Holley Sniper and Tech support praise

[BillR1212]

Hi Team,

This may come off as me bashing the sniper unit but I don't want to come off that way. It's most likely my fault and not theirs so I'm coming to the community for help. 

Ordered a super sniper kit/Tank/pump. hooked it up according the specs. I made a mistake here in my excitement to get it running and left a 10pin connector dangling near the header. I just wanted to see if it was true what everybody says, that they fire right up with no tuning. So I went in turned the key and bam. She fired. my excitement was cut short when I noticed a good amount of smoke and plastic smell. Shut her down walk to the front and noticed my un used connector had some melted plastic. Oh well. wasn't using it anyways. Taped it up out of the way and went on my way. let her idle for a while in the driveway. Took it for some short trips to the gas station. Was running great. Finally decided to take it for a voyage on the highway. 20 minutes into my run the car died. pulled over on the side of the interstate. "searching for ECU" is what the touch screen was saying. Checked all my connections but no dice. Waited for the tow truck.

Holley said that I likely fried the ECU by melting one of the connectors. I rebutted that it worked fine for a day and half why would it all of sudden have a issue? Either way. They wanted it back. I shipped it to them. They charged me 250 dollars for my mistake and sent me a new one. I was excited to get it back and plug and play. All the connections where already there so I just plopped it on the intake clicked up the harnesses and went to turn it on just to see "searching for ECU" again on the brand new system. Brought it to a friend who is a master mechanic and does this stuff all the time. He immediately said I likely messed up the wiring. So he took the new harness, and re did all of my work right down to dropping the gas tank, and making sure nothing was grounding out on the fuel pump.

We thought we had it this time. Plugged it in and got searching for ECU again. no dice. Called Holley and they ran me through a few things and finally said they would swap it out for another.

now to this point I want to say Holley tech support as been top notch. They always take my call and work through it with me. I even told them that I think it's something I did or a grounding issue with the car, but nonetheless they still offered to replace it. So even though I'm having issues its nice to know they still are willing to help. I can't say enough good things about them during this process. I just wanted to make that clear.

Now for my setup. I have a battery in the trunk. Wires for my MSD 6Al which has ran fine for two years with this set up all go straight to the trunk. EFI goes back to the trunk and hooks directly to battery posts per the instructions. Battery is grounded to a bolt welded to my trunk which I was told should be fine being that it's a unibody car. I asked Holley if I should run a ground strap to the engine block and they said it shouldn't matter. idk. I'm stumped. hoping the third unit works, but if it doesn't then there has to be something in the way the car is wired up messing with it. I'm confused that the first system worked and then didn't. It would reason that a new one should have worked fine. Especially after it was re-wired to fix any of my amateur mistakes.

Anyways - thought I'd share. Holley has been supportive, and I hope it works out, but thinking I should have just had the old trusty carb tuned up.

Any ideas would be helpful.

[Brads70]

  Curious as to the outcome...

[RUNCHARGER]

Run an engine ground. I had a light gauge one in my 71 Challenger and the headlights were dim until I shoved in the clutch so I'd say it's pretty important.

[303 Mopar]

   You should have an engine ground anyway, and besides it can't hurt.  When I swapped my battery to the trunk in my Challenger we ran a ground for the MSD and battery in the trunk and a separate engine ground.

[BillR1212]

Just to be clear - I have a engine ground to my K member. Are you running one from Engine to battery?

[shawge]

OEM wiring has a ground from engine to battery negative. 

What was the melted connector supposed to go to?

Are you able to connect to the ECU through other means besides the hand held display (ex laptop and usb dongle)?  I think the Snipers use a CAN bus to communicate to the display. If that bus is compromised you'll never reach the ECU.

[303 Mopar]

I grounded the battery in the trunk and the engine to the body.

[BillR1212]

I did not try anything but the handheld unit. I don't think a Mac works with these systems. I bought a regular PC but it's loaned out to a family member. I'll await the new unit from Holley. If it does not connect I'll assume its my wiring and will try the ground strap from negative post to engine directly.

[BillR1212]

just wanted to update. New sniper was mailed to me. Plugged it up and fired right away. Went on a 2 hour cruise and everything seems to be working. They are sensitive it seems like. I'm also shocked that a ECU is able to work being built into the throttle body. These big blocks create a TON of heat. I'm scared to hook my sound system back up as I don't want anything messing with the sniper. For now I'll enjoy the new 3 inch exhaust that I just had installed.

Cheers.