Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

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ghcoe
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Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by ghcoe »

Well one of my Christmas gifts was a OK to purchase a Holley Sniper FI unit for my Jeep. I was able to talk my wife into it since I was able to pick up a marked down refurbished unit, plus Holley was offering 20% entire site during December. That brought a normally $1111.95 unit down to $799.99. Still a lot of money, but easier to swallow if it does not work out.

Next was a surge tank with pump, but wow! Almost half what I paid for the Sniper FI. Almost pulled the trigger when I though to look on my old stand by Aliexpress. Picked up a surge tank with upgraded pump, figured it saved enough to splurge on that, for just under $100.00 shipped.

I had to pick up the special Ford/AMC spread bore to square bore adapter since I could not ask for another $350.00 for a manifold, even though I saved $300.00 on the surge tank. Maybe for a latter date if I find I really like the FI. Would be a good excuse to change the cam at the same time. That is another time down the road at this point though.

Looking at alternator upgrades now since I read that the Sniper likes it's voltage. Being that the Jeep is pre-circuit board I know the charging system is probably a bit lacking, especially since I will be running a low and high pressure electric fuel pump at the same time. Probably pushing 15-20 amps with just that. I am looking at this unit right now https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.ph ... 57&jsn=420. I have already done the AMP meter bypass and rebuilt the wiring from the firewall out.

Anyway posting up progress here for my own sanity if something goes terribly wrong. Stay tuned, George.
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Milktruck
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by Milktruck »

Wishing you the best on this. I"m in the same boat. Just received boxes from efisystemspro.
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by ghcoe »

Milktruck wrote: Fri Jan 03, 2020 12:14 pm Wishing you the best on this. I"m in the same boat. Just received boxes from efisystemspro.
Thanks!

Good luck to you as well. Looks like you went for everything for your build.
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by ghcoe »

Sniper and surge tank/pump (from China) arrived Friday Jan 3. Ordered the Sniper on Dec 24 and the surge tank/pump Dec 25, that is some fast shipping from China.

Parts ordered so far for future reference. Price includes shipping and tax applicable.

Sniper FI 4150 factory refurbished $812.02
https://www.holley.com/products/fuel_sy ... /FR550-510

Surge Tank with upgraded high pressure fuel pump $97.41
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3298174 ... 4c4dqKq8qi

Earl's 731155ERL Vapor Guard Fuel Filter 10 micron $16.78
https://www.amazon.com/Earls-731155ERL- ... ive&sr=1-1

Trans-Dapt Carburetor Adapter 2199 $67.83
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/trd-2199

Grand total of $994.04

At this point I slid in at just under a $1000.00. Not too bad. I know I will need some hose and fittings once I get everything figured out.
Last edited by ghcoe on Mon Jan 06, 2020 3:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by ghcoe »

I should explain how I plan to do this.

I converted to electric pumps a few years ago. I have one pump for the main tank and one for the auxiliary tank. I have installed one way valves in the hoses to prevent fuel from running back into the opposite tank from the pump that is running. I have a on-off-on toggle to choose which tank to pump from. This system works great and is simple since there is no physical valves to switch. I just have to switch the toggle to the tank I want to pump from.

With the FI conversion I was looking at purchasing two high pressure "in tank" pumps, expensive and a pain to install. Or, I could go to two high pressure "external" pumps, again expensive with the added bonus of being noisy. The last option was to go the surge tank method, and again expensive, but much easier to install. I later found surge tanks on aliexpress with pumps for a 1/4 the cost of domestic prices. Yup!

Since I already like my existing setup I decided to go with the surge tank. This will also make it much easier to change back if I ever feel the need to change back to a carburetor. Also, for field repair it is super easy to get to all my electric pumps for change out.

So low pressure pumps from both tanks will fill the surge tank and back flow to the main tank. High pressure pump will supply Sniper FI with return line coming back to surge tank. This should also help for odd angles with low fuel tanks so no tank baffles needed.

