Great day! No more Sniper pos.

[SunSoaked]

Short story- Bought a Sniper, installed per instructions, ran for 150 miles and it quit. Sent back to Holley under warranty, got it back, hooked it up....same failure -"searching for ECU". Sent it back again. Repaired...was told it needed a firmware update. Got it back, verified it worked and immediatly sold it for half what I paid for it to a " Holley dealer" from the Holley Sniper forum on the Holley website.
I HIGHLY recommend anyone contemplating buying this POS to spend some time reading thru that forum and take note of the endless issues they are having. As people are saying, it's not if but when it's going to die. In retrospect, I can't help but wonder who thought mounting an ecu on top of an engine with the heat and vibration was a good idea? I had lost confidence in it from the start. Thank God it died in my driveway and not out in the desert 50 miles from nowhere with the wife and kid. Put the Edelbrock carb back on and she runs as good and I'm not scared to drive it again.

[liftlawssuck]

I had just worked on one that the owner was about ready to throw it in the trash as well. I convinced him to let me see what I can do with it before axing it. I had never worked on one but like the idea of it and really get into theory and all that crap. Basically I wanted to educate myself with it. Every time it ran differently than before and behave very strangely.

Well after a lot of tweaking and rewiring and talking with Holley I got it. It took a lot fair amount of work to get it right and I learned a lot about the system at the same time. I know there have been issues with peoples but some I think they are installation/owner induced. When you get to this side of the things you need to have everything perfect electrically. You also need to understand theory a lot more because you have to input parameters to make things work.

So the issues I found were not clean dedicated grounds, dirty voltage, and EMI creating issues. Cleaned all that up and this things runs super strong now. Completely different vehicle. He's put over 5k miles on it and never had an issue since.

Again not sayin they haven't their share of issues but I think some go back too soon after not understanding the operation first. They take time to dial in and patience is key. But once it's dialed in it is unbelievable how it runs. I would have never guessed it would have been that much of a difference.

Just my observations after talking with people who have them or know someone who does.

[SunSoaked]

Originally Posted by liftlawssuck

I had just worked on one that the owner was about ready to throw it in the trash as well. I convinced him to let me see what I can do with it before axing it. I had never worked on one but like the idea of it and really get into theory and all that crap. Basically I wanted to educate myself with it. Every time it ran differently than before and behave very strangely.

Well after a lot of tweaking and rewiring and talking with Holley I got it. It took a lot fair amount of work to get it right and I learned a lot about the system at the same time. I know there have been issues with peoples but some I think they are installation/owner induced. When you get to this side of the things you need to have everything perfect electrically. You also need to understand theory a lot more because you have to input parameters to make things work.

So the issues I found were not clean dedicated grounds, dirty voltage, and EMI creating issues. Cleaned all that up and this things runs super strong now. Completely different vehicle. He's put over 5k miles on it and never had an issue since.

Again not sayin they haven't their share of issues but I think some go back too soon after not understanding the operation first. They take time to dial in and patience is key. But once it's dialed in it is unbelievable how it runs. I would have never guessed it would have been that much of a difference.

Just my observations after talking with people who have them or know someone who does.

I won't disagree with your observations. However, have you seen the Holley ads for it in mags or on TV? Quote" no more hard starts, flooding, poor gas mileage...only three wires...self learning...blah.blah.blah".
Very misleading! Like you found out, it requires a LOT of tuning and understanding of operation. I didn't spend $1000.00 to spend the time to have to learn how to make it run better than the carb it replaced. That's besides the high failure rate of the parts they use.

[liftlawssuck]

Originally Posted by SunSoaked

I won't disagree with your observations. However, have you seen the Holley ads for it in mags or on TV? Quote" no more hard starts, flooding, poor gas mileage...only three wires...self learning...blah.blah.blah".
Very misleading! Like you found out, it requires a LOT of tuning and understanding of operation. I didn't spend $1000.00 to spend the time to have to learn how to make it run better than the carb it replaced. That's besides the high failure rate of the parts they use.

I agree with you 100%. It is very misleading. I think a lot of people see that and think they can just throw it on and be done and will get all those benefits. Wrong!! Most people can get a carb vehicle running good enough to drive it. Run well and be very reliable. But these require much more precise tuning and understanding. Which is what happened to the guy I know. He figured just that. After working on one I'm not totally convinced of the "self learning" thing. I must say though that the Holley service guys were awesome in working with them.

But holy cow this car is completely different. All the things Holley said it would do, it does. It just took a lot longer to get there.

I haven't had any experience with any of the other kits out there to compare to or have talked with anyone who have them. I'd be curious about their thoughts of them. Maybe you have some thoughts on them.

