Holley Sniper

[David C]

Encouraging progress! Do you have plans to add the Hyperspark distributor so that the Sniper can control ignition timing?

[David C]

Back to other ways of improving fuel consumption - A bit of research suggests that the 383 is internally balanced so it should be fairly straightforward to adapt to a 46RH transmission with an adapter plate and spacer for the flex plate. PATC amongst others have them readily available, but at about $800.

[Green411]

Well..........

Haven't driven on the roads yet as there's not been enough rain in my area (west of Cambridge) to wash all the winter salt off the roads. So I've fired 'er up a few times and run up to temperature, mainly because it felt good and I'm still getting used to my lovely old 411 actually starting when asked to, instead of doing the automotive equivalent of saying 'Shan't' and stanping it's pretty little foot....

I noticed that tuel gauge wouldn't register so I took the sender out to check the float for a puncture and test the resistence as the float arm moved. All was ok, although there's no reading at the very bottom of the float arm's travel. In the end all I had to do was clean the sender's earth terminal and off on it's travels went the gauge needle, into the heady reaches of roughly half full.

The old 383 was happily idling away after 3rd start when it just coughed and cut out...aah....

Fuel pump wouldn't run with ignition on but ran normally when earthed. Pink ignition wire and red & black main battery connections all had power. Main Sniper fuse was intact. The HHT couldn't find the ECU when connected so the conclusion was (ie my Responsible Automotive Adult Julian said that) the ECU was dead.
I rang Holley Tech and they gave me some tests to do, all of which I'd just done under Julian's eagle eye. So Holley Tech agreed with Julian that as it was all connected correctly, power was available, then the ECU had failed. As it was less than 90 days since purchase it was down to the vendor (Summit) to replace it.
I've emailed Summit and they asked for quotes to send the unit back, which I've provided, and they're thinking about whether they want it back or not.

Anyway, at least my Anglo-saxon copulative vocabulary has had some excercise even if my 411 hasn't...
Will update further when something happens.

[AndrewA]

Thanks for the update - sorry to hear you've product issues.
Giving stuff back to the States is a real pain when it doesn't work or is not as described - hope it's sorted soon.
Great that when it was working it was idling happily.....looking forward to the next instalment.

[David C]

Excellent article in the latest Bodacious with plenty of useful info for those of us considering following suit.

Very keen to get an update on driveability and any improvement in performance and fuel consumption.

I do hope someone tries out the Hyperspark distributor. It seems to me to be just as important to get the spark at the right time as to get the fuel mixture bang on.

[mgu280]

Superb article in BODAcious, thank you. Like other people, I'm thinking of going down the EFI route for my S2 412 360.
Sorry to hear of initial gremlins, ain't that just how it goes.

A question - why did you go for the Holley Sniper? If I go onto the Summit Racing website and filter by Chrysler small block LA, then the option which comes up is the Edelbrock pro-flow.
It is a bit more expensive, but then Bristols have always been a car shaped receptacle for money.

Anyone any experience or thoughts?
Thanks

[Green411]

Thank you for the compliments!
I eventually got the replacement Sniper from Summit. I say eventually because I wanted an audit trail amd thus I initially emailed them. This produced lots of waiting 2 days for them to reply, which consisted of promises but little action. So I rang them and was polite and friendly but firm, whereupon stuff started happening. I kept the pressure up with daily phone calls for a few days until I got an email from their carrier confirming collection. A week or so later the package arrived safe and sound. I had to pester them to refund my £58 UPS fee for returning the dead one though. I don't think Summit were trying to avoid sending the replacement or paying the credit, but I do think that their processes could do with a bit of tighteneing up when dealing with foreign buyers who need a free replacement item. But at least they ship overseas, unlike Holley. So yes I would buy from Summit again. Since then I've discovered that I could have bought a Sniper from CM Frost of Wellingborough, Northants, who are a long standing US parts supplier. Probably more expensive, but less hassle.They keep reasonable Mopar stocks too, as they seem to supply the Jensen club.
So the replacement is fitted and I've since driven about 400 miles. Driveability is excellent, as is starting either cold or hot. Key on, wait a cople of seconds while the fuel pump primes, crank and away it goes. The first tankful gave 14 mpg, including learning, a lot of idling and many shortish journeys while I learned to trust it. The carb gave 12-14mpg and of course was subject to all the usual carb problems, including a strong smell of fuel all the time (I could find no leaks though).
I chose a Holley Sniper because it was simple-ish to fit and as it's a throttle body (ie like a 4-barrel carb but with injectors at the bottom of the barrels) with integral IACV, MAP sensor and TPS then I could disguise it. My understanding of an Edelbrock Pro-Flo is that it's a port injection system. So it's more modern and efficient, but is also more complex and couldn't be disguised. I've used Edelbrock stuff on my old V8 Ford Popular hot rod and it was very good, so I've no doubt the Pro-Flow would work as well as, or better than, the Sniper.
I'm in two minds about a fullyelectronic distributor, which the Sniper ECU could control. I know the old mech/vac advance curve works on my car, and as you'll know I've got rid of the points. Timing curves for 383s are around the internet, which could be copied and loaded into the Sniper, but the question is which one to use? So I'll probably run it as is for a year or so and see how it goes.
I'm currently checking the car over for the trip to the Le Mans Classic at the end of June. The radiator had a pinhole leak so I got it checked over and fixed (5 other pinholes found under pressure test, so it's a good job I did) by Anglia Radiators of Cambridge. They do lots of classic cars and warbird repairs for IWM at Duxford, are a proper old-fashioned place and I can recommend them. Of course one of the trans fluid cooler lines was seized so I've replaced that with Kunifer.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to the fuel 'economy' on the Le Mans trip! Will report back as & when.