When Is A Snorkel Not A Snorkel????

OBJ
The answer to your question is dependant on what you consider is the purpose of the snorkel.

Is the snorkel fitted so that you can do extra deep water crossings, if so then it must be completely sealed from the opening above the windscreen all the way to the engine. This includes any dust/water drains that may be fitted to the air filter body,

or

Is the snorkel there so that you are getting cooler and cleaner air into the engine, then the presence of some joints and/or drain points within the system is not going to have much effect even if they leak, and may even be beneficial.

If you intend to drive through water exceeding about 500mm in depth then there are other things that you need to consider, and at about 600mm I would be very much considering the necessity to proceed.

Regards
Athol

OBJ
I wonder what constitutes a "proper" snorkel, and believing a "someone" can create doubts, costly doubts too sometimes, all because of "someone".
What qualifications does the "someone" have to judge definitively the operation of the snorkel?
SO it has two parts, might be good if the top section gets damaged as it may be ripped off and leave the lower part to still be able to be used while fording streams.
If damaged on a "proper" snorkel the whole thing has to be removed.
As long as the snorkel seals in all joins to prevent ingress of dust and water to the intake then I wouldn't worry about corrugations in the inner surface. It may be there to stop drumming and transmitted intake air frequencies which are common in many vehicles.
Maybe "someone " doesn't think too deeply into anything at all and gets their jollies from casting doubts within one who owns the vehicle.

The 76 Series doesn't actually come with a "snorkel". I believe it is only considered to be an "elevated air intake". When mine was removed I discovered a gap of about 10mm between the two parts. This gap seriously compromises the integrity of the air intake during water crossings above 500mm as previously mentioned. Whilst I don't go looking for it I find I am regularly crossing water above this level hence the Safari snorkel I now have fitted. I have to say that I noticed a significant difference in performance also after the snorkel was fitted. Probably more than I noticed with the fitting of a 3" exhaust.

The standard Toyota snorkel is quite adequate to do what roof-level snorkels are designed to do - suck in air that contains less dust, and avoid ingesting water in deep water immersion situations.

There are dozens and dozens of webpages "pushing" the supposed advantages of aftermarket snorkels with forward-facing intakes and supposedly creating cleaner air and producing colder air for the engine.

Naturally, all these websites are written by designers of the aftermarket snorkels and by website owners seeking income from sponsors. Of course, they are going to "boom up" the products they discuss in a cosy "mate-to-mate" fashion.

The advantages of aftermarket snorkels over a Toyota factory snorkel are minimal.
They can't eliminate much incoming dust - unless they comprise or contain a centrifugal-action precleaner style of arrangement (a la Donaldson precleaners).

They can't produce colder air for the engine, the incoming air is at ambient temperature - so if it's a stinking hot day, your engine will still suck in hot air.

You will sometimes notice a difference in engine performance with any snorkel, as the intake air temperature lowers substantially on cold nights. You notice this most in cold valleys on still nights.
There will sometimes be a sizeable temperature difference between the outside ambient air temperature at roof level, compared to the air inside the engine bay.

However, not all standard aircleaners suck air from inside the engine bay.
Many engines suck air from inside the wheel well, or from behind the grille - where the air is at ambient outside temperature.

Bottom line, nearly all aftermarket snorkels are fitted for appearance sake, to make the 4WD look like a "real 4WD".
The market for aftermarket roof-level snorkels started because many earlier aircleaner intake arrangements were less than satisfactory.
Most vehicle manufacturers have woken up to the owners requirements for better aircleaner arrangements.

I can remember a business associate wrecking his new 380SL Mercedes engine when he took us for an inspection of an item of equipment we wanted to sell.
The road to the machine we were going to inspect was a gravel road, it was mid-Winter, and we'd had about 25-30mm of rain overnight.

We came to a small floodway with a small creek flowing over the road. The associate (who was a pretty arrogant a***hole), asked if it was safe to cross.

I replied, "I drive my Holden utes through this kind of stuff all the time. Can't see why the Merc can't do it".

Unbeknowns to me (and the Merc owner), the 380SL had an amazingly-crafted air intake, that snaked across the engine bay, went through the front radiator panel, and ended up sucking in air, just below the centre of the front bumper!!

Of course, those Mercedes engineers had designed that intake to suck in cool fresh air, from Autobahns, at 200kmh!!
It did a wonderful job of scooping up about 40 litres of bitingly cold, muddy creek water, and distributing it thoroughly throughout that fine V8 Mercedes engine!

It immediately broke rings and probably did a whole heap of other engine damage, too! (we never did find out the total damage cost).

Suffice to say, the Merc owner was mightily pissed-off at seriously damaging his near-new Merc engine - while we secretly had a good laugh about it! Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke (he never even purchased our item of equipment, either! LOL).

Cheers, Ron.

Following is a visual discussion and remedy...

I opted to fit a Safari Snorkel on my 79 Series.



Cheers, Baz - The Landy

Apart from making sure it is all sealed, I believe the best thing you can fit to any 4x4 is a "filter minder". It will tell you if your engine is getting enough air or not, so no guess work. Also tell you when the filter is too dirty and needs changing.
Tony.

Even Toyota will tell you the OEM Snorkel is really to reduce dust Ingress as opposed to water ingress. The Safari Snorkel is a better unit for helping to reduce both water & dust ingress into the turbos.

Macca.

From the first 70 series in the 1980's the genuine Toyota snorkel has been 2 piece and most do leak. Only thing they have changed is the size of the snorkel.

Fix has always been to pull the whole snorkel off, clean the joint and use black sikaflex to seal it.
Just make sure the angle is kept the same as original.

Snorkel seems to be working OK.
An oldie but a goody.
Dave.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC5ld79joIA

The 78 series turbo 6s, at least, have a delta P sensor across the air filter to sense if the filter is clogged. The sensor will turn on a dash warning light if the delta P exceeds about 0.6 psig so if you are running a standard turbo and filter the delta P is almost insignificant before the light comes on. It seems (I may be wrong) that any upstream change to the snorkel geometry is insignificant in getting more air into the engine. I imagine that those running "higher boost" than factory setting must either disconnect the sensor, use the light for dash illumination or have lots of money to put in for replacing over stressed engines. As someone on another site noted via a dash sticker "YOU HAVE TO GO HOME IN THIS - DON'T BE STUPID" |

The 70 series Landcruisers do not come with a snorkel as people like to call it . It is a high air intake and is NOT sealed to protect against water ingress
If you intend on doing deep water crossings I suggest you replace it with a proper snorkel,that is what I have done.