It all sounds good on paper don't it....
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Renodemona
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by Renodemona »

Definitely following along. I had forgotten your dual tank setup, I think the surge tank is probably your best bet without dumping 2 in-tank pumps into your setup.
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by ghcoe »

Renodemona wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2020 4:09 am Definitely following along. I had forgotten your dual tank setup, I think the surge tank is probably your best bet without dumping 2 in-tank pumps into your setup.
Yes a only a fraction of the cost than converting two tanks to high pressure pumps.
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by ghcoe »

So things here are coming along. Turns out that I needed to go through the motor. Was loosing power and MPG pretty fast. Figured I had better look thing over before something real bad happened. I was hopping to just have the heads rebuilt since I figured I had some issues there already. I had broken a rocker arm early last year. So I got everything together and then the transmission had a issue. Turns out it needed to be rebuilt too...

Well in any case the heads came off and we found a broken piston. So much for just head work so the motor came out. Heads where shot too. No hardened valve seats were installed in the last motor rebuild and they were sunk pretty bad. Surprised the motor ran as well as it did for so long.

Heads have been rebuild. Machine work is nearing completion on the motor. Just need to get it assembled. I hope by next week.

I installed the surge tank and Sniper wiring this week. Looking forward to getting the motor back and in. Have some big trips planned for this year, I already had to cancel one because everything is taking twice as long with the corona thing.

Some rebuild information for those who are curious.
-Heads are 70-71 360-390 heads. Hardened seats are now installed. Probably surfaced twice now.
-Bock is bored 40 over and has probably been surfaced twice.
-Crank showed no wear and was surfaced.
-Pistons will be 9:1 pistons. With surfacing of heads and block it will probably be a bit more.
-Cam will be a Comp Cam 268H.
-Sniper Fuel injection.

Hope all goes well so I can see you guys on the trails gain, George.
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by ShagWagon »

Might as well upgrade the ignition system and use computer controlled timing while your in there lol.
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by ghcoe »

ShagWagon wrote: Mon May 04, 2020 12:28 pm Might as well upgrade the ignition system and use computer controlled timing while your in there lol.
That will probably be down the line a bit. I already have a Motorcraft/HEI hybrid in there.
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by ghcoe »

It has been a up hill battle with the whole engine rebuild. I got the motor in and the Sniper installed and had issues. Reinstalled the carburetor and still had issues, but was at least able to keep it running at least long enough to figure out a possible cause. Left the carburetor on because it was running and running good. I had a few trips to go on with time running out so I left the carburetor on for the trips. Now the trips are over so I decided to reinstall the Sniper. Took me 1 1/2 hours and I was driving with the sniper installed. Seems to be running fine now so I think the issue has been fixed. Time will tell.
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by ghcoe »

It has been a up hill battle with the whole engine rebuild. I got the motor in and the Sniper installed and had issues. Reinstalled the carburetor and still had issues, but was at least able to keep it running at least long enough to figure out a possible cause. Left the carburetor on because it was running and running good. I had a few trips to go on with time running out so I left the carburetor on for the trips. Now the trips are over so I decided to reinstall the Sniper. Took me 1 1/2 hours and I was driving with the sniper installed. Seems to be running fine now so I think the issue has been fixed. Time will tell.
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by mikaljones680 »

ghcoe wrote: Mon Dec 30, 2019 11:34 am Well one of my Christmas gifts was a OK to purchase a Holley Sniper FI unit for my Jeep. I was able to talk my wife into it since I was able to pick up a marked down refurbished unit, plus Holley was offering 20% entire site during December. That brought a normally $1111.95 unit down to $799.99. Still a lot of money, but easier to swallow if it does not work out.

Next was a surge tank with pump, but wow! Almost half what I paid for the Sniper FI. Almost pulled the trigger when I though to look on my old stand by Aliexpress. Picked up a surge tank with upgraded pump, figured it saved enough to splurge on that, for just under $100.00 shipped.

