Been tossing this idea around for a couple of years. Reading what everyone else has posted about the Holley Sniper EFI. Few weeks ago decided to pull the trigger and jump in with both feet. Why the Wildcat and not he Riv? Well to be honest the Riv is fine as is and it does everything I want it to(for now). The Wildcat is a good driver and was bought mostly for the wife to drive. I quickly found out she is not a carb type girl. Spoiled with modern tech. Jump in, turn the key, drop into D and go. No setting the choke, waiting for it to warm up a bit before ya carefully feather the peddle as it starts moving until warmed up ect. So she didn't drive it. Anyway, got the kit from Michael Fair at Rollins auto in G-ville. They suggested the Hyper spark to go with it and a upgraded Holley pump. They do a lot of these installs and said there was an issue with hot fuel causing problems with the pump that came in the master kit offered by Holley when installed external. (outside the tank). Got all the stuff laid out on the bench made a game plan and jumped in on Monday. First order of business was the fuel system. Drained and dropped the tank, pulled the sending unit to install a fitting for the return line. Plan A was to put it in the sender. No Go. ended up in the tank couple inches away from the hole that I could only get 3 fingers into. Had to make a special wrench to do the reach around! Next to figure out where to mount the pump. Not much space back there. found a spot above and in front of the diff that would work but required a plate to mount to. Cut a piece if 3/16 alumn to size, drilled holes around the edge. transferred those to the mounting location drilled and tapped to 8/32. Next I used 1/4 x 20 Riv nuts to secure the pump to the plate. mounted a pre filter and secured it to the car.
Next was to run a return line, Keeping in mind the hot fuel issue I decided to use the most heat / cooling conductive thing i had on hand. Its not pretty but very efficient at transferring heat. The alum spine fin coils from a trane a/c unit. Its 3/8", I have lots of it so why not! Followed the same routing as the factory 3/8 fuel supply line. routed and zip tie into place. stuff is easy to work with but ya wanna keep the spines as fluffy as possible for better heat transfer. I'd bet the fuel going back into the tank is cooler than when it came out. Also mounthed the wide band sensor in the R down pipe. That pretty much finished under the car
Tuesday/ Weds. Next was to install the Hyper Spark. This was not a hard thing to do but the plug wires needed to be converted to a HEI style connection at the cap. Again I dig into the horde of parts from the last 10 years of building the Riv and come up with what I need. Pulled the wires one by one. change ends , route and snap onto the new cap in the correct location. Swap the MSD coil in place of the stock unit and start making a plan for where Im putting the 6A MSD box. Get an idea which will require another mounting plate.
Thursday. Im not liking the bright red MSD box (or coil) the decission is made to make it a bit more camouflaged. Sure just paint the whole thing black but ya know I cant do that. Nope, tape and mask. Trim and paint, let dry then mount on the car after thats done mount throttle body. But before that lets see if the carter base air cleaner is gonna fit.... and thats a no go Huston. Open another file in the back of my brain to come up with a solution.
Ohh,,, Ok, I read the title and a image of you in camo face paint and outfit, with branches sticking out of your hat, nestled in behind a 7MM magnum with scope while cleaning out the neighborhood feline population came to mind... Holley Sniper FI, on Wildcat.. got it.. JW
Thursday / Friday. Finish the plumbing and make all the connections for the fuel system and then the throttle connections. The trans kick down is simply not going to work in its stock configuration. First thought was to cut off the parts I need from the carter and attach to the Sniper TB. That old carb is complete. runs good so Im not gonna do that. Tried several different things without any success. Ended up moving the mounting tab back couple of inches and making a drop down bracket off the factory linkage to activate the kick down. Its got full travel in and out but I broke the shaft while I was screwing with it and had to repair that as well. Last was the wiring. What to do with that rats nest of wires. Dont wanna cut anything so if in the future I wanna transfer the works onto another car its all there. Mounted the fuel relay and fuse to the firewall and connected to the pump. Ran the hand held touch screen monitor into the car and mounted it into the ash tray so that I can close it and out of site. Started plugging in weather pack plugs and making connections according to the books and multiple messages to Michael Fair with questions. Finally got to the point that I could connect the battery. Nothing! Crap. Its 5 pm. getting dark and its raining. Had enough for the day. Next morning go back and double check all the wires. Theres 2 pink wire that had come loose when I crimped the connector. Fixed that and the plug off the bottom of the fuel pump relay was hanging there. Key on again and I have power! Read the book. set up the required info on the screen. Turned on the key and she started. Set timing as outlined ,followed all the steps in the book, checked sensors ect. went for a ride. Seems to run as well or better than the carb but much more crisp throttle response. The peddle is very hard. Lightend up the return spring and sorted that out to where I feel it will be comfortable on a long trip. Its now learning and setting itself up. Used some wire loom covering and cleaned up / routed wires as best I could. Hoping when I get the stock air cleaner on it hide most of it to where someone would have to really look to notice the changes. Few more things to do before trip at the end of the month.
Ha! Thats funny. Wouldnt have to go far. between the wife and daughter it looks like the crazy cat lady lives here. Theres 7 of them hanging out and getting free meals. several others come and go. On the + side theres no rodents and the squirrels stay out in the woods
Great write up, external pumps can be hit or miss but the clamp on O2 sensors are nearly always a miss. Most any exhaust shop guy thats decent with a torch can pop a hole in the pipe and weld on the bung in about 5 min and it will be cheap money VS the wife calling to tell you the car won't run for her....
I was goingbto say basicly the same thing, weld a bung in and put that sensor in there the correct way. You will thank yourself later.........if that thing sucks some air around it your reading will ve off but you might not ever know
I have the weld in Bung. I have the welder but the day I was at that point it was pouring rain. Actually it rained on and off the entire project and my lift is outside. Anyway I have to run a long 220 cord out to that area to power the mig and wasnt real excited about getting shocked. It'll get done soone than later. I dont like the clamp on thing either.
I know exactly what it cost. - the stuff I already had on hand. Coil, MSD box ,wire, hose, and fittings ect I'm in it for 2100$
I was out in the shop cleaning up my mess and the thought came to me that if this had been about shooting cats it would have turned in a short lived, s--t storm of a thread. Almost hear the fall out..
I've been running a Sniper setup on my pickup for almost 4 years. You're going to want to extend the throttle lever up to connect the throttle cable. I made my own, but you can also buy something like this: https://www.efisystempro.com/sniper...nts/sniper-efi-throttle-extension-lever-20-16 It's pretty common for Sniper owners to have the stiff pedal issue.
I think the issue was that the Carter had no return spring of its own. Linkage just flopped back and forth. The TB has its own spring on the shaft and snaps back pretty good. The car had a really stiff spring built right onto the lever against the firewall. Between the 2 it was like pushing a brick with your leg out stretched using only your toes. Took the stiff spring off and it returned but felt really soft. Put a much lighter spring in its place and it feels about like the wifes Fusion. Its been raining so no chance for another test drive
Re: return line.. Fuzzy, I like it. Ignition: How is the MSD 6 working out with the HyperSpark and Sniper? Fired straight up or any issues? Throttle: I installed an extension right away, (and have a progressive linkage on hand if "needed" you are running so both right?
