Snorkel

[MrSmithsTB]

I have a little experience from fixing surfboards. Now that snorkel design has been brought back into conversation, I am thinking about getting into it again to try and make some headway for all of you fine people. I just need to pick up some spare parts to cut up.

[MrSmithsTB]

My apologies, I thought you were trying to solve a problem that didn't exist.

It seems to be that any gains in airflow efficiency would only be noticeable, if ever, at WOT. It may be hard to find an extended snorkel like that that would fit the lines properly...

No problem, JD. I know I'm a little new at this and I expect to be questioned. While the straight through design may not make a lot of sense when the snorkel is useful, it will still aid in power and efficiency for everyday use. When thinking about upgrades, I like to look at the big picture and factor in usefulness and versatility. Especially since most of us use these as DDs.

[bobbyblaze]

Here's an ARB Manufacturer Part No: SS170HF Toyota Taco snorkel. The Taco's upper door is similar to ours and in this pic. The angle the fender rolls off dosen't seem to be that far from ours and I kinda dig the inlet laying down sideways like that.

The pic with the snork by itself has an intermediate tube. Volant Manufacturer Part No: 37638
A longer or more flexible intermediate section could help keep the assembly close to the body, turned at the right angle and get the "through the fender" end exactly where we would need it towards the front because of it's flexibility. The cut-out looks like it would accomodate the FM antenna too.

[02TahoeMD]

Hi folks!
Been a bit since I was here browsing around. Thanks for posting up the link to my conversion project. If anyone wants me to post up more detailed shots of my snorkel install would be happy to do so. I had to work around my radiator overflow tank location AND trim out a channel in the fender sheet metal to get the tubing over to the airbox, which sounds like a similar problem that you all face.

If anyone wants to get a Safari Snorkel and bring your rig to my house, I would be happy to help you with an install. Have tools (LOTS) , and am always willing to try and tinker and build things. Wouldnt want to keep my hard learned lessons to myself, always willing to share and help improvise...

[Gordinho80]

What are you waiting for? Post a thread with pics!!

[foosh]

http://store.newlevelmotorsports.com/voperamairsn.html


I was Just doing some window shopping and was noticing how similar our engine bay is to an FJ's. This is the Volant Snorkel made for them... and its not crazy expensive!-370- others I saw were upwards of 400. As Long as we could line up the air box with where our air box goes, and the rest of the snorkel on the outside measures up to be the correct length to reach the windshield, this i feel is very doable and easy.

[Gordinho80]

Guys... the issue is not getting the air down the body lines of the truck... as we've already seen with OregTrailBlazin's partial install, finding a unit whose body lines are similar is fairly easy.

The issue is getting it into the engine bay. There are lines that run along that side of the engine bay wall, making a 3" hole very difficult to find room for. To top it off, the stock wiper fluid reservoir is big, bulky, and odly shaped. Unless you're looking to delete the reservoir or fab up a custom one, there is an issue with sealing a box large enough for a filter.

[foosh]

Instead of custom fabbing or deleting it, why not one from a previous chevy, like a blazer/ s10 or pre 5.3 tahoe/silverado. If we get rid of ours for this, we could easily have the space for the 3 inch hole needed to get the intake through the fender wall.

With that, all we'd have to do is combine it with the volant sealed box thats already made for the FJ, and run our intake into it.

[MrSmithsTB]

Unless......... the washer reservoir is made to be part of the air box. Since it is already contoured to fit a filter. Wrap air intake and washer res in fiberglass, closing the gaps all around and creating a new 3" hole on the fender side. Glassing in stronger connection points all around and gasketing the perimeter will seal it up just fine. All that is left is to figure out how to clear that much space on the inner fender. How complicated was that?

[foosh]

Not every one is good at glass work, plus it wouldn't even be easy to completely seal the top to the washer fluid reservoir. A 20 item at the JY is alot cheaper, and doesn't involve a couple hours of work and probably 40-50 of materials.

[MrSmithsTB]

You just need to see what I see in my head. It will work without adding much more weight. The perfect seal could be achieved by making two perfectly flat surfaces to put gaskets on and being able to put enough torque on outer clamps to seat them properly. When I build mine, just let me know what color you want yours to be.

[bobbyblaze]

The U-pull it Junk Yards around here sell washer reservoirs for $5-10.00. There's one called Shorty's trucks that has one row of S-10 PU's and another row of S-10 blazers in various stages of dismantlement. There's JY's like that everywhere isn't there ?

If you think about it though, If you (anyone) have no intentions of completely submerging your truck up to the door handles to drive like that . . and this is primarily for deep intermittent water like the deeper puddles in Wharton that we currently avoid (for obvious reasons), the air box going to the snorkel dosen't have to be completely submergible and does it ? Just spash proof/water resistant from the water being moved by the fan and whatnot?
The reason I ask is if anyone intends on sinking your truck that deep and running like that, all the vent tubes, including the transmission, T-case and Diff have to be moved higher than the door handles or that deep water will be getting in there too, besides your entire interior floor. (That's a B***ch to dry . . I know).

