New Gen4 Snorkel

So I have posted this in my build thread (link in sig). But thought it was probably pertinent to post it here too.


So back at the end of October I ordered up the Bravo Snorkel. It took awhile to arrive due to being a new product and on back order. But the package turned up from Spain this week.

The snorkel looks good quality, although the instructions are maybe a little lacking. And while they claimed it required no drilling, they supply it with 2 x rivnuts that need holes drilled.

But at least no dirty great hole is required in the wing like most snorkels.


Here is where we start, we need to remove the small panel between the door mirror and bonnet.



The instructions say to remove the bonnet. I'd highly recommend this, I suspect it is possible to just undo 1 side, but you have so much more access with the bonnet off. You will also need to remove the wipers and the scuttle panel below the windscreen. The scuttle has 5 clips along the front, then lifts up out of the clips you can't see at either end.



Getting the small panel off by the mirror was a bit of a head scratcher. There is a screw on the inside of the A pillar and bolt under the scuttle you take off. But it also is clipped in place along the bottom edge front and back. A small screw driver is required to gently bend the inner lip of the panel up to release it from the clips. A bit fiddly, but once you figure it out it is easy enough.

You have to remove this bracket too, I'm not sure what the bracket is for. There is one on either side and nothing attaches to them. But either way, it needs to come out. The instructions say to cut it, but I removed the bonnet hinge and drilled the spot welds out, which I think is a neater solution. It means should I ever want to refit it (I don't know why I would), it could be done so.



You also have to drill a hole in the wing to fit a rivnut (the right most hole).

You will need a special tool of this if you don't have one. I didn't, so I bought this from Amazon.



There is no template, so I trial fitted the snorkel to get alignment. Hence having the bonnet off makes this so much easier.



The first slight issue, when in place. The snorkel was just fouling the door when you open it.


In the end I just lightly trimmed the edge of the snorkel tube with a knife.



The next issue was this metal bracket. It goes on the inside of the snorkel and the scuttle will fit over the top of it and clip in.



It reuses an existing bolt hole where you take an existing bracket off. You are then meant to drill and use a rivnut in the hole to the right of it. I'm completely lost why you would need to do is, I cannot see any reason it would serve. So I actually reused the plastic clip and existing hole rather than drill another.

The issue however is, the bracket locates and secures the scuttle. But it ended up moving the rubber seal away from the windscreen.



Try as I might and adjust the bracket and location, it would not sit right. I suspect either I had done something completely wrong (not sure how, it all looks fairly simple). Or the tolerance on this bracket is incorrect.

You could just fit it all together, nothing here will stop it working or going together. But it would bug me having that seal in the wrong place. And of course rather than directing water over the seal, it would go behind it from the windscreen.

In the end I had to enlarge and further elongate the holes of the bracket at the snorkel end. If I did it at the body end, it would move the snorkel closer to the door again. I won't say I'm 100% happy with the final fitment. But somewhere around 98% happy. I may revisit on another occasion. Having the bonnet removed made this easier as I must have had the snorkel on and off at least a handful of times.

With this sorted, it was time to refit the scuttle, wiper arms and bonnet. You will want a 2nd pair of hands for this and the bonnet removal.

Then to run the pipe to the airbox.





And done!




So barring the two issues:

1. Rubbing on the door
2. Windscreen scuttle seal

Both of which have been solved to the point of non issues. The install was pretty painless. Just a bit of grunt work. I didn't rush at all. Probably spent 3 hours or so in total, maybe a tad longer.


Some other observations. I don't really understand the design decision to drill holes and use rivnuts. As said, I didn't even bother with one of them, there seemed to be no point. And there is enough room to get a nut and bolt in that place if you wanted.

But the one on the wing, there are already two square holes where a bracket is mounted for the little panel you remove. It would have seemed fairly easy to have been able to utilise front most hole instead of drilling a new one had the mould of the snorkel supported this.

There are also a number of places once in the engine bay where you could also have secured the front most part of the assembly, which would have provided suitable stability. But at the end of the day, you can only really fit it as designed. Just a bit annoying that they could have likely been even smarter about how it attaches.


My only other complaint is, Bravo Snorkel charge you a fee if you pay via PayPal, which is against PayPal terms & conditions. I'd suggest if you pay this way, to wait until you receive and fit the item, then raise a PayPal dispute for the fee amount.

More info here: creativegeniuslaw.com/why-you-cant-charg...what-to-do-about-it/


And some pictures of it all installed.












From the drivers seat you can hardly tell it is fitted. I was concerned it would make the A pillar appear fatter, but the truth is, you just can't see it is there really.






On the road I wasn't expecting much. Really just wanted to check that it didn't rattle, vibrate or whistle going down the road. None of these seem to occur at all. And I'd argue and say the engine seems a little more peppy and rev free too. Especially up towards the red line. I don't think you'll be seeing any real HP gains, but there is definitely a slight difference in a good way. It has also slightly changed the tone of the intake noise too, although part of the pipe work you remove from the factory setup does contain an air baffle. Again I'd say this is a positive outcome. The noise isn't any louder than before, just slightly better sounding.


Overall I would recommend this snorkel. The overall quality and general fitment is good. And I suspect almost any mod of this type would require a little fettling to get 100%. Because of the nature on where this snorkel fits, it is probably relying on much tighter tolerances in order to fit at all.

