Sniper 1 … thing after another

one thing after another lately. fixed ball joints and bearings just to die on the Highway.

86 k10 with 350 and Holley sniper 1. Installed about 2000 mi ago. Did all the correct things, soldering, clean power, direct to battery etc. was running good.

Died suddenly on highway. Screen stays black. Fuel pump primes 60psi then to 0. Has power where it should. Won’t start. Everything I’ve read so far is pointing to failed ecu. Before writing this off and going back to a carb, looking for suggestions.

Any ideas?

Fuel pump priming suggests your ecm is turning on, if its wired through the sniper harness. It could be that your screen has gone bad or it lost its switched power.

Do you see/hear the injectors give their prime shot after/during the fuel pump prime

The screen is not essential for it to run. If your fuel pump is priming, you have fuel pressure and the sniper sees an rpm input it should run. I routinely leave screens unhooked on customer installs so they won't mess with them or stress over all the red/yellow flashing numbers.

What ignition system are you using? Did you use the same fuse/location for switched power to them both?

bluex said:

Fuel pump priming suggests your ecm is turning on, if its wired through the sniper harness. It could be that your screen has gone bad or it lost its switched power.

Do you see/hear the injectors give their prime shot after/during the fuel pump prime

The screen is not essential for it to run. If your fuel pump is priming, you have fuel pressure and the sniper sees an rpm input it should run. I routinely leave screens unhooked on customer installs so they won't mess with them or stress over all the red/yellow flashing numbers.

What ignition system are you using? Did you use the same fuse/location for switched power to them both?

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Thanks for putting me on the right path! Best I can tell, the rotor bushing failed. It was burnt up and gnarled.

Don't get me started on that Gynormous POS.

SquareRoot said:

Don't get me started on that Gynormous POS.

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I wondered where you were.......lol

SquareRoot said:

Don't get me started on that Gynormous POS.

Click to expand...

I know we have our differences of opinion on these units but this is another example of a problem that wasn't even a sniper issue, that it got blamed for anyway.

To be fair the same thing happens with fitech, Edelbrock an probably aces too.

Just like how everyone liked to say the fuel pumps in the sniper kits were Chinese junk, when they literally have (or did) walboro printed right on them.

Sooo.. this is actually an issue of general parts quality ?
Given that a lot of parts seem to be of questionable quality these days, we have taken to re-furbishing any OEM parts we come across, rather than consigning them to the bin and buying "new" -
Case in point - recently "serviced" the starter on my son's GMT 400. He pulled apart the old motor ( Delco branded ), probably original to the truck - covered in muck outside and carbon inside - brushes worn to nothing . He then decided to strip the "new" aftermarket starter from MY truck for parts.
With everything apart on the bench the lower quality of the new aftermarket compared to the OEM was very clear - metallurgy on wear parts - harder on OEM etc. Also the insulation on main windings on the aftermarket disintegrated on removal ( tape wrapped, dried up and flaked off - as the insulation is also between the leaves - effectively impossible to re-furbish ). The older OEM had the field winding insulation dipped in resin, and once cleaned was as good as the day it was made. (You can't see the inside parts quality of new v OEM, and make a judgement call, until you strip it all down).
Replaced the brushes in the OEM, cleaned and greased and re-installed - all for the price of a set of brushes and the home labour. Finding this issue more and more on replacement motors, distributors etc. etc. Even the cam blocks on new points don't seem to last like they did.
Maybe pull some of those junkyard OEM parts, before they head to the crusher ? ..

BIL has one of those sniper 1st generation units on his small block. Ends up that fuel wasn't metering correctly because it was leaking out around the rings with the little spray holes and couldn't pull itself down enough to not way overfuel. I don't know if Summit helped him out with that or not, since he quit talking to me over a disagreement with his sister. Jerk.

Makes me not want to try one, if Summit and the mfg are going to be butt heads about an engineering defect.

Installed Sniper 1st gen on my 85 K10 350 2 or 3 years ago. Everything installed by the book. First problem I had was the fuel pump. Contacted Summit and a new one was shipped. Next problem was with ECU. Again contacted Summit and they shipped me a whole new system. Used what I needed out of it and returned the rest. Been running like a champ since I got it going. Point is Summit Racing customer service went above and beyond to get me what I needed and get me going.