My First Ski Nautique

Speaking of the kit you saw at nautiqueparts, here's the same thing from Sierra, the price isn't the same though.

The Tee is easy to find also

Thank you JQ, I appreciate the kind words!

Sorry, to do this topic right it needs to be a long boring lengthy reply...

This being my first Ski Nautique I can't really compare the Sniper system to a carburated or GT40 Nautique but it seems to be working well. I went this route to avoid problems on the water. This boat needs to run perfectly all the time otherwise I will hear about it from my wife lol. 

It has been reliable so far. Initiallly when I first got it on the water it was having trouble keeping the AFR(air fuel ratio) near the target of 14. It would bog down and hesitate when I tried to accelerate. The unit comes with a small LCD screen where you can see the RPM, temperature and AFR. It would swing wildly from 10 to 40 when it should hover around 14 all the time including idle or accelerating. I struggled to figue it out but eventually decided to re-route the O2 sensor wire away from the coil and spark plug wires and that fixed it immediately. I am guessing the O2 sensor was getting some induction interference. I also forgot to install a pre-fuel pump filter so I did that, and I installed a fuel pressure guage at the inlet of the Sniper to help diagnose the problem. 

You can see in this picture the O2 sensor wire tucked up and away from the coil versus where I originally ran it between the valve cover and the coil.

The fuel guage came in handy about 4 months later as I was having some issues at high RPM. It seemed like it was cutting out and I couldn't reach top speed. I had my brother drive while I watched the fuel guage during hard acceleration and it was dipping down to 10psi from 56psi where it normally is. I changed the pre and post fuel pump fuel filters and it fixed the issue immediately. 

Also after I have lowered my idle to be around 650-750, sometimes it doesn't stay running for the first time on the water without pushing down the accelerator handle in neutral. What I mean is, it will start but die and to keep it running I give it some gas to rev it up initially then back to idle and it is fine from then on. If the idle is higher it will start and stay running everytime no problem but I don't like the high idle so I deal with it.

You would need to install a bulkhead fitting for the return line to the tank which was a little bit of a challenge. Luckily I already had the tank out and empty so that made it a lot easier. I would imagine anyone installing this setup would have to remove and drain the tank as well to install the bulkhead fitting to do it safely.

Holley does offer a system that does not require a fuel return line but it is expensive. I talked to someone I work with who put the Sniper and the return-less system on his Mustang and he said it was giving him lots of trouble and would shut down due to overheating issues. Just thought I'd mention that in case someone was considering that option.

You also need to install an O2 sensor in the exhuast stream. Nubf14 has also installed this system so I followed his lead and ordered the O2 sensor adapter from ebay as he suggests. The bolt holes will need to be enlarged to install on the PCM exhaust manifolds.

Or if you have the skills like DayTony you can cut and weld an O2 port like he did on this thread. Very nicely done!

https://www.correctcraftfan.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51210&KW=o2+sensor&title=o2-sensors-in-factory-risors 

As far as wiring goes its pretty simple. Positive and negative directly to the battery, negative coil wire, coolant temperature sensor, fuel pump positive wire, and a switched +12V source all of which are included in the harness. The positive and negative cables included in the harness were barely long enough to reach the battery in my Nautiqe and might not be long enough in the later bigger Nautiques.

The kit I ordered was the factory refurbished FR550-511 and the fuel system kit part # 526-7 which came with everything needed to install it including a fuel pump, all the fuel line, fuel line fittings, bulkhead return line fitting, hose clamps, fuel filters etc.

As was discussed in another thread some members on here including KENO helped me realize the hose kit that you can order with it is not USCG approved and I will need to replace all the hose which is about 20'.

Holley just released the Sniper 2 EFI system which appears to address some of the induction interference issues as well as add some features. I wanted to install the Holley Hyper Spark distributor so the Sniper could also control the timing but according to a technician I talked to at Holley you can not use their Hyper Spark distributor in a reverse rotation application even if I could get a RR gear for their distributor. 

The LCD screen cable is not long enough to reach the dash so I keep it coiled up on the engine when I am don't need to look at it. It would be nice if there was an extension so you could route it up to the dash. 

Because the Sniper system injectors fire randomly, the intake manifold you use has to have an open route to all 4 injectors. I used an Edelbrok Performer RPM intake which was a problem becuase the inlet port where the Sniper or Carburetor is mounted is divided down the middle. To avoid any issues I just removed the material of the divider using the mill at work. I can't say if it would have worked ok if I didn't do this because I did it before I assembled the engine. I ended up taking all of the divider out.

It sounds like FFIMarine is installing these units as well and seem to be having some success. I would recommend it and would do it again in a heartbeat. If this system starts giving me trouble I would consider buying the Sniper 2 system.

Thank you Mpost, much appreciated.

That is a significant savings, thank you again! How you know/find all this stuff boggles my mind lol. 

Just a little progress update. I have substantially completed my FCT2 wakeboard tower replica. I still need to clean it up and I want to paint it black, but I did get out to test it this weekend and it worked great. I know a lot of you are Correct Craft purist and I am not sure how you all feel about putting a wake board tower on an older Ski Nautique so if you’re one of these people divert your eyes lol! 

…but it was the best option for my current situation as we do a lot of things with this boat including wakeboarding, skiing, and tubing. Here are a couple pics of the build process. Unfortunately I can’t post a lot of progress pics as I took all those pictures at my work. I chose not to go with the oval tubing on the tops and sides as it was cost prohibitive. Instead, I went with ½”x4” aluminum plate. I also made the Flight Clips out of 1/4x2” aluminum plate, which also aren't complete yet but will be soon.

I am fortunate to have access to a lot of tools at work so this made it all possible. I have experience bending tube and welding as well. This is the first time I welded aluminum and it was a steep learning curve, but I eventually got it to an acceptable quality level.

I ordered the bimini parts to modify my old bimini from https://towerbiminis.com/ to allow me to attach it to the tower. The fabric needs to be cut and sewn to get it to fit better. I also added a couple 6.5" marine speakers.

If I could do it over again there are few things I would do differently but overall I am pleased with how it turned out. 

Ahah, I understand! We do have that in common then lol. 

...and thank you 75tique, I appreciate the kind words.