I think this is my next project car

One way to change the color of your headers!
13 is too rich at idle. I remember when I was using the shop scanner in a previous life, the idle readings were closer to 14.5 to 14.8. Naturally at a higher power like full throttle under load 12.5 +/- half a ratio is safer to avoid detonation. Anyways I have no real advise as I stepped back to a QJet instead of going to a Sniper. I am used to the carb.
You will get it as others have.
Pierre
 
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All I have on the cam is it's made by crane and it had .450 lift and 220 deg of duration. I tried to get ahold of the engine builder and apparently he's not in business anymore. Without tearing the engine apart and getting a number off the cam that's as good as it gets.

The timing where it is ran good with the carb. Some times it sounded like it might be detonating at higher advance. When I put the injection on they tell you to NOT change anything like ignition and that the injection won't cure any existing problems and to add timing control after it's running well with the injection setup. So I left the ignition as is and I'm glad I did considering the glowing headers. The only thing that was changed was going to the fuel injection so there was no question it was causing the problem. If I'd have changed anything else it would have been ever more difficult to find the problem.

The new hyperspark controls timing so I'm not going to mess with anything before I put it on. I was considering finding true TDC with a stop screwed into the spark plug hole to verify the mark on the balancer just to be sure it's accurate.

The afr at idle was set at 13.5. Now it's 14.2. The injection is supposed to go into learning mode and adjust itself, but the engine temp never got warm enough to do that without melting down the headers and probably the car and my shop and house. It did get into learning mode but just sitting at idle and it needs to be driven for it to learn everything.

I'd take the car for a drive but my wife is out of town and I don't have anyone to rescue me if something goes wrong. Hopefully next weekend I can take it for a spin.
 
Are the cylinder heads Vortec? If so, that is about maximum lift.
If you are hearing detonation at 30, maybe you should check TDC and compare to the timing marks. I had the outer ring on the damper slip on my 327. drove me nuts until it got figured it out.
 
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alloy said:
All I have on the cam is it's made by crane and it had .450 lift and 220 deg of duration. I tried to get ahold of the engine builder and apparently he's not in business anymore. Without tearing the engine apart and getting a number off the cam that's as good as it gets.

The timing where it is ran good with the carb. Some times it sounded like it might be detonating at higher advance. When I put the injection on they tell you to NOT change anything like ignition and that the injection won't cure any existing problems and to add timing control after it's running well with the injection setup. So I left the ignition as is and I'm glad I did considering the glowing headers. The only thing that was changed was going to the fuel injection so there was no question it was causing the problem. If I'd have changed anything else it would have been ever more difficult to find the problem.

The new hyperspark controls timing so I'm not going to mess with anything before I put it on. I was considering finding true TDC with a stop screwed into the spark plug hole to verify the mark on the balancer just to be sure it's accurate.

The afr at idle was set at 13.5. Now it's 14.2. The injection is supposed to go into learning mode and adjust itself, but the engine temp never got warm enough to do that without melting down the headers and probably the car and my shop and house. It did get into learning mode but just sitting at idle and it needs to be driven for it to learn everything.

I'd take the car for a drive but my wife is out of town and I don't have anyone to rescue me if something goes wrong. Hopefully next weekend I can take it for a spin.
Click to expand...
It may just be my viewpoint using the picture; but, it appears the front 2 are glowing but the next one back isn't. Could it not be feeding equally, starving one or 2 cylinders?

With my big block I ran the coldest plugs available, put the fuel in wet and started the fire (at 4600RPM) at 38 degrees BTDC (16 Degrees BTDC at startup). My point is I was putting the fuel in wet, maybe the injection system is feeding vapor, that will also cause precognition and heat issues because it explodes rather than burning.

And for those scratching your head over my timing below is my cam card.

Cam.jpg
 
The heads have the vertical bolt pattern like vortec's do, but the receipt on the engine is from 2003. Nothing about the heads.

