Advantages of Snorkel
A snorkel, often referred to as a raised air intake, when fitted to your four-wheel drive moves the engines air intake from your airbox under the bonnet, to roof height. This has many advantages as described below:
- Less chance of water entering the engine when crossing rivers.
- Access to cooler cleaner air.
- Secondary air filter
The raised air intake will give you piece of mind while driving through deeper waters. Air compresses water doesn’t, if water enters the intake track and makes its way into the motor it will call almost instant catastrophic engine failure. A snorkel can prevent this by raising the
The main issue with the standard airbox is that most of them have the airbox under the bonnet and then a pipe that feeds into the guard from there, in this position the only thing protecting it is the thing black plastic inner fender liner. When an aftermarket bulbar is installed a lot of the inner fender liner is cut away to fit the bulbar. This means that water and dust now have an easy direct stream into the vehicles intake. Also, if doing lots of travel in dirt and dusty condition having the engine breathing either from right above your front wheel is going to be very dirty and increasing the chance of a clogged filter and further engine damage.
With a snorkel fitted your vehicle is not less susceptible to dirt ingress and water making its way into the intake. This cleaner air will be better for the life of your air filter over a long trip. As it will stay cleaner for longer. Secondary filters are also commonly put on top of the snorkel ram head. This helps to pre-filter the air before it gets to the main air filter. Again, keeping the main air filter cleaner for longer. This provides better protection for the engine.
