Custom K5 Snorkel Construction! Yay! Input needed!

[nychopshop]

That, right there, should tell us a lot. What does their control over the English language say about their control over quality?

-- A

I completely agree, but take a quick look at the actual contours of the airaid 200-104 kit vs the cheapo ebay one. Its quite clear they took a mold of the airaid unit and shaved off the name. I would only assume they make it with cheaper thinner plastic (at least the part that I really need), and therefore would be incredibly less ideal for submerging. I'm still looking for anyone who has the airaid kit on their throttle body injection 350v8 to tell me how suited to the application they feel the unit is. Me think is bad the one have on ebay they do. I read somewhere that the bitterness of cheap parts remains long after the sweetness of the low price fades. At $45 shipped, I almost bit, several times... I just cant bring myself to buy what I know is going to be an inferior product (unless someone for some reason bought the kit themselves and can damn near stand on the thing without imploding it) even at less than half the cost of the airaid kit.

 

[nychopshop]

Pics of my vintage fram unit

still available on ebay when last I checked, here is the stack of photos I took of the unit as promised:

these old fram units seem to be leftovers from late 1984.... Orwell filters, creepy. This shot is with the bottom removed (opposite output) with 3 handy dandy clamps. The seat in the removable cap is just metal on metal, so I think I'm going to use some sort of silicone or liquid rubber product to seal the ring when closed.

Comes with a bunch of vintage junk and hose clamps too.

weighing in at a mighty 2-1/4", I don't feel like this mounting bracket/output adapter has the diameter to do the job for my 350. I believe since the bottom portion is flat steel, I can just cut out the center and weld in a 3-1/2" pipe that will match perfectly with 99% of all round-tube throttle body adapters.

as you can see, with the correct diameter adapter, the output potential is a sweet 3.5"!

This is a shaky shot of the interior with the filter removed from the bottom. The seat on the bottom of the unit (towards the output) is a 1" wide rubber gasket that feels quite fresh and springy. I like, I like.

a well-marked 4" outer diameter in-hole, perfect for a 4"-3" silicone adapter for the world's most common snorkel accessory diameter.

a similarly useful label on the out-hole. Is it all starting to make sense? I think the gasket on the outside is cork or something synthetic thats damn corkish. 6-bolts in this heavy steel monster can water-tight damn near anything, even if the unit is mounted by them.

as awkward as bung-talk is, there is one welded on the underwhelming output pipe. Its a 1/4" fitting or so, with a pinhole actually going through the pipe. Attached is a weird archaic filter monitoring device thats almost certainly useless for yours truly. I'll just weld on a straight piece of pipe, no more of this bung business.

This is the unit that was, game faces on, intended to be inserted in the bung hole in my unit. Again, I dont think its too useful for me, but it'll sure look cool in my 'useless parts' bin!

Anyone have any advice for my setup, please pitch it in. I know I have to throw an extra little bit of waterproofing on everything, but any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Subscribed.

I've been contemplating doing something with mine similar to the links where they ran the intake tubes into the fresh air ducts. Just need to work out some sort of a drain setup.

 

[nychopshop]

Air filter unit

I believe the air filter is designed for a gas powered electric generator, but I'm not quite sure. I also found a list of what seems to be compatible air filters to replace the paper unit once it goes bad. I plan on removing the filter and submerging the unit in a bathtub to find some of the waterproofing weak links. More to come!
Air Filters

 

[AJMBLAZER]

http://www.uniquemetalproducts.com/

I like the sounds of their filtering setup. I'm starting to doubt some of the K&N stuff. Been using them for years but I have seen the oil get places it shouldn't have been.

 

[nychopshop]

I've heard the same about K&N, not to mention that they have inferior particle filtering to paper. I guess I'm switching back to paper (on every engine I care about, my 4 door sedan will keep the oiled filter - beat the beater). I just included the K&N sizes to show compatibly sized filters, there seem to be a good stack of available options. I know for sure that in every pep boys and o'reiley's across the nation stock in paper every single filter they carry in K&N.

As for Unique Metal products, their stuff is mouthwatering in quality, but jaw dropping in price. If you price everything you need, the price of the entire setup more than doubles and goes up from there. If you want just the airbox, prices for any applicably sized engines are about $200+, not to mention that the whole entire setups for diesel engines are $430! My entire unit is going to be built for under $200 - at least thats the goal. The fab work I'm going to need soon might raise that a little, but I'm still quite pleased with the results as they appear to be shaping up.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

I like their setup for the superior dust filtering and also the better water drain setup. How exactly I'll run it I'm not sure.


I've had a tide line on a filter before. One good thing about K&N's are that they are mostly water repellent. Hoping to never repeat that experience again through use of a well thought out snorkel and filter setup.

 

[nychopshop]

The best setup I've seen for drainage is the military setup: no big surprise there. I found a whole HMMWV air cleaner assembly for sale for about $300. As good as it gets, in my honest opinion, including that rubber nipple that allows the easy expulsion of any rocks, dirt and water that may find its way into the military-sealed unit. How does the military put a deep water fording kit on the HMMWV? stick a big tube onto the air cleaner straight up and another big long pipe on the exhaust. Done. I would love to own this unit, and will if the setup I'm building doesn't pass muster in the bathtub test.

Here is a link to the store

 

[original balzer]

Even though this guy does things a little more hack that I like, the concept of the snorkle is sound.
http://chevy.off-road.com/chevy/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=399802
Im sure if you spent a little more time on it you could make it alot nicer. I would like to figure out a way to build a good sealed box to house an air cleaner. The tractor style canisters are nice but a bit bulky.

