EFI for BluePrint engine

[maclonchas]

Folks,

I did searches for this topic and cannot really discern any answers from the forum. So let me ask the question this way:

BPE 427. Holly Sniper or get carburetor and swap to Edelbrock Pro Flo 4.

Thanks for your input.

Ill

[CaptB]

I run a Sniper on a Forte built 427, it is the cat's meow. Started 1st time right up and every time. Computer is great.

[Papa]

You are likely going to get a lot of responses that will lean in totally different directions. I'll try to give you a little of my actual experiences that you can evaluate for your situation.

First, I live near Denver at over 6,000 feet elevation. My experience with carburetors was not favorable on previous cars, so when I set out to build my Roadster, EFI was a "must have" in my build plan. I ended up ordering a 347 from BluePrint with EFI. The engine was delivered with the FAST XFI Street EFI system. On first start, the car fired up on the first turn of the key and all looked to be good. After some time, things went south and the car started fouling plugs and running extremely rich. So rich that I contacted BPE about what to do. BPE had since stopped using the FAST EFI and had started shipping engines with the Sniper. They sent me a complete Sniper setup to replace the FAST EFI. After installing the Sniper, again, it started right up and ran well. After a few cold starts and quick shutdowns (think starting and moving the car), I was again seeing fouled plugs. The issue turned out to be the fuel enrichment settings that the Sniper used when the coolant temps are low. I worked around this by always ensuring that the coolant was at 160+ degrees before shutting the engine off and that solved that problem. The only other issue I had with the Sniper was a popping on deceleration that I could only tune out by adding more fuel in the vacuum/RPM zones of the fuel map that were associated with the popping. Over time, the self-learning feature would reduce the fuel in those regions and the popping would come back. Aside from those issues, the Sniper did very well for over two years and then I started having drivability issues. One culprit was a failed internal fuel pressure regulator, which was a cheap and easy repair. The other was what seemed like fuel starvation. That ended up being caused by contaminated fuel and a clogged fuel pump. By this time, however, I'd started looking into multi-port EFI systems and ended up going with an Inglese 8-stack setup managed by a Holley Terminator X. After some professional tuning, the car has never run and driven better. My advice would be that if you want to do the Pro Flow 4, just get the carburetor from BPE so that you aren't paying for a bunch of stuff you will just replace anyway. Install the Pro Flow 4 before you put the engine in the car. Check with BPE on how this could affect your warranty first.

Dave

[rich grsc]

I'm a 100% believer in a quality EFI system.

[rthomas98]

if you are thinking of going with something other than sniper you can ask blueprint to minus the carb. they don't even dyno the engines with the FEADs and carbs on them those are installed after the dyno run and many times are not calibrated. So I can't see it being a stretch to delete something at that point. This is going by what one of there techs told me when I was dialing in my car.

[Theshandman]

Like Dave, I too got the BPE / Sniper (347) and with only about an hour of go-karting and 10-15 starts (up to 180) its been great.

[Mike.Bray]

The Sniper is a low end/low cost EFI solution. It's not bad but you also get what you pay for. Personally I would step it up a notch or two.

[maclonchas]

Thanks for the detailed response

[maclonchas]

Thanks for your responses

[Fman]

Do you want true multi port EFI? Sniper is TBI, the Pro Flo 4 is true EFI with 8 injectors. I have been running the PF4 on my Dart 427 for about two years now, 4800 miles on it and overall I am really happy with the performance. It fired right up when I installed engine and really have done little to it other than use the wizard and let it run. I am not saying Sniper is not a good system but it definitely is not true multi port EFI. Also, pretty sure you have to buy the complete PF4 package together and can't purchase anything separate to "add on".

Here are a few items I like about the PF4:
ECU is mounted behind the dash out of the heat of engine compartment
Timing is adjustable on the tablet
Multi port EFI
Easy to set up and pretty much self tuning
Comes with distributor, intake manifold, throttle body, decent tablet for tuning and monitoring
Good instructions for installation

Cons:
Fuel rails are visible on the engine unlike Sniper
More expensive than Sniper

For the price I think the PF4 offers a good value for everything that it comes with. When you price the Sniper vs PF4 just realize all the components you are getting with the PF4 system.

Good luck!:cool:

[narly1]

I put a PF4 on the 302 that I built in anticipation of using it in my build and found it to be a fairly straightforward and problem free taking my novice engine building skills into consideration.

There are some tricks you can do to tidy the installation up so it looks more traditional, but the fuel rails will always be there to see.

Earl

[danmas]

Ugh? Really. I have the 427 stage one on order with the Holley Sniper. What would you get if you were me?

[rich grsc]

Is the PF4 batch or sequential injection?

[weendoggy]

Ugh? Really. I have the 427 stage one on order with the Holley Sniper. What would you get if you were me?

That depends on what you want to do. I personally have a Holley Terminator (HP) and love it. Had it for seven years. It has a lot more adaptablility than the Sniper does, but it costs twice as much. Nice part is, the ECU is separate and you can mount it anywhere. I have mine in the trunk on the firewall. Nice thing with the Terminator setup is you can convert to MPFI if you want later on. No changing of the ECU, just a bit of wiring and some hard parts.

[J R Jones]

This Superformance with a 410ci SBF is running an MSD throttle body EFI.
https://www.hemmings.com/auction/1965-superformance-cobra-919468?utm_medium=email&utm_source=saturday

I never heard of it. The guys says it runs great as you would expect (with start and run videos).
jim

[narly1]

Is the PF4 batch or sequential injection?

I believe it is sequential.

Earl

[mburger]

Definitely sequential.

[rich grsc]

Thanks.

[Jrmotorsports55]

I'm actually in the process of removing the donor Ford EFI from my car and installing the ProFlow 4 setup. Can't wait to get this new stuff up and running.

[narly1]

Things I learned from my install:

Make sure you have adequate fuel pressure. My regulator came from the factory set about 5 psi below the minimum required by the PF4. It would only start and run for a few seconds before dying of fuel starvation. It took me a bit to figure that one out.

Also if your IAC % reads wrong make sure that you have your idle RPMS physically/mechanically (throttle stop) set high enough so that the computer has enough "RPM headroom" to work with and throttle back on...I hope my wording makes sense...

Earl

[maclonchas]

Thanks

[mburger]

Things I learned from my install:

Make sure you have adequate fuel pressure. My regulator came from the factory set about 5 psi below the minimum required by the PF4. It would only start and run for a few seconds before dying of fuel starvation. It took me a bit to figure that one out.

Also if your IAC % reads wrong make sure that you have your idle RPMS physically/mechanically (throttle stop) set high enough so that the computer has enough "RPM headroom" to work with and throttle back on...I hope my wording makes sense...

Earl

It’s a simple thing to adjust the IAC but it’s important that it reads 0 at idle. Fuel cutoff won’t work if the IAC is not set to 0 at idle.

[Hellion]

This Superformance with a 410ci SBF is running an MSD throttle body EFI.
https://www.hemmings.com/auction/1965-superformance-cobra-919468?utm_medium=email&utm_source=saturday

I never heard of it. The guys says it runs great as you would expect (with start and run videos).
jim

I have the MSD Atomic 1 System (inherited from the previous owner) on my '65 Mustang Fastback. That car has a relatively stock 289 with a mild cam and automatic transmission, and after performing some tuning myself after I first bought her, the system (which also controls the ignition) works quite well.