I had to pick up the special Ford/AMC spread bore to square bore adapter since I could not ask for another $350.00 for a manifold, even though I saved $300.00 on the surge tank. Maybe for a latter date if I find I really like the FI. Would be a good excuse to change the cam at the same time. That is another time down the road at this point though.

Looking at alternator upgrades now since I read that the Sniper likes it's voltage. Being that the Jeep is pre-circuit board I know the charging system is probably a bit lacking, especially since I will be running a low and high pressure electric fuel pump at the same time. Probably pushing 15-20 amps with just that. I am looking at this unit right now https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.ph ... 57&jsn=420 https://cyberpunkclothing.net/. I have already done the AMP meter bypass and rebuilt the wiring from the firewall out.

Anyway posting up progress here for my own sanity if something goes terribly wrong. Stay tuned, George.
best of luck for this!
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by ghcoe »

I guess I should do a update.

The Sniper ran great for two weeks and then left me high and dry on the freeway. I was in the process of troubleshooting when I found out that Holley does not sell a lot of the electronics for the Sniper. You have to pull the unit off and send it to them for evaluation and service and then they will send it back to you. Well I did not want a in field unserviceable device on my Jeep so off it came off and I sold it.

I looked at a couple other FI venders that use GM parts, but they said with my engine compression and cam they did not have a program for it. So I guess I am stuck with the carburetor. Which really is not a bad thing. It has always ran fine with the carburetor. I just did 3 500+ trips and one was at 8500 feet in 99 degree weather and it ran fine. I was just hoping for some better MPG with the FI. To be honest I really could not tell a power difference between the FI and carburetor. The motor did seem to sound different at freeway speeds though.

I do have a Air/Fuel meter on its way. I figured since I have a oxygen sensor bung in the exhaust I may as well use it. I hope to use it to dial in the carburetor to a better tune. The Motorcraft 4350 has adjustable meeting rods so with the meter I should be able to get it tuned proper since who knows if they got it right when they remanufactured it.

I also had to order in a electric choke conversion kit since the Performer manifold does not have provision for the stove pipe type choke. I picked up a kit from Mike's Carburetor Parts https://www.carburetor-parts.com/cu1109.html .

See you on the trails, George.
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by babywag »

That is my main hesitation with the aftermarket EFI stuff...

One thing to consider is GM TBI while old school, you can get parts ANYWHERE.
Very well documented and supported system. Lots of forums and folks to help!
Even *if* you had to have a shop work on it, exact same diagnostic procedures for GM vehicles.

If you still want EFI? talk to Bill Hamilton, he'll set you up. Or roll your own? (not terribly difficult)

Just my .02
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by ghcoe »

babywag wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2020 9:45 am That is my main hesitation with the aftermarket EFI stuff...

One thing to consider is GM TBI while old school, you can get parts ANYWHERE.
Very well documented and supported system. Lots of forums and folks to help!
Even *if* you had to have a shop work on it, exact same diagnostic procedures for GM vehicles.

If you still want EFI? talk to Bill Hamilton, he'll set you up. Or roll your own? (not terribly difficult)

Just my .02
Yup, been thinking about it. Like I said I checked with two makers of the GM based FI systems. They did not think they had a good tune for my motor setup. My air/fuel guage showed up today. If I can get a good tune on the carburetor ill just stick with it. It does not need a full 12 volts to run. :-bd
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Re: Refurbished Sniper FI 4150 For My Cherokee

Post by ghcoe »

I installed the air/fuel gauge and the choke kit.
Cold idle (choke closed) was 10.5:1. Might lean this out a bit, but I will wait till it gets a bit colder first.
Hot Idle was 11:1 so I turned the screws in 1/2 turn and that brought up the mix to 13:1 and still idles good.
Around town (0-35mph) it is running between 13-13.5:1.

I need to work with the timing some more, but as it is now I think the carburetor is working fine.
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