Yeah as I said I'm was considering checking tdc, but now I am definitely going to do that. I was thinking of making a stop out of an old spark plug, but I can buy one from amazon for $11. I can't even turn a machine on for that price. It's supposed to be here on Monday, and I got a notice that my wire adapter for the new distributor will be here Wednesday.


So I should have everything ready on Wednesday to put the new distributor in.

Yes #6 and #8 were glowing, and #5 was also extremely hot. Cooked the ceramic coating off my headers on those 3 cylinders. I'm not sure why just the 3 cylinders were so hot and others were cold. But after adjusting the idle afr all the cyliders and running the engine for about 10 minutes all cylinders measured very close to the same temp on the header tube with my temp measuring gun and I was able to let the engine get up to operating temp and that allowed the fuel injection go into learn mode. I'm hoping that it will be alright now.

Fingers crossed.

After the new hyperspark distributor then next is the new coil over front end.
 
I've never been around holley sniper efi systems, but i've heard plenty of bad and good things said. From that and from experience in EFI tuning it takes real knowledge to tune an engine to run to its optimal. Even some of the russian electronics experts that break in new cars ecus have said to me with evry system you need help from an expert to set it up properly and to know if something is not right. On carbureted engines we don't know how bad they have there mixture and timing. Look for a shop that has good reputation and experience in efi tuning to help you set your ecu tune.
 
When you go to see it in person don't forget your magnet . You'll want to know how much BONDO you're buyin'.
 
There are no shops around here for tuning. I know of one shop with a dyno but no tuning. There are many remote tuners out there and in a holley snipers group on FB and there are so many posts about tuning scammers. No one seems to agree on a reputable tuner. Supposedly the sniper is self learning.

The original sniper has been around for 10 years now and there have been a lot of advances in computer technology in that time, and the sniper 2 is totally different. So now that I don't have glow in the day headers I'm going to see how it runs before looking at a tune. I have only one business I trust for tuning (PCM of NC) but they don't do tunes for holleys, just oem computers. I've spoken to him about it and he agrees there is a huge market for the holley but they are at their limit. His only tuner works 12 hour days now. And finding another tuner is tough. He tried that, didn't work so good he said.

So I'm not sure if I should run the car as is when my wife gets home and give the system time to learn before the new ignition. I want to get the ignition in but it may be better without it. Holley stresses to get it running before the new ignition. I only ran it sitting still so don't know how it will be running down the road. So far the throttle seems very crisp now that the idle afr was changed. I just wonder if the computer would have picked up the idle afr problem if I could have gotten the engine up to temp for learn mode to activate. But couldn't with my glowing problem after running the engine for 2 minutes.
 
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In place with no load you only have few cells map on you fuel and ignition map. Dependent on the software you can have 2-16 cells for every RPM dependent on the engine load, temp, ignition, fuel quality. If it a true self learning system then i'll advise you first drive it normal like everyday car, then do the high gear big load then do the full RPM range at low, medium and high load. Manual gearbox really helps with that on the street, if you get baking or uneven power delivery if its not ignition related, do it couple more time it should disappear. I Have some experience with Bosch motronic ecu they are slow learners and very crude mapping, but once i won a race because the AUDI throw an error and went in to a limp mode and me with 150 less HP drove around him, i actually seen and hear him as his car nose over and pulled timing.
 
As much as I want to put the new parts on the car I'll wait and drive it for a little while. I think my wife will be home Friday and maybe this weekend I can put a few miles on it.

In the mean time I can finish gathering parts and finish the additional wiring for the ignition.

I just ordered this and am anxious to use it to label my wiring. I realized even though I wired the entire car I find wires that I don't know where they go to and have to trace them out.

Be warned if you buy this printer it's a real pain in the a** to set up. The printer cost is reasonable, but the shrink wrap labels are about $30 per roll. There are different colors of shrink wrap.

 
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