The biggest benefit is of course, no cutting of a dirty great hole in the outer panels of the body work. So if you wanted, you could remove the Bravo snorkel and return it stock appearance. Just with the addition of a hole and rivnut that would be hidden from view.

Super description and pics. Thanks for writing it up.

I agree with you that a little more thought at the design stage could have made this even easier to install. I also wonder if Martin's idea for adhesive instead of mechanical fasteners wouldn't be another good consideration for version 2.

And back to my question about why the inlet is fitted towards the front, perhaps it is a feature for those of you in RHD-Land, so your ciggies don't get hoovered up at high engine speeds...

Great write up, thanks.
I suspect the extra rivnut is hopefully Bravo just been over cautious as most other snorkels also fasten to the A-pillar. I guess it would be quite a force by leverage on the bottom fastenings if a branch was to catch on the top of the snorkel?

Glad it fitted OK. One benefit of a forward facing inlet is the ram effect you may/will get.

Roger

Always great to read your write ups. Much appreciation for your time to share your thoughts and insights.


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Thanks for the pictures - that's one snorkel I wouldn't be buying - that corrugated tube and especially the tight 180* turn - no thank you.

Call it personal preference, I'd rather cut a hole through the wing, admittedly it is a little scary the first time you do it, it's not so hard after that.

Cutting a hole is easy. Stopping it being a place of potential rust is much harder, so is reversing the mod should you want to down the line.

What a great product installation write-up. It's going to help plenty budding G4 snorkel fitters.
Re the door rubbing - Is that a result of a lack of template for the captive nuts, i.e are you able to move them a few mm forward and still clear the bonnet and door? As you say it's not a big issue, but is it something you can avoid?
Looks good fitted.
Mike

wrote:

Cutting a hole is easy. Stopping it being a place of potential rust is much harder, so is reversing the mod should you want to down the line.

wrote:

What a great product installation write-up. It's going to help plenty budding G4 snorkel fitters.
Re the door rubbing - Is that a result of a lack of template for the captive nuts, i.e are you able to move them a few mm forward and still clear the bonnet and door? As you say it's not a big issue, but is it something you can avoid?
Looks good fitted.
Mike

Thanks.

You reuse one existing bolt hole near the A pillar. So that sets the fore/aft location. You can tilt the snorkel up and down a bit for the 2nd hole. But you can’t go too far in either direction. So for my example, I’d say no. You had no real choice on the location to get it to avoid hitting the door.

300bhpton.

Just a thought. If you moved the main body of the snorkel towards the front to avoid the door when it is being closed, will the front edge of the snorkel then foul the bonnet? If not could you file a groove in the fixing hole adjacent the "A" pillar to improve things? Then you drill and fix the rivnut to suit the new position.

Roger

So I've done some experimenting today and I can confirm the Bravo snorkel is indeed the cause of a vibration around 2000rpm.

For clarity, the snorkel itself isn't loose or rubbing. I fully believe it is something harmonic related to the engine and air intake.

Fitting the original ducting completely cures the problem (snorkel still fitted and in place, just not connected to the air box). There is a minor vibration at low rpm, but it just feels like an engine at low rpm. Certainly nothing a dealership would be interested in.

Reconnect the Bravo snorkel and at 2000rpm you can make it sound like a fog horn. Which really is the best way to describe it, it is a very low frequency noise. And very akin to what a fog horn would sound or feel like.

To induce, use 3rd, 4th or 5th gear. If you have a slight incline you can labour the engine and keep it in the rpm band easier. And accelerate through 1500-2300rpm. You need to use 75% + throttle pedal travel or wide open throttle.

With the Jimny the engine is very tractable at this sort of engine rpm, so it is a rev range you are likely to frequent a lot. 30mph is approx 2000rpm in 4th for example.

I have videoed it, although the microphone doesn't really capture the essence of the booming low frequency. I will be passing all info over to Bravo Snorkel to see what they say (although it wouldn't surprise me to get no response, but fingers cross).

TBH, I'm not sure it is something I can live with. At higher speeds it is fine, although still a hint at 3000rpm, but very very subtle.

Under engine braking and costing you can also feel the vibration through the brake and clutch pedal. The brake being the most obvious if you are covering the brake pedal as you approach a round-about/junction. Agin with the factory ducting you don't get this sensation, so it must be related to air flow harmonics of the engine.

I note the original pipe you remove has a baffle on it and also some additional air holes. So I wonder if it is a know "peculiarity" of the engine that Suzuki had tuned out with this bit of ducting. I haven't tried running the engine without any ducting to the air box, that would be quite interesting to see what it does like this. So I'll try and do that.

I would say the engine really does feel like it revs and pulls better with the snorkel fitted, which again would support that something dramatic is changing with the air flow. It is much more rev happy at high rpm. When I fitted the AT tyres I noted that the vehicle lost some of it's "pep" and get up and go. With the snorkel connected it completely reverses this. Again you can feel it having driven back to back with the factory ducting.

Also to try and add add a little science. On a hill near here, with the factory ducting it wouldn't pull 5000rpm in 4th, but it would with the snorkel fitted. A gain of 200-300rpm+ and maybe 4mph+ higher speed. Which would support the fact the engine is making more power with the snorkel.