Pull the radiator....... Drain the coolant into a clean pan and reuse.
BTW if you go with the Holley sniper, I believe you could just use the Edelbrock 7577 intake. You dont need the hughes version with injector ports.
Also, I think you will need a different distributor. I dont believe the factory distributor will work with the sniper.
I will try to find a link showing the install.

 

So from what I can see, the sniper is essentially an EFI carb, or is TBI a better way to describe it? I'd be losing whatever efficiency I have with the MPI but gaining the tunability of the sniper, but I'm not really sure how big of a difference I would notice. I think there is a bundle for the sniper that comes with the distro you need along with everything else you'd need, for like $800 alone, but that would be for the 4 BBD one, I've read for torque you want to keep the 2 BBD but is it really that noticeable with such a mild build?

 

Yep, TBI. Is the linkage on the 4bbl version progressive? Or do all four open at the same time?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeyYou

Yep, TBI. Is the linkage on the 4bbl version progressive? Or do all four open at the same time?

I dont know........... I suspect they are not progressive, but it does control fuel with a wide band o2, along with some other controls. Also, depending on which one you get, it will control timing as well.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by joshmanhoff

So from what I can see, the sniper is essentially an EFI carb, or is TBI a better way to describe it? I'd be losing whatever efficiency I have with the MPI but gaining the tunability of the sniper, but I'm not really sure how big of a difference I would notice. I think there is a bundle for the sniper that comes with the distro you need along with everything else you'd need, for like $800 alone, but that would be for the 4 BBD one, I've read for torque you want to keep the 2 BBD but is it really that noticeable with such a mild build?

I dont see how being a 4bbl or 2 bbl design would effect low end torque. I would think that would be more of a intake manifold design and cam design. But I could be wrong.......
FWIW I am running the 7577 intake and it is a dual plane design. I have 3.54 gears and in 4th it will pull from 20-25 mph without any bucking. I am using a 670 holley carb I already had........ But would like to have the sniper!!

 

A lot of rambling here but just want to have stuff to poke around with while I'm at work. I've narrowed down my decision to the sniper 2 4bbl with a 7577 because I just hate dealing with this goofy computer with the strange fuel injection timing being controlled by the distributor. I'm yet to be able to get a code scanner hooked up as the 97 harness doesn't have a CCD bus going to the computer for some reason, so I have to find somewhere else where it goes because my scanners won't read the codes. Actually, my bluedriver doesn't even have the pins that would line up with the pins that the CCD bus would pin into, and my other ECRI scanner mainly for Jeeps wouldn't read the codes because it couldn't find the VIN, which maybe is a CCD issue?

On another note, until I can acquire the funding to buy a sniper, I have some picking to do with you guys. So the engine, primarily when its cold but it does it sometimes at certain RPM/throttle input, runs like crap, has no power, backfires through the intake, and then eventually clears up. I posted about this previously I think, but I replaced the TPS, and I hooked up the o2 sensor, at least I believe I did, the Dakota has a weird wiring setup where the o2 wire connectors plug into like 3 different connectors between the sensor itself and the wiring harness, so I think I got the right signal wires and power wires hooked up. (It does smell better if that makes any sense, it doesn't smell like straight gas, more like efficiently inefficient burning of gas). It still doesn't want to go when its cold, but it revs perfectly fine in neutral or with the clutch in, just once you put a load on it it bogs and backfires and then randomly decides to go, and it progressively gets better until it warms up.

The v6 did something very similar, I can't recall though if it backfired through the intake or not, but it did bog and then randomly clear up but I think it did it regardless of if it was up to temp or not, which is why I think its something retained from the v6.

So the TPS has been replaced, o2 sensor is hooked up presumably correctly, the only thing remaining that was from the v6 is the TB (a Holley V8 one, not the v6 one), and the IAC and MAP sensor. Everything else I can think of that could be causing it to run like this has been replaced, IAT sensor, there is no cat, I hear no vacuum leaks and I actually only have 2 things hooked up to vacuum being brake booster and the AC vent actuator, everything else is plugged. I don't think the transmission can be causing it to bog down especially being a manual. The only two things I'm thinking of is either the MAP sensor is sending out bad readings causing the computer to compensate for a problem that isn't present, or the IAC valve is staying open when it shouldn't be and allowing too much air into the intake but I feel like that wouldn't cause backfiring.

I've been checking the timing every once and awhile, lining up the balancer with the v8 mark, (the one I have doesn't have a v8 mark, but I compared it to the original one and the mark is in the same place as where the cut out for the balance weight stops so I've been using that as a reference), and it hasn't made any real difference. Backfire through the intake really screams timing issue to me, but only while its cold kind of makes it seem like its the computer advancing the timing for a different reason. My dad also has been digging into what the screw is on the throttle body that adjusts the butterflies, and I have had this strange issue where the engine dies when coasting and you put the clutch in unless the butterflies are open slightly, so is that a sign of a bad IAC valve because it's not able to compensate for the drop in RPM? Or is that screw not actually an idle screw?

 

What pcm are you using?? And what year truck was it out of.

 

It’s a 96 PCM out of a 1500 5.9 AT

 

Stalling may be due to the PCM expecting an auto..... I've seen reports of this before. Might be worth while getting it flashed for the 5.9 manual..... or finding a PCM that had that combo....

 

I’ve heard about that too but wouldn’t it always be running bad if that was the case?