[SKR]

Mine has been trouble free. I didn't do the installation, but the guy who did said it wasn't much more than inputting all the information it needs, turning the key and taking it around the block a couple times. Maybe I was lucky.

[skyphix]

Another thing to mention to those considering I think any of this style kit: Dual plane intake manifolds without a relief cut in the center or an open body spacer of at least 1/2" can and will cause drivability and tunings issue most of the time. And, as others have stated, you might as well go through and reground your car at the same time because thats pretty critical. Make sure nothing is shorting to ground or anything like that at all.

To OP: Definitely sounds like you got a crappy batch of ECU's for sure. It sucks, because these systems get a bad rap for QC issues like that. I talked to a guy not long ago that went MSD Atomic on a Chevy 350 in a 67 Buick and he absolutely unquestionably loves it. Its his wifes daily driver 5 months of the year. 10,000 miles on it since Christmas last year (and consider old cars dont come out until May up here.) Zero issues. But I've heard at least as many stories like yours where it just wasnt ever going to work for them. The hit-or-miss nature of this is one of the reasons I decided to FI my LS swap at install time rather than doing a carb at first and using a self-learning like this in the future to simplify wiring and throttle cables and all of that.

[SunSoaked]

The second thing I hated after startup was the obnoxious howl/whistle it produced. Took the forums advice and added the spacer. No change. Tried to ignore it.

[sweetk30]

howl/wistle was prob from open element air cleaner ?

if so thats why . any efi system with open air cleaner you will here the sound .

thats why people think they get tons of extra power on a cold air kit with the normal open element . . . . a true cold air kit to me keeps it closed but gets air rammed in from the front before radiator .

[SunSoaked]

Originally Posted by sweetk30

howl/wistle was prob from open element air cleaner ?

if so thats why . any efi system with open air cleaner you will here the sound .

thats why people think they get tons of extra power on a cold air kit with the normal open element . . . . a true cold air kit to me keeps it closed but gets air rammed in from the front before radiator .

No. Holley said it was from the edge of the flange gasket. Or some say it's from the manifold not having a relief cut. Whatever the cause, it was annoying. I personally think it was from the IAC port because it varied with the plunger depth.
At any rate, my Edelbrock Pro-flo never had it.

[SunSoaked]

Most people don't realize that it only tunes itself to the parameters that YOU must enter. There is only 3 AFR's (idle, cruise, WOT) and Holley sets them on the rich side to err on the side of safety. So- it may run well, but it's going to run rich until someone tunes it to maximize efficiency. And again, you have to tweak the transition areas ( prime, crank, cold start, acceleration...).The wizard will get it close enough to start and run ok, but not always.

[dieseldawg142]

Originally Posted by SunSoaked

At any rate, my Edelbrock Pro-flo never had it.

i have been running a 1st gen Pro-flo for close to 20 yrs now...other than 1 fuel pump replacement, have'nt had any issues...
any reason why you don't run it anymore? i too have thought about upgrading, prob to the 2cnd gen hardware.
and that LOUD annoying hiss i belive is your air filter...
when i run this cleaner (ya, it's ugly...) the 454 is quiet as can be, no air hissing or roaring...


but i am currently running an open element cleaner right now, which does give that annoying hiss. i find after the truck is warmed up, it goes away, and strangely, i find it gives me just a little more power/driveability in the mountains..

[skyphix]

Originally Posted by SunSoaked

The second thing I hated after startup was the obnoxious howl/whistle it produced. Took the forums advice and added the spacer. No change. Tried to ignore it.

yeah, I have no doubt your issues were ECU related, not so much tuning, I just wanted to throw that in for anyone else looking at these kits.

[sweetk30]

will find out shortly if i got lucky or screwed . . .

mine is close to fire up time .

brand new L31 vortec 350 from gm / edelbrock rpm vortec intake NO divider grove cut out yet / stock tbi truck exhaust manifolds with holley o2 sensor in stock tbi location on the exhaust manifold driver side / y-pipe 2.25" to single 3" collector and 50 series flow master delta flow 3 chamber 3" in/out and tail pipe out to the driver side in font of tire .

i did nylon style fuel lines and stock gm truck tbi tank and sender with acdelco ep381 vortec spec fuel pump for the 60 psi requirement . 3/8" feed and 5/16" return . installed a autometer electric sender fuel pressure gauge kit to keep a eye on it . also have a autometer vac gauge . then to fire it off a MSD ready to run small cap dist with blaster 2 coil .

so will see how lucky i get .

[sweetk30]

IAC air sucking down that tiny channel hole will do it . same sound from a gm tbi with no air lid or flipped lid or open element cleaner .

i am doing a hypertech salad bowl for gm tbi to stock closed system air cleaner from tbi gm truck . so i should be good and stockish sound level . will report back when running .

the hypertech salad bowl will OPEN up the air path from the air cleaner as stock its choked WAY down . see pics .

