To Snorkel or Not......

Hi all, be interested in your views.....Most of the off road stuff I do is greenlaning, but every now and again we come across deep or flooded puddles where I have had water splash over the bonnet, but we are not talking wading!!! So having looked at my air filter box, its as dry as a bone, and Ive found the air intake point under the bonnet....fitting a snorkel is kinda permanent, but wondered if adding some pipe to the open air intake for the air filter and moving the intake point back from the headlight or even bringing it internally would be a compromise to adding water protection, without going the whole hog with a snorkel, as I will not go deep water wading.....but the odd pay and play day does involve some deeper water sometimes.....anyone done anything similar?

Most snorkels are fitted as a styling exercise, petrol engines don't wade well compared to diesels. If you move the air intake there could well be a price to pay with general drivability. If someone on here has done it with any success then I stand corrected. Chris

I built a 2 way air valve and fitted it to my Toyota KZJ 70. The engine was an old fashioned 3 litre turbo diesel and the only electrical connection to the engine was the fuel shut off valve. I have disregarded starter motor and info. circuits.

Air could be taken from the normal position or from inside the cab. The cab entry was just above the pedal position and yes it was noisy but remember you are only operating it for tiny periods of time.I used it for water depths of circa 800 mm without problem.

Whatever depth of water you are considering wading through you need to consider the following.

1- Is the exit point doable ie just because you can get into the water, is there an exit point.
2- Do you know the condition of the bottom ie are there unseen holes.
3- What is the flow like ie could I be washed away especially if i hit a hole and stand a chance of becoming buoyant.
There are probably others but wading is probably the most dangerous manoeuvre you can do. Get it wrong and and you have more than a wrecked engine!

Roger

More points to note concern the snorkel itself. The usual type consists of a thin walled plastic contraption that bolts to the wing and "A" pillar and finishes at about roof level. It screws to the body and pillar with PK screws or rivnuts. Both of these fixings, especially the PK type will promote rusting of the body panel. Being a fixing that is directly in the air flow, they will produce noise, just as a roof rack does. They are also flimsy so brushing against bushes or trees will damage or destroy them. They are easy to split and if you don't see the damage water ingress could be the result. The top of the snorkel usually has some form of funnel to direct the air into the pipe. It will also direct rain, road spray and detritus.If you reverse the funnel you destroy any air dam effect the funnel may promote. It has already been pointed out that petrol engines and water don't mix and for that matter alternators, starter motors g/boxes, t/boxes, axles, brakes etc are all prone to damage unless you waterproof them, if that is possible.

Sorry if this appears to be all doom and gloom but better you have the facts than finish up sitting in a metre of water with a dead engine with the thought "nobody told me that would happen".

Roger

The thing is that if you know what you are doing it is possible to manipulate the water in front of the vehicle and move it in a bow waveand create pockets of air below the natural water level. In effect this means you can with care avoid needing a snorkel. Or you could be like me and avoid water any deeper than the bottom of the alloys.

The top of the tyres is the safe wading limit for the standard air intake. If you're regularly going that deep you need to consider fitting transmission breather hoses, or replace your transmission oils after every submersion. Routing a 2 inch or larger hose from the normal air intake to the back of the engine bay might give you peace of mind and won't affect how the engine runs.

There's no need to worry about your modern petrol engine under water! Long gone are the days of points and distributors shorting out at the merest whiff of moisture. In fact, these simple petrol engines have far fewer vulnerable electronics than modern diesels, and suffer much less in the unlikely event that you do draw water in.