VEHICLES, CAMPERS, and BOATS > Powerplant, Driveline, and Braking

How to build a snorkel

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Flyin6:
I built a snorkel from scratch for my Tundra and later one for the SquareD project survival truck.

It is really pretty generic to just about any vehicle, so I'll lay it out here and you can get the basic idea and apply it to your vehicle

First why do you need a snorkel?

Most folks would answer deep water fording and if you ever got into deep water where your truck did not A. Float, of B. Sink, then keeping the engine from sucking in water is mandatory. Water intake in a sufficient quantity will immediately hydraulically lock the engine. That does bad things like bending the connecting rods and blowing out the sides of blocks...you know things like that which will definitely stop forward movement as well as render your vehicle in need of a new engine.

You probably need to plan to be able to ford water of around 20" depth, and given the low sitting of most (so called) off road SUV's of today is a significant challenge. At that depth they are floating or buoyant enough to lift the tires off the bottom giving you no traction while you slowly fill with water and sink.

A lifted truck should be able to handle much more, and I like 36" as a good working number. That's pretty deep water. you're 5'9" right? Well do the math...would you be comfortable driving across a stream past your waist in depth? Now let me start shooting at you, then rethink your decision. Correct, you're driving straight ahead, and hopefully you can cross.

So for the evasion piece of survival, if it should actually ever happen, it would be nice to be able to do it.

But a snorkel does a lot more. Air is pulled from the fender well. The tire lives down there as well. The tire is the thing that makes that dust cloud you see behind you. Granted there is an inter-space if you will that reduces the amount of dust, but the air your engine breathes is placed in one of the dustiest environments anyone could find.

Evernotice when driving down a dusty road that the dust generally stays below the top fender line? You could crack your window if you wanted for ventilation, yes?
And above your head is pretty clean air as long as you are not in a convoy. so placing the air inlet for the only engine you have that is hauling you away from certain bad times, onward toward hope and a chance, in the best location on your vehicle just makes sense...Tracking?

Assuming you are let's build this snorkel system

Vehicle is a 2001 Toyota Tundra with a lot of mods and a supercharged v8 gasser.

First I selected a 3" diameter (Which turned out to be too small, read: Restrictive) 90 degree silicone bend and fitted an aircraft 3" aluminum flange to that

Flyin6:
I cut a 3.5" hole in the fender well opposite of the factory air box

Flyin6:
That flange was then attached to the air box. I chose to rivet it, then seal it off with silicone

Flyin6:
Then I attached it to the airbox and called that done

Flyin6:
You can run the tube inside or outside of the fender according to what fits your needs the best. I decided to bring mine out here:

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