home made snorkel

[crushers]

after we finished the turbo install:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=123494
the customer wanted to snorkel his truck. he looked at Safari and the factory set up i had nere but wasn't impressed "everyone has one of those" so we decided to make one out of steel.
we took 3" exhaust pipe and a 90 degree mandrel bent elbow, measured off where we wanted the bend to go and where the intake should be situated. we also wanted to follow the body lines as close as possible and it was important not to hamper the height clearence.
we mounted the attachments to the body, fitted the pipe and tacked them in place then over to the bench to finish welding and clean it up. then we added the expanded steel to the intake to make sure nothing nasty made it's way down the pipe.
once that was all welded it was sent off to the powder coaters, one day turn around, dropped off yesterday and returned by 5pm today. WICKED service.next it was on to the air box. we cut the hole through the fender and reamed it out to fit the 90 degree rubber elbow through. once that was done then we placed the airbox back in and marked the location of the tube coming through the fender.
once that was marked we then cut with a hole saw a proper size hoe to run the pipe through and welded the outside. some grinding and filing and the airbox was ready to go.
now the snorkel was back from the powder coaters so this is when i finally remembered the camera...
DUH!!

 

[crushers]

the holes are ready (the customer decided he wanted to paint the holes...my mistake).
the snorkel arrives and the customer is excited.

 

[crushers]

the expanded steel mesh and the 3 sets of mounts to the body and window frame. i welded the bolts to the mounting brackets to make installing and removing easier.
the angle iron is pop rivited to the window frame using large headed rivits.

 

[crushers]

the snorkel followed the body lines quite nicely.
that is the customer standing beside his new custom snorkel.
the air cleaner reinstalled with a cap over the orginal intake spout.

 

[crushers]

the final pics,
cheers

 

[widewestcruiser]

Custom job rules.....nice work and looks like you won't have to worry about ripping the thing off everytime you go under some branches.
Did it end up costing more then a safari snorkel, even so it's worth it.

 

[Gold Boy]

right on !!! nice job!

cheers

hehehe, did cost 400$'s?

 

[crushers]

the snorkel took a 10 hours to design, build and install so $60/hr is $600 + $53 to powder coat and $80 for aluminized 3" pipe and 190 degree mandrel bend.

a Safari installed is $600 so about an extra $125 for this one off...

the material is cheap and time is up to the builder. most shops in Calgary charge anywhere from $75-$120/hr these "booming" days... if you can even get them to do the work...

cheers and thanks for the compliments guys, i appreciate it.

 

[Gold Boy]

that looks like fun to make, and it looks like it will handle trees better than a safari snorkel, i don't trust thoes safari snorkel tops.

i think i will do that on my 74.

 

[crushers]

it was, anytime you can personalize a truck with your own design it is fun.

if it is your own time you are investing then it irrelevant how long it takes...

cheers

 

[cody c]

cool snorkel wayne! i am confused if it is aluminum or steel? ($80 for 3" aluminized pipe) is this a coating they put on for corrosion resistance? anyways now that youve done one i'm sure the next one off will be quicker. i bet you could probally do your home-made turbo with snorkel for a lot less than a turbo kit from elsewhere.

 

[Island Moose]

Damn nice fabrication!, nice to see the DIY spirit.

From a fluid dynamics standpoint... with the pipe following the lines of the body (aerodynamically-slippery) and the inlet pointing 180 degrees from the direction of travel, aren't you worried that you've just built the perfect exhaust stack and attached it to the air intake?

Surely at any highway speed you're going to cause reverse flow pressure in the pipe, fighting with the turbo to get air into the engine. Obviously the turbo will win, but at what performance loss? A cool experiment for kids is to get them to stick a bottle of pop with a straw out the car window, the pop will drain up and out of the straw in a matter of seconds from the negative pressure.

The guys who turn the ram-heads around on the Safari's do it in severely dusty conditions at 4x4 speeds only.

 

[Entaran]

Island moose has a point.

I run triple filters on my safari when I haven't got it turned around.

Unifilter Filter sock (over safari head)

Pre filter before aircan

Main filter in aircan

You'll be SUPRISED how dirty they get.

 

[crushers]

i took into consideration the air flow when building the snorkel. what i did was test my idea out on the safari snorkel i have here mounted to the bush pig. i took it for a drive with the snorkle facing forward, towards the windsheild and to the back. the snorkel facing forward did little, facing the windshield it seemed to help the flow and facing back did little.
if the engine was still a naturally asperated 3B then this would be a bigger concern.
in the end we decided that to protect the tip from injesting branches and twigs was more important than the minute improvment gained by facing the snorkel in other directions.
the air draw is a real action to consider of course. the perfomance gained by the turboing of the engine copensates easily for the draw of the wind flow at highway speeds. this truck is mostly driven as a daily driver / bush runner. the only highway it sees is from the the city to the acreage he lives on.

we were considering making the top reversable but then we would have had to run the stack straight up and the flow along the body lines would have been interupted. the nice thinga about DIYS projects and one offs you can modify as you wish.
what gave us the idea for this one is the one i made for the Mits J54. it was very similar but had the rotating/removable steel top. i will see if i have a pic around here somewhere.
the pipe is "alumized" steel, a coating on the pipe to prevent rusting. on the exhaust systems these pipes have lasted up to 15 years without rusting through. with no heat being generated it is hoped the snorkel will out last the body.

 

[Gold Boy]

you could always keep the oem snorkel and use both as needed, switch them over at the air box, for water or highway use.

 

[rat]

the 'ram air' debate ... I'm no aerodynamics engineer, but I've read enough to understand that you need F1 - type speeds before intake manifold pressure is significantly increased by a forward facing air scoop ...

 

[cody c]

i suppose if one was so inclined a butterfly style valve could be setup inline with the stock air intake path. run a cable actuated assembly into the cab and you would be able to tell for sure if the rearward facing snorkel does hamper performance at highway speeds. depends how much time you want to spend, as this would take a while to manufacture. and i'm a little lazy for such an adventure.

 

[brownbear]

Looks good.

Only thing I would do when you have time is cut off the stock opening and weld a flat piece over the hole.

 

[clintnz]

Looks good! I need to do something like that, just not sure at present wether to have 1 snorkle or 2, & wondering if I should go large & integrate them into a full exo-cage while I'm at it.

Cheers
Clint

 

[roscoFJ73]

On the mining trucks here the snorkles are often fabricated in the mine workshop out of steel.
I guess the plastic ones dont last too long.
The snorkle on this 105 seris dual cab is not too far away from crushers design.
Donaldson Filtration also sell kits for those who wish to fabricate their own snorkles from 50mm to 150mm. They have flexible elbows,alloy pipe and prefilters, some of which are what ARB use