Snorkel Q&A

Nissan 4x4 Owners Club Forum

Help Support Nissan 4x4 Owners Club Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

AlexD333

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
7,847
So me and my mate Clive were having a chat about snorkels yesterday and making one hidden in the wing and coming out at the top of the wing,

One Thing I don't understand, is the system completely sealed? If so surely when it's raining the snorkel pipe builds up with water? Or even when parked? :nenau
 
You gotta have some sort of top on it you can buy them on ebay
 
The safari snorkels and the copys of have drain slots on the head.
 
there also should be a drain gland on the standard air box.
 
Thats why you have a snorkel top, A few drops may go in when parked up in heavy rain but nothing to worry about.

Proper snorkels have a small drain gland at the lowest point but I never had any issues with my homemade one.
 
That's why on my Trooper I turned it backwards as that was a Chinese copy of a Safari with no pad in the top part.

Kind regards

Russell.
 

Attachments

  • WP_20140413_11_57_10_Pro1.jpg
    WP_20140413_11_57_10_Pro1.jpg
    75.3 KB
Driving through big puddles fast it's wise to turn it back but when driving in rain it won't do anything so ok to face forwards even with no drain slots in the head.
 
If you still run into the factory air filter box, then there is a one way gland in there to let any water out.

Not sure if it is the same principle for diesels, but people noticed how petrol cars always ran better and smoother when the air is damp, something about the water molecules being Hydrogen and Oxygen, and at the extreme pressures and temperatures inside the cylinder, the water molecule breaks down into the 2 part Hydrogen and 1 part oxygen, so both elements only help the power stroke to burn even better.

You can even buy an after market kit that sprays a fine mist of water into the carburettor for use in the summer, and hot arid placed, so a little water, that is turned into a fine mist by the time it has passed through the air filter and turbo will not cause any harm. It's when you get a bucket full in there in one go, that replaces all the compressible air, with non-compressible water, that you hydra-lock a cylinder, and bend con rods/snapped crank shafts.

If you do a search on her for snorkels, you will see there are a couple of people who have run their pipe up between the two wing panels and come our just behind the bonnet, Then of course there is Makeitfit's who went the whole way, and went up the inside of the car as well....
 
I was driving in rain before on the motorway that reduced the traffic down to about 10mph it was literally bouncing off the floor as high as the wheels!!!

While I was pottering along at this speed in stop start traffic I was watching the snorkel head, mine has 3 drain channels, I could see tiny streams of water trickling down them :D

They work better when the car is going along as with the "RAM" effect of the air entering the snorkel head, the water is forced onto the side and trickles down out via the drain channels.

This said, you will get some "mist" enter the system but as already mentioned this can improve performance :sly
 
Thanks all for the interesting replies, so I think the answer is, make whatever snorkel you want but make sure you get a proper snorkel head with the drains.

And if the water does make it past it should be released from the 1 way valve in the standard box (which mine is blocked) :lol :augie

OH LASTLY!! - does anyone notice any power difference from facing forwards or backwards?
 
OH LASTLY!! - does anyone notice any power difference from facing forwards or backwards?

That seems to be a bit of a debatable issue.

The instructions for mine specifically said not to face it backwards, as at speed it can actually set up a vacuum as the air goes around it.

The only real reason to have it facing backwards is when off roading, specifically for the reason in the picture shown above (But then again, a slower entry into the mud would have been safer, but less spectacular :lol ), and as you are off road, you should not be going fast enough, to cause a vacuum.
 
Memorys come back to me as I remember a few of us where trying to empty a long puddle (did rather a good job too as I recall) just by driving through it qucikish.
Mine did let water in on the road facing forwards hence the reason it faced backwards, as the airbox would slowly fill in heavy rain, but as I say cheep Chinese copy.

I am going to get a genuine safari one shortly for the Patrol.

Kind regards

Russell.
 
no pad in mine.the rain channels are built into the snorkel top.
 
Alex, there's very little room between the inner wing top and the outer wing. So you will need to fabricate a kind of squashed rectangular shape that then changes to round at some point to exit the wing or whatever. That's a tricky thing to do and keep air tight :augie
Do-able but with fabrication skills and time that may not be readily available to everyone :thumbs
 
Did mine on saturday with some 4x2 box trunking I snaffeled from the stores.
A couple of spot welds and some silicone and a bit of sparks tape and it fits like a glove:thumb2
 

Attachments

  • Snork 1.jpg
    Snork 1.jpg
    32.5 KB

Latest posts

Back
Top