love2fly
Flying the Mountains of the NW
Installing a Snorkel on a RHD Toyota FJ45
Today I received the snorkel kit that I plan on installing on my 1982 FJ45 for two purposes, one the obvious, to avoid engine stalling when crossing deep areas of water in rivers and such, and the other to keep cooler/cleaner air flowing to the carburetor system.
This kit is not of the higher quality snorkels found on the market but it being my second one I have owned, compared to my first it is very well made and very simple to install.
The plastic can be a concern as if it’s not of a high quality PVC the UV from sunlight will dry and fade the outer surface in no time. I believe this one will last some time with some common sense avoidances.
This install is not going to be as most installations as normally the snorkel tube is mounted to the side of the body with three screws just above the side vent area.
I never wanted any holes in this area and also it’s a RHD so the heater blower is mounted in this area so I have elected to build a mount brace to avoid the three hole situation and to aid in cleaning between the snorkel and body with out removal of the snorkel.
I bought a used left side apron that was in some distress that would be a good donor for this install. If I want to remover the snorkel system for what ever reason I will have my original left apron to reinstall avoiding having a hole on the side.
The kit is pretty standard as the pictures show.
The template was okay but as one should remember they are mostly for reference.
The plan shows the apron cutout to be 85mm but I am going with 89mm (3.5’) so I can dress the hole with some edging later so the metal edges are not chaffing into the plastic.
First I removed the stock apron and put into storage and temporally installed the donor.
Then I installed the bracket for the windshield mount on the snorkel side and removed the two side windshield mount screws from the frame.
With the apron installed and fitted I had my buddy install two 12” long wooden dowels of the same diameter as the screw holes and ID of the holes on the snorkel mount to simulate the snorkel being mounted but with a sufficient amount of distance from the frame to give me a good visual on the level of the snorkel and also giving me a much better perspective of were the snorkel tube outlet will be on the side of the apron.
This is the part that took the most time but you only have one chance so take the time.
The template was not spot on so this is why we took this approach to the setting up the hole cutout.
When I was pleased that the tube was level and the outlet of the snorkel was in the correct area on the apron we marked it and then remove the snorkel and then the apron and did the cut.
The nervous part was installing the apron and testing the outcome with the snorkel temporally installed, the cut was dead on.
Now the hard part was done, now to build the spacer mount/brace plate.
My intentions are to keep around a 1” space between the snorkel and the side of the cruisers body.
I used some light gauge steel and cut a 4” x 15” piece that I will shape the edges as I proceed in its design.
As seen it the one picture it was a simple cut the hole and work from there for the rest of the brace. I made an ½” offset bend to give me the height I wanted when the brace is mounted as seen in the picture. After some calibrated measurements I proceeded to drill the four holes around the opening of the brace were it will be mounted to the donor apron. Too keep any wobbling down that may translate thought from the top of the snorkel to the bottom while driving from the wind, I elected to put a steel rod from the bend to the outer edge of the center of the brace to help lessen any unwanted movement since it is not bolted directly to the body.
Cleaned up the mount and painted and then prepped the donor apron for matching paint.
When I was happy that all was in-line for installment I painted the apron.
A few days latter I installed the snorkel kit and took the old rig out for a test drive.
Right off the bat I could tell that it was in need of an air mixture re-set so I checked the timing just out of habit and set the mixture with RPM from the manifold. When all was set I took the beast out ran it slow to feel the response from the throttle as I had hear from others after the snorkel install that it helps in this area and it did, the throttle was a bit more responsive than before. It seemed a lot more responsive and higher speeds, this may be due to the better air flow now while driving it entering the snorkel at a higher rate since there is around 70” of tube to go through until it reaches the air cleaner housing.
At my max speed of around 65 mph it did very well and had no wobbling from the mount area.
I do a lot of high speed driving on old dusty jeep trials in the mountains and now having the air intake above the engine line I believe I will cut my fitter cleaning time in half if I stop into the wind.
Other than that it just another snorkel kit installed but thought I would sear it and may help the next person how has been toying with the idea of a snorkel.
