Fitech 30003 on a 302

[Simon]

I’m considering putting the above on my engine (302, ally heads, mild cam, electronic ignition etc, dyno’d at 335 BHP) it’s not in a ‘40 but in a Cobra. I know I’ll have to sort out a return to the fuel tank and the connections all look straightforward.
Does anybody have experience of these units? Any advice on fitting/plumbing in greatly appreciated.
thank you

simon

 

[Bob Stoeger]

Simon,
I have first hand experience with exactly what you want to do !! Because I did it and my recommendation is go with the Holley sniper efi system ! I fought with that fitech for a hole summer nothing but problems !!!! Put the snipper unit on and it's been perfect ever sense !

 

[Jason Lycett]

I had one and had terrible problems, eventually went back to a Holley carb. The Holley Sniper gets equal criticism in the various US forums. The problem is "self learning" is a bit of myth and to get them to work you need it set up on a Dyno. You have to set target AFR's for the system to correct or "learn to" and without a dyno session your just guessing. And then trying to get cold start correct drove me to insanity. In the Fitechs case the menu system was so poor nobody wanted to touch it. Also bear in mind you have to have a perfect sealing exhaust system so the lambda sensor can correctly read the o2 levels correctly. Took me ages to get mine correct but on a cobra manifold it would be a lot easier. On top of that i had a faulty injector and ecu in only a few hours use, which to be fair to Fitech they did replace under warranty.
I learnt a big lesson , if you want to go fuel injection, buy a mappable ECU set up by a proffesional on a dyno who knows that ECU. There will be a few people that it works well for, but i wouldn't touch one again and if you go on the US forums you will find a lot of people who had the same experience, both Fitech and Holley.

 

[Bob Stoeger]

What Jason says is true you should have it set up on a dino from someone who knows what they're doing , but that holds true for any system put on a high performance engine ! Even a carburetor should be set up on a dino!!

 

[Ron Earp]

Still fighting a fooking Holley Sniper over here. Had to throw in the towel and have a pro guy I know on it, we are on the FOURTH Holley Sniper unit now. So, if FITech is anything like this, I'd say no.

I believe the tbody injection systems are not so easily sorted for the fine tuning driveability and will never be as good as a proper port injection setup.

 

[flatchat(Chris)]

We have fitted a few Snipers to customer cars -- first start up sounds awesome then the issues start--what we have found is that they seem to be susceptible to RFs radio frequencies ie noise - especially on fords as the dissy is right in front of the sniper computer - turn the carb around so said computer is farthest away from dissy Old cars and wiring systems da da -- and I'm no expert!

 

[Neil]

You might try a grounded Faraday shield around your distributor and maybe some filtering on the EFI +12V line.

 

[Ron Earp]

We have fitted a few Snipers to customer cars -- first start up sounds awesome then the issues start--what we have found is that they seem to be susceptible to RFs radio frequencies ie noise - especially on fords as the dissy is right in front of the sniper computer

BINGO!!!!! My man is finding that out as well. We have had two get basically fried and became erratic.

 

[Jim Dewar]

I served time in Sniper Hell! Holley repaired my 1st (HaHa) and later sent me a new replacement. I reinstalled my 4brl after many hours speaking with tech (very nice tech service).

 

[Mark Stackler]

I had the fitech on my cobra and it worked great after i fixed all the bugs. First known problem is the water temp sensor provided does not read properly and will not allow you to get into self learning. Easy replacement with an auto part store replacement. I did not get the fitech to control my ignition timing. Instead I used an MSD programable box and that made things easy. Fitech did the fueling and MSD did the timing.

Another know problem is the prime shot. This squirts some fuel into the throttlebody when you start the car. Instead many of us set this to the lowest setting so it would not be used and instead adjusted cold start based on temperature. there is a great facebook group for fitech

stack

 

[JP Verweij]

I was told, the Holley Sniper is actualy made by Fitech. So the only difference must be software related.

 

[Ian Clark]

How many hours of dicking around just got solved with a few tips from the guys doing the dicking? Thanks guys, much appreciated.

