1965 LWB Stepside Build

[cwcarpenter98]

I'm a fan of stock style wheels. I think those wheels on that orange truck would look good as 15s. Stock ish, but not exactly

[roll_the_dice]

Found a picture that went with the ad of my truck when I bought it in 2015 VS last week. Doesn't look a lot different...but to me it is a huge transformation.

[roll_the_dice]

OK got my A/C charged today...woohoo...ready for the heat of Savannah!

Also got in a Holley Sniper...going to be interesting to compare to FiTech.

[SkinnyG]

Looking forward to hearing your review!

[roll_the_dice]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Looking forward to hearing your review!

Thanks Greg! Me too. I am excited and nervous. I may end up getting the Hyperspark from Holley too and have timing control with the Sniper.

I appreciate all your help with the FiTech, but I think FiTech has too many issues and zero customer service. I have a hard time with companies that have zero customer service like Fitech. Very sad really.

[88Stanger]

Originally Posted by roll_the_dice

Thanks Greg! Me too. I am excited and nervous. I may end up getting the Hyperspark from Holley too and have timing control with the Sniper.

I appreciate all your help with the FiTech, but I think FiTech has too many issues and zero customer service. I have a hard time with companies that have zero customer service like Fitech. Very sad really.

oh I am so in for this. I have Fitech now = will give it a try then if no good, im off to a sniper also, so please keep us updated!!!

[roll_the_dice]

Originally Posted by 88Stanger

oh I am so in for this. I have Fitech now = will give it a try then if no good, im off to a sniper also, so please keep us updated!!!

I knew you would be watching! See small update below!

[roll_the_dice]

OK, so yesterday, I took the fitech off and uninstalled all the wiring harnesses, O2 sensor, etc. It was a sad thing to see it come off. I had high hopes and it just didn't perform like I wanted and the customer support was atrocious.

The Fitech left me on the side of the road AGAIN Monday...I had to reload factory defaults for it to start again and get it home. I decided that was the last straw for the Fitech. It had cut off/died on me multiple times and left me on the side of the road a few times over the last 5 months.

I installed the Sniper ran all the harnesses (not pretty yet) and went through the wizard on the handheld. I keyed off and then keyed back on to start it. I noticed a gas smell...and went and looked under the hood and there was gas a gas puddle on top of the manifold on the passenger side. I thought maybe I didn't tighten the return line enough..so I tightened again and triple checked my connections. Everything was tight...so I asked my daughter to key on so I could see where it was leaking...and the below video is what is happening.

I emailed the tech support guy I have been talking to...it was now about 6PM. He called me this morning and said looks like an injector O-ring was pinched when they put it together. They are sending me a label to return it to repair and then overnighting it back to me when it is finished. So for now their tech support is much better than Fitech, which is why I decided to try EFI again rather than go to a carb. Everytime I contact Holley they are good with customer support.

I am just glad I noticed the leak (gusher) and didn't crank it.

Holley Sniper EFI - YouTube

[roll_the_dice]

One plus on the Holley side so far...my customer service guy called me back and said they were overnighting me a new unit and sending a call tag for the one I have. Not only that, they upgraded me to the next model Sniper since they didn't have any of the model I ordered! They also didn't have the unit I ordered in stock so they upgraded me to the next higher model! So tomorrow, I will have a new unit and we will try again!

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by roll_the_dice

One plus on the Holley side so far...my customer service guy called me back and said they were overnighting me a new unit and sending a call tag for the one I have. Not only that, they upgraded me to the next model Sniper since they didn't have any of the model I ordered! They also didn't have the unit I ordered in stock so they upgraded me to the next higher model! So tomorrow, I will have a new unit and we will try again!

Is there not a way to service that O-ring?

[roll_the_dice]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Is there not a way to service that O-ring?

There is...but they are going to fix it when I send it back. They didn't want me to have to wait for it to be sent back to them then repaired and sent back to me. My truck is my daily driver, so when my truck is down I have no ride...so I appreciate that they realized that and took care of me.

I was told they are going to take it and use it as a learning tool for their refurbished tech guys...since I bought refurbished, this should not have happened...shouldn't happen with a new one either, but stuff happens...it just depends what kind of customer service the company has...so far so good.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by roll_the_dice

There is...but they are going to fix it when I send it back. They didn't want me to have to wait for it to be sent back to them then repaired and sent back to me. My truck is my daily driver, so when my truck is down I have no ride...so I appreciate that they realized that and took care of me.

I was told they are going to take it and use it as a learning tool for their refurbished tech guys...since I bought refurbished, this should not have happened...shouldn't happen with a new one either, but stuff happens...it just depends what kind of customer service the company has...so far so good.

Gothcha. My line of thinking was:

• They tell you what they think it is

• Provide a p/n for the O-ring you can source locally

• You R&R it

• You move forward if that corrects it

• They compensate you on a future deal if necessary

Stuff happens & them taking care of it like they are is great but not being able to service it like an OE injector can be serviced would be a concern from my perspective.
Not that injector O-rings randomly fail frequently but when it happens, I'd rather be able to repair it quickly.

[roll_the_dice]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Gothcha. My line of thinking was:

• They tell you what they think it is

• Provide a p/n for the O-ring you can source locally

• You R&R it

• You move forward if that corrects it

• They compensate you on a future deal if necessary

Stuff happens & them taking care of it like they are is great but not being able to service it like an OE injector can be serviced would be a concern from my perspective.
Not that injector O-rings randomly fail frequently but when it happens, I'd rather be able to repair it quickly.

