Thank you for the compliments!
I eventually got the replacement Sniper from Summit. I say eventually because I wanted an audit trail amd thus I initially emailed them. This produced lots of waiting 2 days for them to reply, which consisted of promises but little action. So I rang them and was polite and friendly but firm, whereupon stuff started happening. I kept the pressure up with daily phone calls for a few days until I got an email from their carrier confirming collection. A week or so later the package arrived safe and sound. I had to pester them to refund my £58 UPS fee for returning the dead one though. I don't think Summit were trying to avoid sending the replacement or paying the credit, but I do think that their processes could do with a bit of tighteneing up when dealing with foreign buyers who need a free replacement item. But at least they ship overseas, unlike Holley. So yes I would buy from Summit again. Since then I've discovered that I could have bought a Sniper from CM Frost of Wellingborough, Northants, who are a long standing US parts supplier. Probably more expensive, but less hassle.They keep reasonable Mopar stocks too, as they seem to supply the Jensen club.
So the replacement is fitted and I've since driven about 400 miles. Driveability is excellent, as is starting either cold or hot. Key on, wait a cople of seconds while the fuel pump primes, crank and away it goes. The first tankful gave 14 mpg, including learning, a lot of idling and many shortish journeys while I learned to trust it. The carb gave 12-14mpg and of course was subject to all the usual carb problems, including a strong smell of fuel all the time (I could find no leaks though).
I chose a Holley Sniper because it was simple-ish to fit and as it's a throttle body (ie like a 4-barrel carb but with injectors at the bottom of the barrels) with integral IACV, MAP sensor and TPS then I could disguise it. My understanding of an Edelbrock Pro-Flo is that it's a port injection system. So it's more modern and efficient, but is also more complex and couldn't be disguised. I've used Edelbrock stuff on my old V8 Ford Popular hot rod and it was very good, so I've no doubt the Pro-Flow would work as well as, or better than, the Sniper.
I'm in two minds about a fullyelectronic distributor, which the Sniper ECU could control. I know the old mech/vac advance curve works on my car, and as you'll know I've got rid of the points. Timing curves for 383s are around the internet, which could be copied and loaded into the Sniper, but the question is which one to use? So I'll probably run it as is for a year or so and see how it goes.
I'm currently checking the car over for the trip to the Le Mans Classic at the end of June. The radiator had a pinhole leak so I got it checked over and fixed (5 other pinholes found under pressure test, so it's a good job I did) by Anglia Radiators of Cambridge. They do lots of classic cars and warbird repairs for IWM at Duxford, are a proper old-fashioned place and I can recommend them. Of course one of the trans fluid cooler lines was seized so I've replaced that with Kunifer.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to the fuel 'economy' on the Le Mans trip! Will report back as & when.
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