 

[flatchat(Chris)]

I think that the item is mechanically OK but the electronics are created by IT guys who are devoid of responsibility and practicality, especially when this type of gear is applied to dinosaurs, either that or they’re way ahead of their time and assumed we’d all naturally catch on
JMY $.002

 

[Paul Hendrickx]

Those injection units are not bad, but they uncover all little mechanical faults of the engine.
they dont like very agressif camshafts, they need decent vacuum to operate with the injection just under the throttle bodies.
oil consumption, fuel additifs, leaking head gaskets ,are not welcome on the broadband lambda sensor, same with exhaust leaks, which will fault the reading.
they need absolute good power and earthing, good ignition quality products to avoid rf noise,
the learning process can be difficult if you dont reach and keep constant the minimum operating temp of the operating/learning window.
and last.... the exhaust on the gt40 is too short, sometimes much to big in diameter, and every time you come off throttle you suc cold air/oxygen in the exhaust on to the lambda sensor and read lean, adjust the fuel ratio, which would be then too rich etc etc....
Paul

 

[Ian Clark]

It's fair to say a carburetor might get you home even though its not happy, however an EFI system will probably shut down.

If none of the points raised by Paul are at fault there are several more culprits to consider, fuel pressure at idle and under load, fuel plumbing configuration (return and returnless), type of lines (hose or hard line), injector sizing, fuel filters inline or in tank, routing of wiring harness and condition of charging system and so on.

We installed 8Stack EFI systems on Ford Racing 347 Crate Motors a dozen years ago in CAV GT40s, before self learning software was available. Lots of time on the chassis dyno, manually adjusting the math tables, chasing down rabbit holes of setup and mechanical issues. Wasn't fun or cheap but everything worked out great.

The four barrel EFI systems available today depend on every component ahead of and behind them working properly in order for them to do so as well. They're not quite the "plug and play" type of installation you can do in three or four hours the manufacturers would like you to believe.

We put a self learning MSD 4 Barrel EFI system on an ex drag raced Cobra powered by a 351 Windsor. Installation included fitting the high pressure fuel pump in tank, oxygen sensor well way from the collector, changed the intake manifold, fuel rail resonator (retunless system), new distributor and made sure of no leaks.

The engine fired right up on the initial settings provided based on the known engine specs. The fuel economy nearly tripled, exhaust fumes dramatically reduced, overall drive-ability much improved, however over cammed according to MSD tech support regarding higher RPM.

I wouldn't hesitate to put one of these 4 barrel EFI systems on a mild engine keeping in mind the rest of the mods required.

Cheers
Ian

 

[Paul Hendrickx]

Hi All,
good reading and solution for EFI-Rated problems on an Holley Sniper ...

Holley Sniper review - The good, the bad, and learn from my frustration

Said I'd do a review on the Holley Sniper, so here it is. First off, I picked up a 1984 GT350 a couple of years ago that had most of the original parts in it yet, including the dial snorkel air cleaner. Since I had that, I just had to use it. The reason for choosing the Sniper: From the...

www.stangnet.com

Paul

 

[Davidmgbv8]

Still fighting a fooking Holley Sniper over here. Had to throw in the towel and have a pro guy I know on it, we are on the FOURTH Holley Sniper unit now. So, if FITech is anything like this, I'd say no.

I believe the tbody injection systems are not so easily sorted for the fine tuning driveability and will never be as good as a proper port injection setup.

Many if the issues with a Holley sniper on a Ford is RF interference because of the proximity of the HT leads to the front of the carb where the Computer is located. My buddy has installed 4 of these now 3 Mustangs 1 Corvette
Once they went with the Terninator line Which moves the electronics inside the car there have been no more issues.

I highly recommend buying your system thru EFI Pro as they will give great support and even help if you didn’t buy thru them.

EFISystemPro.com

At EFISystemPro.com our goal is simple: Present Fuel Injection simply and provide fanatical customer support. Learn and shop for EFI Systems....

www.efisystempro.com

(From my buddy who tossed one FI tech in the trash because of lack of support)