You are right he told me what he thinks it is...but without taking it apart no way to guess.

My thinking was I have had the unit installed for 5 minutes and it failed...take care of me not have me take something brand new apart and guess what's wrong. If it were not under warranty I would take it apart and replace an injector, but I am sure if I replaced it without their knowledge it would void the warranty. The injectors are replaceable...most of the main parts are Bosch and OE type pieces.

[SkinnyG]

Sounds like they are really taking care of you though - that's some pretty good customer service.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by roll_the_dice

You are right he told me what he thinks it is...but without taking it apart no way to guess.

My thinking was I have had the unit installed for 5 minutes and it failed...take care of me not have me take something brand new apart and guess what's wrong. If it were not under warranty I would take it apart and replace an injector, but I am sure if I replaced it without their knowledge it would void the warranty. The injectors are replaceable...most of the main parts are Bosch and OE type pieces.

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Sounds like they are really taking care of you though - that's some pretty good customer service.

That makes sense & I agree again that their CS is looking pretty good so far.

[roll_the_dice]

Got the new Holley Sniper delivered. I hooked it up, but need to clean up some wiring, but I had to try it out. It did something the FiTech never did...started and idled without pumping the gas to get it to start.

A couple of short videos--sound is weird on the 2nd video...will get more tomorrow. Will take it for the initial drive tomorrow...so far it is so much better than FiTech. I was never able to start the truck without giving it throttle...I already enjoy being able to crank it without throttle...like efi is supposed to do.

Initial Crank - YouTube

Holley Sniper Idle set - YouTube

[damnyankee36]

Awesome Andy! Glad to hear that Holley is stepping up to the plate. Their method might not be the fastest way but to send you a new one before you send the old one back is great.

I also bought a sniper, the Stealth version for my Camaro. Hope to that I can tune it as easy as yours appears to be.

[roll_the_dice]

Originally Posted by damnyankee36

Awesome Andy! Glad to hear that Holley is stepping up to the plate. Their method might not be the fastest way but to send you a new one before you send the old one back is great.

I also bought a sniper, the Stealth version for my Camaro. Hope to that I can tune it as easy as yours appears to be.

Thanks Larry! Good to see you over here again!

So far so good for the Sniper. I feel I know more about the FiTech because I had to tweak it everyday, but the Sniper ran out of the box less the hiccup of the leak. So it will take me a minute to find all the spots to tweak. I am not going to touch much if anything before I let it learn and see how it falls in line.

The Stealth? Must be pushing a lot of HP on the Camaro!

[damnyankee36]

Nah, I might be at 350-400HP. The Stealth supports 650 HP, I believe. I don't think it's any different than your unit other than the design.

[roll_the_dice]

Tried running the wiring nicer than I had it when I just tested yesterday. The difference I noticed is the super Sniper has the wiring come out the front and the 4150 Sniper have them out the back. The back makes for a cleaner install. Need to clean up a little but not too bad.

I did take the truck for a drive today and I am excited for how it responded. Felt like it ran better than ever. Better still I could not ever get the FiTech IAC set and if I did it never would stay that way on the next startup. The Sniper was set easily and stayed set. Not sure what I am going to do with the free time I will have because I won't be fine tuning anymore...well as much!

[Paul Y]

Customer service makes or breaks a company - our start up - well our 5 year old start up - implemented a customer care program from pretty much day one. End result is we have not lost a customer and everybody has renewed their contract.

The engine bay of your daily driver is wonderful. Love the green.

P.

[roll_the_dice]

Originally Posted by Paul Y

Customer service makes or breaks a company - our start up - well our 5 year old start up - implemented a customer care program from pretty much day one. End result is we have not lost a customer and everybody has renewed their contract.

The engine bay of your daily driver is wonderful. Love the green.

P.

Thanks Paul! I love the engine bay as well. To me it is the crown jewel of the truck. Kudos to you for implementing good customer support!

I couldn't agree more. Maybe because years ago I was a customer support manager, so it is a pet peeve of mine. I think customer service is more important now than ever before and it seems to be worse now than ever before. In the day of the internet and people voicing their displeasure more than their pleasure about a company, you would hope having good customer service would be the norm, but it isn't. It seems a lot of companies get your money and don't care or they try to help, but the support rep isn't trained properly...which is also a pet peeve of mine. I also did corporate training in a past life. So the resources are there to do the job.

I think the difference in FiTech customer support and Holley is the Holley CS rep I talk to is a car guy. He has a couple of square body trucks and 4 other vintage cars. Everyone at Fitech I talked to didn't seem to be interested in cars, it was a job and not a passion. I don't want to work a job if I am not passionate about at least enjoy and want to learn about the product I am supporting.

I could talk for days on customer service...but I will sit back and relish in the fact I am not fighting the Fitech anymore!

[damnyankee36]

I bought my Sniper from EFI System Pro. They talk a lot about their customer service. Hopefully I wont need it but if I do I hope they put their money where there mouth is!

[roll_the_dice]

Originally Posted by damnyankee36

I bought my Sniper from EFI System Pro. They talk a lot about their customer service. Hopefully I wont need it but if I do I hope they put their money where there mouth is!

I've heard good things about EFI Systems Pro. I have ready many of their support posts on EFI.

[pdxhall]

I'm so old school I don't know anything about injection except what I've picked up here on the forum so I haven't got much to say on the subject but it sure looks good and it sounds like you're happy with it.