I did all my experimenting with all of the sniper predecessors (the Holley DFI systems) in the 90's and 00's I suggest keeping the carb
So what were the issues/do you not think any progress has been made in 20 years?
Back then, the electronics were unreliable, tuning was still required for every application (even if you just swapped parts).
Hope you went for the Edelbrock aluminum head
I'm sure the electronics are light years ahead, the self tuning is cool (don't know how the O2 sensor would hold up, or if it's just for initial tuning and then runs open loop). Trying to tune a carb on a boat has been frustrating for me. Don't know anything about the fast systems, though it looks like they have a much more expensive marine system
If you need to stab an o2 sensor in you will need something like this https://www.michiganmotorz.com/o2-spacer-stock-mercury-riser-wet-joint
agree that tuning a marine carb is trial/error and plug reading especially if you do something like build custom motor are trying to dial it in...... could add an O2 bung for tuning and then plug later.
I might do that (we're going to continue to first work on getting it back on the water after its unfortunate attempt at becoming a submarine). I didn't have any luck at all with plug chops, and while they were nice and tan after the season, all that really tells me is that I'm in the ballpark a/f ratio at mid range. WOT is nearly impossible to figure out, which makes my 4bbl carb less awesome. It would be cool to see a/f out of the hole, and I could dial my midrange cruise for maximum fuel economy. I wonder how much of a difference 12:1 vs. 14:1 might make in economy despite maybe no difference in drivability.
Right. With my plug reads, I may be running richer than I need to be and wasting fuel even though it's running well. Only real way to do this with better than "horseshoes and hand grenades" precision is with an 02 sensor.
Perfect. On the harden one they have a couple small holes on either side of oxygen sensor for cooling, and they claim their anodizing resists the corrosion sometimes seen with aluminum on the raw water side, but may e you can find a way to keep this on the closed side of the cooling
I would machine a bore stabilizing spider for the open deck block and modify an Edelbrock aluminum ford FE head prior to going fuel injection. This would be my first step to correcting two design flaws with the motor.