[rpmerf]

Originally Posted by skyphix

Another thing to mention to those considering I think any of this style kit: Dual plane intake manifolds without a relief cut in the center or an open body spacer of at least 1/2" can and will cause drivability and tunings issue most of the time.

This is something that has come up multiple times in Engine Masters and similar shows like Hot Rod Garage and Roadkill Garage.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by SunSoaked

I HIGHLY recommend anyone contemplating buying this POS to spend some time reading thru that forum and take note of the endless issues they are having.

Too bad you didn't do the same. Been hearing the same thing since like 2006 over and over yet people still buy them.

[SunSoaked]

Originally Posted by Tom

Too bad you didn't do the same. Been hearing the same thing since like 2006 over and over yet people still buy them.

Pretty sure sniper hasn't been around for 12 years. Lol

[LT7A]

Originally Posted by Tom

Too bad you didn't do the same. Been hearing the same thing since like 2006 over and over yet people still buy them.

It bothers me to read comments like this. To me, the point of a forum is to enjoy our hobby and help each other out. Do I have that wrong? Or does this help in some way I'm not seeing?

[sweetk30]

Originally Posted by LT7A

It bothers me to read comments like this. To me, the point of a forum is to enjoy our hobby and help each other out. Do I have that wrong? Or does this help in some way I'm not seeing?

ya sounded kind of sh!ty to me also .

[SunSoaked]

It's all good. The dilemma now is next time I want to make a major purchase is whether to spend countless hours researching it or just post it here and hope Tom chimes in.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by SunSoaked

Pretty sure sniper hasn't been around for 12 years. Lol

Holley fuel injection systems in general. Parts are fine, computer brain operating them never has been.

Originally Posted by LT7A

It bothers me to read comments like this. To me, the point of a forum is to enjoy our hobby and help each other out. Do I have that wrong? Or does this help in some way I'm not seeing?

So someone trying to help everyone out saying don't buy these things makes a post, someone else comes on and says yup they've sucked for a long time, and you find that offensive or wrong in some way? I guess I should just let everyone assume his single interaction with Holley is all the data needed to come to a conclusion then right? The point is everyone has a voice. We all have different interactions with the same products.

Originally Posted by SunSoaked

It's all good. The dilemma now is next time I want to make a major purchase is whether to spend countless hours researching it or just post it here and hope Tom chimes in.

Since you wanna be an ass about it, you obviously already didn't do any research before wasting your money and time since I'm not the only one who's heard about this.

[LT7A]

Tom, if you can't see how unhelpful and borderline unkind the italicized part below is, there is not much use discussing it with you. And my comment stands -- it did bother me. And you know what, you're right, I do find it offensive that you would take a jab at someone who is already having bad luck with a product. He goes to the trouble to post his experience and gets that response? Thank goodness there are a bunch of others that appreciated his post and agreed or respectfully had a different opinion. If this site isn't about helpfulness, enjoyment, and who knows -- maybe even encouragement, then what's the use?

Posted by SunSoaked
I HIGHLY recommend anyone contemplating buying this POS to spend some time reading thru that forum and take note of the endless issues they are having.

Posted by Tom
Too bad you didn't do the same. Been hearing the same thing since like 2006 over and over yet people still buy them.




And the comment below is completely uncalled for, even though the OP posted something that jabbed back. I have read thousands of posts on this forum and have never seen anyone call someone else an ass.

Originally Posted by Tom

Since you wanna be an ass about it, you obviously already didn't do any research before wasting your money and time since I'm not the only one who's heard about this.

[sweetk30]

like i said 1st page i was not happy with toms comment also . straight up stick poking and call out . . .

not cool man the way you did that comment tom . . . not cool .

we are here to LEARN . if you want to be that way go over the the other truck web site that has that kind of mentality ( need not be named there that bad )

[bluex]

I think a lot of the problems with these systems are the way they market them. It's not a simple as they make it sound. You really have to be particular with how you install it and be willing to spend the time to learn how it works and how to adjust everything. Rather than using jets, metering rods and a screwdriver to tune now you use a computer.

I had issues with mine early on, mostly caused by me and how I installed it. There are some things that Holley could do better as well I think but overall I am pretty happy with my Sniper and now that I understand the system and how to use it I'll never go back to a carb....

[SunSoaked]

I agree. In my case, this is a daily driver and a weekend exploring vehicle. It HAS to be reliable. Getting stranded 100 miles from nowhere is unacceptable. I either want something I can fix on the spot or the feeling of reliability of OEM engineering. Give me a carb or an OEM transplant (think LS). If it were a hot rod meant for cruising mainstreet on Friday nights I might have a little more patience.