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Sniper Install: 1937 Dodge Pickup

Posted by Chris Myer 06/1/17 2 Comment(s) Customer Rides,

All In

Custom '37 Dodge Pickup with Sniper EFI Installation

When James came to me about including a Sniper EFI system in his custom '37 Dodge Pickup project, I was all in. But who wouldn't be? After all, this is no everyday fixer-upper. And James wasn't going to be satisfied with just doing the minimum. In other words, exactly my kind of gig.

An interesting twist brought James to EFI System Pro. He had acquired a second-hand Sniper EFI System, but it was missing the 7-pin main and 10-pin I/O harnesses. Holley had already created part numbers so these items could be sold individually. We added them to the EFI System Pro website even though Holley was not yet selling them individually. So when James ordered his new harnesses, we did some "creative acquisitioning" and got them for him when nobody else could. Hey, that's just how we take care of business.

'37 Dodge Pickup Engine Close-Up

Selected EFI System: Holley Sniper EFI, Shiny

James's Sniper EFI system was the shiny version. As you see from the close-up, the installation is absolutely beautiful. At first glance it resembles a clean carburetor installation

The Sniper is mounted to the 5.7 liter LS1 engine using a Holley Mid-Rise carburetor-style manifold. James relocated his coils and installed these cool retro-look finned valve covers to give a period-correct look to the engine. The open Lakester-style headers, black paint, and grinning skull radiator chrome bring everything together to give the most staid driver a start when seeing this in the rear-view mirror.

'37 Dodge Pickup Gauge Cluster with Holley EFI Gauges

Sniper EFI Extras

But this is no pedestrian rat rod. After getting his new harnesses, James asked about gauges. "Interesting you should ask," I pointed out. "Holley has the most gorgeous set of analog-look gauges that are driven directly from the Sniper ECU, allowing you to see exactly what the ECU is reading. What do you need?"

It turns out James wanted everything. Three and three-eight inch speedometer and tachometer. Two and one-sixteenth inch fuel-level, water temperature, voltage, boost, air-fuel ratio and oil pressure gauges. He wisely opted for the GPS-version of the speedometer (no messing around with transmission cables or wiring.) Since the Sniper does not have the ability to read a oil pressure sender he went with a similar-looking AutoMeter oil pressure gauge that blends in well with the Holley gauges.

'37 Dodge Pickup Speedometer and Tachometer'37 Dodge Pickup Other Gauges

The best part for me? James gives me props for my input! "Thank you for all your help. I couldn't have done it with out your Technical knowledge." Man, don't thank me--it was all my privilege. Like I said--I was "all in" at the words "Custom '37 Dodge Pickup"!

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2 Comment(s)

Chris Myer:
06/1/17, 02:08:12 PM
Reply

What do you think about James's ride? Post your thoughts here! Or maybe you have an impressive EFI installation. Don't be shy--we want to see it! Reply here--we'd love to hear about it!

Chris Myer:
03/14/18, 07:33:58 PM

Well, seeing is believing! I'm not sure why they'd say that as I believe James's solution is ideal. By installing the O2 sensor where he did, he is clearly beyond the 10-inch minimum though maybe not quite to the recommended 18-inch limit. It is close enough to #4 that with reversion he should actually be getting some of all four ports on that side. :-)

john mcclinton:
07/30/18, 04:54:31 PM
Reply

I'm very interested in the sniper EFI for my Rat. Have you had any feedback from James on his installation? I was told by Holley that I couldn't run the sniper system on my Rat because of the lakester style headers because of the oxygen sensor. Problems with the short lakester headers and the system getting the info it needs?

Chris Myer:
08/13/18, 03:14:08 PM

Not a word from James--and if there was a problem I'd be the first to know.

I have been doing this too long to guarantee that any specific application installation will work. There is, of course, far too much going on of which I am not aware to make such a guarantee. But I can assure you that there is absolutely no reason why this shouldn't work in a setup such as this one. Yes, it's only seeing 3 cylinders, but that makes virtually no difference. Yes, it is a bit close to the outlet and could see some reversion at idle. But there are ways around that.

If I were doing an initial configuration on a setup like this I would probably start by going into the Closed Loop parameters and disable closed loop below 1500 RPM. The engine should crank and run just fine--if a bit rich. Then I'd gradually drop that minimum closed-loop RPM bit-by-bit while I watched the AFR. If the AFR suddenly take a swing in the lean direction then you would want to push the minimum RPM back up a bit and then manually tune the fuel table below that RPM.

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