Which EFI kit do I choose?

I am currently building a 440 for my ramcharger with future goals of adding a turbo later on, being that I have an old rv turbo manifold. I’d like an efi kit that will be boost and e85 compatible later on down the road. I may change my mind on that and just get a kit that’s good for 600hp. What kit would you choose For future goals, and what would you choose for current combo? The combo is as follows.
440 .030
9.8 compression (forged Wiseco 2.05ch)
Scat h-beams
Ported sidewinder heads
232@050int. 236 ex.
.525/.545 lift hydraulic roller 112lsa
Rpm intake
1 7/8 headers.
4.56 gear
36” tire

Might want to look at the Holley HP or the Dominator
both will do all of what your asking and more.. both
are multi point

You need to make sure that the EFI computer you select is compatible with either a 2 or 3 bar MAP sensor

Holley HP or Dom is capable

That edelbrock pro-flow xt looks to the best in terms of plumbing. 9.8 compression is pretty high for a turbo build. It will be responsive off boost, but won't make the overall jam of a lower comp motor.

Holley HP kit from me :^)
I also provide you with a free startup tune, a free link to my online training so you get familiar with the software, and I become your tech support guy. I would suggest going port injected now so you'll have the tuning flexibility. Contact me for a quote.

Remember your fuel system will change because EFI requires an EFI pump, good filters, regulator and a return line back to the tank.
fastmanefi.com

I should have gone your way when I did my set
up.. I could use your tune on my 416" HP set up

EFIstore.com

I was able to purchase a FiTech 1200 power adder kit from a moparts memeber that saw my post and his plans changed directions. Hopefully this kit will work out well. Thanks for all the tips and advice

I went with a Holley HP set up first. I went down to take the training class at the Holley facility. After I left, I sold my HP and bought a Holley Dominator setup. A lot more input/outputs with it. Especially if you are going with a turbo setup, I would look at the Dominator setup. As far as where to buy it, buy where you are going to get the best support after the sale. The guy that I bought mine from is a member on here. He also has wicked fast Duster with a twin turbo set up on it. Lucky for me he is local if I have any questions, he is there to help. Support is a big factor with these things.

I wish I had spoken up earlier about why you dont want an FI tech.,...this is a glorified throttle body system and not true multi point EFI.....With a turbo you really want multipoint to ensure even fuel delivery. A throttle body system has most of the drawback of a carb with fuel and air having to thru the manifold and separating, which is not a problem w multipoint because the intake only has air in it.

You need to get in touch with "moparborn" ... he's running dual blowthrough FiTech's turbo on an A Engine.

I have the Fitech power adder on a 410 small block based on a 360 with a procharger. Technical support is everything on a system like this. Fitech technical support leaves a little to be desired. I got the bugs worked out and the system works great now but it was a real struggle for a while. Few of the issues I had is that they are sensitive to fuel pressure, the drivers for the injectors in the computer can not handle excessive fuel pressure, and the system does set codes but Fitech gives you little help in figuring out why these codes set. The pressure regulator they use is for a VW 1.8 engine, at the rated 650HP it will not return enough fuel at idle and the driver can get hot and shut down. It is picky about what distributor you use if you want the computer to control ignition timing, buy a MSD billet, only one I could get to work right. Wrap all the wiring harness with a braided sleeve, they are very sensitive to RF noise. After I got those bugs figured out it starts and runs great on pump gas and even gets decent fuel mileage. The hand held controller works well. Also the hand held unit may not have all the features activated, the tech guys had to help me activate certain functions.

You did a lot of R&D to make that system work. Not a lot of guys are going to have the knowledge to solve all of the problems that you solved.

When I read the complaints on the Holley Sniper forum it is fairly obvious that some people buy the kits thinking they are foolproof. The EFI kits on the market today are better than ever, but they aren't foolproof. Some of them aren't even expert proof!

Question for you sir. For mechanically inclined folks who know their way around a computer, how hard is it to set up the Holley Sniper inc spark control? How many hours would you guestimate it would take to get the system set up to start, idle, and drive as it should? Not looking to get every last little bit out of it, just a basic good streetable setup. Thanks in advance

Do you mean just the software or the work to get a dizzy set up as well? For me (using Classic FAST not Holley stuff) the spark table was the easiest part because there was a host of online info and graphs/tables of what people have done to retune traditional dizzy advances. I just copied that and then backed some off in the MAP areas where I was in boost.

I would go with Rich

It doesn't take very long to bolt in a Hyperspark distributor and set up the ignition table. The Hyperspark plugs into the Sniper connector but you need to connect one wire to switched 12v so that means you need to find a source and make a connector. The Hyperspark drops in at TDC and then you put the cap on and route the plug wires. The wizard creates a base table which should start the car and allow you to drive. If you have a laptop with the Holley SW on it then you can plug in and optimize the table. One gotcha is that the Hyperspark distributor didn't fit with my heads so it took me some time to grind clearance. The Hyperspark will fit Trick Flow heads but I have old RPM heads.

If you have a combo that ran previously then it is easy to get going with EFI. I knew what my car liked for timing(locked out) and I had an idea of what air fuel ratios I wanted. I first used my EFI controller for ignition only(coil on plug) and still used a carb for fuel, then I rolled over the fuel control later. So I kind of had two "first start experiences" and they both went without a hitch. The ignition one was no trouble at all. I was expecting problems with the fuel side because it was so different, it started right up and I actually wasn't prepared for that lol. My first trip around the block turned into a 45-50 mile test drive. The first few miles were a little rough but the auto tune did a decent job of pointing things towards my preset air fuel ratios and I was good to go.