 

[cabledawg]

I've been seeing most folks use the stock air cleaner and seal it up with silicone. Maybe thats the best way to get started instead of going aftermarket? I wish I had kept my old ones. Oh well, PNP here I come!

 

[lunchbox]

subscribed

 

[nychopshop]

welding coming...

my professionally welding buddy is willing to do the fab work to match the filter's output diameter with the 3.5" diameter pipe I need. If anyone knows where to find anything like a 3.5" pipe about 6" long with provisions for attaching a hose, let me know! Thanks!

 

[romeolimagolf]

I saw this in the latest issue of 4 Wheel & Off Road. I think it is relevant to the subject at hand, so I thought I would share. I'm sure it could be modified to fit in a K5.

 

[rwright07]

that thing is sweeeeeeet, i looked on their page but didnt have too much time to search around. do you have the part number??

 

[romeolimagolf]

I came across these on the Jegs site: http://www.jegs.com/p/Spectre/769283/10002/-1/10269

No one mentioned it so I thought I would throw it out there. It seems to me that one could use the Single 4" Outlet Air Plenum P/N 865-9849 along with some of the various Intake tubes and clamps, and either tie into a modified ARB snorkle, or make their own using something like the above canister from Advanced Flow Engineering.

Just a thought.

 

[nychopshop]

I saw those AFE canisters. They look great, and I almost messed myself when I opened the magazine and saw that image. My problem is this: Why would I get the plastic version like that one for $350-$400 or so when I can get the military metal version that also includes the handy-dandy rock expulsion nipple thing. If it were a $200 product I would be sold. Hell, I'd probably just get myself the Safari snorkel and call it a day. The price tag defeats the purpose for me. Not that I'm cheap, I just replaced 2/3 of the floor of my truck at the body shop and boy did it hurt, but I don't see the point of spending more for less. If I were building a snorkel for dust for a baja truck or something, I wouldn't think twice about buying the lighter unit with the big gaping mouth intake. I'm more interested in durability over the long run and when I can get the military version for my military style truck for the same price, I know which I'm going for personally.

 

[nychopshop]

I came across these on the Jegs site: http://www.jegs.com/p/Spectre/769283/10002/-1/10269

No one mentioned it so I thought I would throw it out there. It seems to me that one could use the Single 4" Outlet Air Plenum P/N 865-9849 along with some of the various Intake tubes and clamps, and either tie into a modified ARB snorkle, or make their own using something like the above canister from Advanced Flow Engineering.

Just a thought.

That looks great! I'm almost definately going to use that, thanks for the post!

 

[muddermilitia]

I came across these on the Jegs site: http://www.jegs.com/p/Spectre/769283/10002/-1/10269

No one mentioned it so I thought I would throw it out there. It seems to me that one could use the Single 4" Outlet Air Plenum P/N 865-9849 along with some of the various Intake tubes and clamps, and either tie into a modified ARB snorkle, or make their own using something like the above canister from Advanced Flow Engineering.

Just a thought.

Thank you for posting that! I need some of those connectors and I may just get that plenum. Anyone know off hand if that will fit a tbi unit?
This is the current progress of my snorkle

That's a piece of 4" exhaust tube i got at napa

 

[romeolimagolf]

that thing is sweeeeeeet, i looked on their page but didnt have too much time to search around. do you have the part number??

I wondered the very same thing so I sent them an e-mail. I finally got a reply today. For those who are curious:

The p/n for the dry series in the OffRoad Canister is 51-11061 & the MSRP is $464.71

 

[romeolimagolf]

I was searching the 'net and came across a build thread on another forum. The guy fabbed up a neat snorkle for his Ramcharger using Kabota tractor parts. Check it out here: (The words in bold are his, quoted directly from his build thread.)




Originally I was going to graft it into the side of the fender, but after mocking it up in different places I liked it up in the corner of the hood best, and it won't get schwacked on tree branches or anything else that gets too close to the body edge (didn't want the screen to get bashed up), plus it would have meant cutting the fender up a lot for the tilt, and I like the fender to look 'whole'.

I started with a Kubota tractor air cleaner assembly that I got from ebay, chopped it to pieces, got the mesh screen from an air duct cover, cut everything to fit, and made my own versionÂ

Hood will close around it and it sticks up above the hood line with the mesh about 1" above the hood surface, so when I wash the rig water won't pour through the mesh...but even if it did it would drain out the bottom because the actual inlet is above the inside surface. I'll cut the hood to clear it, and fit a piece of 14g sheetmetal in the back to make the area look 'complete' with the hood closed.

The outlet tube sticking out the bottom will be cut away and replaced with a much smaller outlet that doesn't stick down.

Even if you hose it down at point blank range the filter will just bleed out the water and it'll drain out the drain holes, and have you ever noticed that when you're driving and it's raining that the hood barely gets wet? Water won't be a problem.

And here's the guts of the thing. The main housing has a 4" outlet which will taper to a 3-1/2" inlet to the carb hat, which I'll get pics of later when I get the injection bolted up here in a couple days.

I just though this guy fabbed up a cool snorkle and I thought I would share for those that have not seen it. If you have a few hours to spare, I highly encourage you to check out his whole build thread. I guess you could call him the Ryoken of the Ramcharger world. You can see the rest of his build thread here: http://ramchargercentral.com/index.php?topic=49434.0