From the factory, the Diff vent tubes in my jeep are at the top of the radiator in the front and inside the body behind the gas filler cap in the rear just for that reason. paper thin quickly removable carpet and rubber drain plugs do the rest.

[bgwolfpack]

One of you get off the pot please. Pics

[foosh]

This is a huge planning mod, that has been attempted but to date, not finished. As I've said the last time we met at wharton and I split off at the end, I saw water that was on the hood, and not far from the window sills, and the member that was behind me will tell you the same thing (IrishBoy02). Bottom line for anyone who wheels in a place like jersey, thats flat with alot of deep water trails, we need a snorkel.

I just sent off an email to Volant, The FJ Snorkel is good, but as Gordinho 80 pointed out to me an hour or so ago it would be alot of work to get that air box to work... So i did some digging... and i found that Volant also makes a boxed in intake for the Colorado, which shares the same basic components as us. Now I just have to see if their washer fluid reservior is the same and presto, with very little modification to the system we'd have a functioning snorkel. And worst comes to worse we could swap in one of their reserviors. I just send Volant an email also...



Oh, and Bot, I want mine to be White!

[Trail X]

Why does volant have extra holes down low?... Isn't the point to create a sealed intake?

The reason you want a completely sealed intake is to prevent accidental drownings of your truck. You can change oils fairly easily if you dunk the truck... you can't fix a hydrolocked engine very easily.

[foosh]

Ohhh, I thought the idea of the snorkel was to get as much water as possible into the intake, with this, isn't it???


Silly newb
JD, you are always an advocate of reading through the whole thread right? Well as i said "little modification to the system we'd have a functioning snorkel". By that, I mean caulk any poorly made joint, and seal any and all holes.

[NeilageInc]

Doesn't anyone on here dabble with fiberglass????

For the sake of my brain cells, I try to keep the resin dabbling to a minimum... I'm familiar with the techniques and concepts, but have no experience working with it. Wouldn't it be more brittle than a thermoplastic polymer though?

Not exactly. Teebees will be by this weekend and I will take some mearsurements for a fiberglass snorkle. Let me know what you think. Thanks Neil.

[Philberto]

I'm glad to see you working on it, Neil. It was simply my recollection regarding aftermarket bumper materials that the main disadvantage of fiberglass bumpers is that they tended to be brittle, and though it's much easier to repair a cracked fiberglass bumper, it also tends to be necessary more often than on polyurethane bumpers. That said, if anybody can manage it, you can.

[Trail X]

Well as i said "little modification to the system we'd have a functioning snorkel". By that, I mean caulk any poorly made joint, and seal any and all holes.

Does Volant provide covers for those holes when you buy their snorkel? If not, their snorkel doesn't sound very useful.

How much money is the entire Volant system?... You said their snorkel = $350 or so, right? I'm assuming that's not including their airbox. I'd just argue that the volant won't fit very well, and will end up costing more in the end. I feel like it's a dead end.

The other half of my comment post was aimed to answer bobbyblaze's question regarding the seals in the intake.

---------------------------

Below is some information I figured I'd bring over from the OS:

Regarding the Fiberglas intake box that Mr Smith has been discussing, Johnny already tried that but with an aluminum box, and ran into some difficult sealing issues:



This is the problematic area that will be hard to run a 3" hole through:



I posted a couple proposed solutions on the OS to the airbox issue.

This is a K&N system, but made for engines up to 250 HP. It would certainly work in our application, it may just restrict the top-end performance a bit.



Ractive:



Piper-cross (http://www.pipercross.net/competition/products_7000.asp):



Those were expensive options, which took me into looking at junkyards.
The 2000 F-150 4.6Ls had a fully enclosed filterbox that necked down to accept air from inside the fender.

The top item below is a picture of the stock filter. I'm sure they can be found pretty cheap.



From what I've seen, it will be really hard to beat that for your filter box. The problem is that it looks as if it has a mass air flow sensor. That can probably be discarded fairly easily. The hard part is just finding a sealed airbox.

So, from my recollection, that's where the airbox discussion went on the OS. I think you're going to be hard-pressed to find a square aftermarket airbox that will fit our void space properly, but it's worth investigating.

[foosh]

Well, Since we have such a small area below between the hood and reservoir tank, installing an S10 tank would fit better, and for people with a body lift, we can mount it even lower and it would allow for at least a 3 inch hole.

Just an idea... Bot, you could make a box that's enclosed except for the inlet, outlet, and a hole at the top for access (much like the boxes volant makes. The top hole could be were you seal a top hatch to it, which would probably be much easier than trying to seal to the washer fluid reservoir.