One place to start is the old Edelbrock EFI tuning manual. It covers timing curves in more detail than any of the Holley instructions that I've seen. The file is too big for me to attach here but I think you can find it on the Edelbrock website or elsewhere on the internet.

Most of you guys will come back around to carbs........Several are and more will follow.............

Some of the people with radical engines that buy the "self tuning" throttle bodies, maybe? Guys with Port Injection who take the time to learn it much like you need to learn a carb, very unlikely.

I learn new stuff with my EFI every time I use it, but I don't miss a carb.

I didn't ask my question correctly. I was talking about tuning the entire system- throttle body, timing, etc. Can this be done in a couple of hours or will it take 40 hrs to get the thing on the road running well. Thanks.

it will take hundreds of hours to dial in an OEM level experience. In my experience it took just a few hours to be safe and effective at WOT and so so driving around the street. The thing about having so much control is you have so much control. Imagine instead of having the half a dozen pump cams for a Holley you instead had an injection mold machine to make whatever shape of cam you wanted.
That's been my experience anyway, having only ever done 1 and still learning after 9 years running it.

All depends on how rowdy the engine is. The Holley Sniper is designed to bolt on a mild 350 inch Chevy engine. So the farther you are away from that the more time you'll need to spend tuning it. The Sniper I put on my 512 started, idled and drove just fine right out of the box. However, it wouldn't start hot because the IAC setting wasn't high enough. It can't learn that, it needs to be set manually, and it requires someone with some understanding of the system to know what the problem is and how to fix it. I was lucky since I knew who to ask to solve the problem. A random guy in his driveway might never solve a hot start problem like that. Just like some guys never get their carbs to work right.

Rich can probably get a Sniper tuned in less than an hour, maybe even 30 minutes on a good day. I can get one running decent in an hour but I don't know all of the tricks and all of the tables. Some guys on the Holley forum will probably never get their Sniper running correctly. You can tell from their questions that they don't even know what they don't know.

Of course, sometimes you get an error message like this and then you don't know what to do! I love this error message, so informative.......

You gotta love those software-writers that keep those stupid errors messages in the loop.


As for tuning, I'm somewhat seeing the same on the MegaSquirt-forum sometimes;
Folks who are just getting into the EFI-thing, and already starting to ask questions about boost or other 'advanced'-settings and stuff, while they barely have a proper, useful engine-tune to start with.

IMO, if you can (properly!) tune a carb, know about AFR-values, know how a good ignition curve should look like with the engine and fuel you're using, you'll be miles ahead when you take the step to EFI.

I'm running ignition-only with my MegaSquirt setup.
I had very usable ignition curve in the first hour, but it took months of daily-driving mixed with occassional laptop-tuning before I had an ignition curve that was truly tailored to my engine, at pretty much all engine-loads and rpm-ranges.

Same here, so many knobs to turn! I enjoy messing with it though, its easy to go back if you turn the wrong knob.

Yep, starting over can be a beouch for sure but seems some get it quicker than others and I will never personally go to EFI cos I know a good carb guy and he's not afraid to get his hands dirty............

It's not that bad to use the software when you have a base tune to start with. I've used hp tuners many times and the nice thing about it is you can usually find someone who did a similar build and can use that tune to get it close. I personally will not put a carb on a gen 3 hemi, but I like carbs for my older engines.

Dom is a little upset that he started his carb business
a little late and more and more people are changing to
injection..its what is here and getting easier ever day
due to technology... hell just a few years back there
wasnt any kits you could buy.. now... plenty and getting
easier to set up

Thanks to all that have replied. Sounds like it should be fine for my street driven 340 challenger and the 440 in my truck. Nothing radical in either. One more question- is the Holley system capable of having multiple tunes- say one for cruising in the truck, and another if I am towing something?

Yes it is.. its capable of multi tunes at the
click of a button

For anyone contemplating boost (now or future), and getting an EFI that includes transmission controls: try to get one with an input to retard spark on shift. I'm stuck with the Toyota factory (original turbo transmission) shift retard, need to go aftermarket to increase it, but it helps.
I have a gut feeling that some spectacular mid-track events are (partially) the result of a bad chassis reaction to a shift ("it launches straight, but makes a hard left 3 seconds out"). Being able to drop 200 hp for .25 seconds, at exactly and only the point that makes the suspension crazy may save it.

Go to my FB page then get back with me.........Truck pull champs, Drag Week, boats street strip cars, new best et's, ya Mike, I'm dying over here............lmao......... And while you're there, check out all of the EFI issues and how many are for sale.......... Monkey see, monkey do...........

The Holley Sniper will allow you to store a bunch of different tunes on the SD card but you have to cycle the key to switch between tunes. You can't switch tunes while driving down the road, you have to turn the engine off, select the tune, load it, cycle the key and then start the engine.

Towing (higher load) and cruising (light load) are happening in 'different areas of the ignition or fuel map', so I doubt you'd need different tunes for various driving conditions.

Cant take any kidding can you Dom.. I dont do
carbs anymore but I have sent guys your way

I think w/out smileys, we all take stuff wrong Mike............ All good on my end and I appreciate and will take care of anyone you send my way..........

If you notice I use only one of those emoji thingys
and thats the wave thing