Carburetor, MSD, Holley Sniper EFI questions

If you have the 1405 Edelbrock carb on there, that is the same carb as the 1406 without the electric choke.

Believe the 1405 carb is a manual choke carb, works with a choke cable, and possibly a hair richer on the jetting than the 1406 too. You can read about them on Edelbrock's web site.

So just guessing here, if you do have the 1405 with no choke, or someone swapped a choke to it but did not set it closed right. Then that would explain why you have to pump it 3 times to give it some gas with the accelerator pump, because no choke or the choke is not closing up far enough to give it the more fuel it needs to start.

Also explains why at first start it is hard to keep it running without your foot on the gas. Pretty obvious the choke is not doing the job or is missing altogether.