Have fun.
Today I received the snorkel kit that I plan on installing on my 1982 FJ45 for two purposes, one the obvious, to avoid engine stalling when crossing deep areas of water in rivers and such, and the other to keep cooler/cleaner air flowing to the carburetor system.
This kit is not of the higher quality snorkels found on the market but it being my second one I have owned, compared to my first it is very well made and very simple to install.
The plastic can be a concern as if it’s not of a high quality PVC the UV from sunlight will dry and fade the outer surface in no time. I believe this one will last some time with some common sense avoidances.
This install is not going to be as most installations as normally the snorkel tube is mounted to the side of the body with three screws just above the side vent area.
I never wanted any holes in this area and also it’s a RHD so the heater blower is mounted in this area so I have elected to build a mount brace to avoid the three hole situation and to aid in cleaning between the snorkel and body with out removal of the snorkel.
I bought a used left side apron that was in some distress that would be a good donor for this install. If I want to remover the snorkel system for what ever reason I will have my original left apron to reinstall avoiding having a hole on the side.
The kit is pretty standard as the pictures show.
The template was okay but as one should remember they are mostly for reference.
The plan shows the apron cutout to be 85mm but I am going with 89mm (3.5’) so I can dress the hole with some edging later so the metal edges are not chaffing into the plastic.
First I removed the stock apron and put into storage and temporally installed the donor.
Then I installed the bracket for the windshield mount on the snorkel side and removed the two side windshield mount screws from the frame.
With the apron installed and fitted I had my buddy install two 12” long wooden dowels of the same diameter as the screw holes and ID of the holes on the snorkel mount to simulate the snorkel being mounted but with a sufficient amount of distance from the frame to give me a good visual on the level of the snorkel and also giving me a much better perspective of were the snorkel tube outlet will be on the side of the apron.
This is the part that took the most time but you only have one chance so take the time.
The template was not spot on so this is why we took this approach to the setting up the hole cutout.
When I was pleased that the tube was level and the outlet of the snorkel was in the correct area on the apron we marked it and then remove the snorkel and then the apron and did the cut.
The nervous part was installing the apron and testing the outcome with the snorkel temporally installed, the cut was dead on.
Now the hard part was done, now to build the spacer mount/brace plate.
My intentions are to keep around a 1” space between the snorkel and the side of the cruisers body.
I used some light gauge steel and cut a 4” x 15” piece that I will shape the edges as I proceed in its design.
As seen it the one picture it was a simple cut the hole and work from there for the rest of the brace. I made an ½” offset bend to give me the height I wanted when the brace is mounted as seen in the picture. After some calibrated measurements I proceeded to drill the four holes around the opening of the brace were it will be mounted to the donor apron. Too keep any wobbling down that may translate thought from the top of the snorkel to the bottom while driving from the wind, I elected to put a steel rod from the bend to the outer edge of the center of the brace to help lessen any unwanted movement since it is not bolted directly to the body.
Cleaned up the mount and painted and then prepped the donor apron for matching paint.
When I was happy that all was in-line for installment I painted the apron.
A few days latter I installed the snorkel kit and took the old rig out for a test drive.
Right off the bat I could tell that it was in need of an air mixture re-set so I checked the timing just out of habit and set the mixture with RPM from the manifold. When all was set I took the beast out ran it slow to feel the response from the throttle as I had hear from others after the snorkel install that it helps in this area and it did, the throttle was a bit more responsive than before. It seemed a lot more responsive and higher speeds, this may be due to the better air flow now while driving it entering the snorkel at a higher rate since there is around 70” of tube to go through until it reaches the air cleaner housing.
At my max speed of around 65 mph it did very well and had no wobbling from the mount area.
I do a lot of high speed driving on old dusty jeep trials in the mountains and now having the air intake above the engine line I believe I will cut my fitter cleaning time in half if I stop into the wind.
Other than that it just another snorkel kit installed but thought I would sear it and may help the next person how has been toying with the idea of a snorkel.
Have fun.
