved. I think it needs a competent tune- $500....OR i bite the bullet and go terminator....which is much better...trying to cut my losses...but the terminator install and tune is $3500...

Sell the BBC...and go LS and don't look back....another option..THe best FI by far...

[Mr Nick]

If I had a Chevelle, it would be LS powered. But I want to keep an Olds engine in my Cutlass.

There really isn't any reason your fuel injected BBC should not be turn the key and go reliable, but... we all know that an LS is a proven modern platform that excels in that area.

Tough call, good luck to you.

[Pro Touring Store]

I've done a couple swaps that required an aluminum shield between the distributor and the throttle body (/air cleaner) and the issues went away.
One of them, if you shut the hood, it would run terrible. Open it, and it would be fine. Lol. The shield fixed that one.

-Dale

[Moomoox]

I purchased the Sniper EFI carb for my 69 Camaro two years ago and I had a ton of interference that the car was unreliable, it would backfire so much that I considered go back to my four barrel carburetor. What really changed things is that I had to totally rewire the car from scratch to isolate the EFI system away from everything else. I had numerous wiring additions that were installed on the car over the past 50 years and because of these various electrical gremlins it was causing a back feed to the EFI. Since the car as been rewired it seems as the Sniper is working better. I have only been driving the car for two weeks since the rewiring was complete. Sniper really should include a note to there information worksheet for the product.

[streetk14]

I like to consider myself good at electrical and wiring. I did my homework prior to my Sniper install, and still had a bunch of EMI/RFI issues. I spent way too much of my time on the Holley forums trying to resolve it. Wrapping the distributor in foil like a baked potato would eliminate the problem, but I never found a smoking gun. The Hyperspark distributor seemed to be putting out the Interference. Tried everything under the sun, including messing with the rotor phasing.

I don’t think I’ll ever buy a Holley EFI system again.

[shelteredchevelle]

I've done a couple swaps that required an aluminum shield between the distributor and the throttle body (/air cleaner) and the issues went away.
One of them, if you shut the hood, it would run terrible. Open it, and it would be fine. Lol. The shield fixed that one.

-Dale

Hmmm. Anybody I know?:geek:

[dhutton]

I've done a couple swaps that required an aluminum shield between the distributor and the throttle body (/air cleaner) and the issues went away.
One of them, if you shut the hood, it would run terrible. Open it, and it would be fine. Lol. The shield fixed that one.

-Dale
Could you post a pic of the shield?

Thanks,
Don