Do I need Snorkel?

Nissan Navara Forum

Help Support Nissan Navara Forum:

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

CDY90

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2010
Messages
40
Reaction score
0
Hey fellas, might be a stupid question but the father in law is trading his D40 on new Ranger and is kindly donating his chip and exhaust system to me. He had a snorkel fitted up when he got exhaust/chip fitted. Am i best to get a snorkel fitted when i fit them up? I don't do much off road work, more towing. Just unsure if i'll be getting full potential out of chip/exhaust?
 
If its a donation, take it, it'll save you $400 later on if you decide you want it. Plus it'll make the engine breathe better which is only a good thing.
 
nah he giving me his chip and exhaust, wasn't sure if i should fit snorkel aswell to get the best out of the chip and exhaust
 
I have read on the forum, i think it was Northside 4x4 that said that a snorkel can actually give slightly less h/p.
Bluenavara on this forum does not run a snorkel and his 350hp diesel ute is off tap!!

If you dont intend on doing any off road work at all then you could more then likely do with out it, but in my opinion i would grab one of those $170 jobs off fleebay just incase you end up doing some off road stuff. A mate of mine just bought one for his ute and they are a replica of the safari that i have on mine.
 
A snorkel is cheap insurance me thinks.

Getting air from the windscreen height has got to be better, then getting it from next to the left front tyre.
 
I have read on the forum, i think it was Northside 4x4 that said that a snorkel can actually give slightly less h/p.
Bluenavara on this forum does not run a snorkel and his 350hp diesel ute is off tap!!
QUOTE]

I have thought about this before. A snorkel certainly adds more length to the induction track. So a small drop in H.P. maybe experianced. However a longer induction length may equal higher air speed and therefore maybe a small gain in low down torque. Whatever the case the difference would be small.
It's interesting to note that some engine manufactures have made engines with variable length intake manifolds and some years back even F1 engines using variable length intake trumpets. Now banned. So there is definately somthing in it.
I like the idea of a snorkel not so much for the bling factor or fording a deep creek but it has to be of some benifit when traveling a dusty road.
 
The front guard of the D40 is better sealed than the D22, so hitting a moderate (hub-height) amount of water shouldn't kill the D40 like it may do to the D22. If I was making the decision it'd be for two main reasons:

1) In a dusty environment - and that could just be an unsealed road - the snorkel helps to gather incoming air from smaller dust particles (you still get dust!). Because larger particles tend to obey gravity more readily than the really fine stuff, you miss out on a lot of that entering the air filter - you just get the really fine powdery stuff drawn in (rather than both!).

2) Air in the engine bay is significantly hotter than anything outside the engine bay (even in the middle of Australia). Drawing in the coolest air possible is the best for any internal combustion engine - diesel or petrol. The cooler the air, the denser it is = more air molecules per unit volume and that helps combustion which helps power, torque and efficiency. Don't expect the snorkel to provide a big performance gain - it is also a little restrictive.

If you're not going to go on dirt roads, or do water crossings, you might consider not worrying about it. The relatively small benefit of drawing cooler air is probably not worth the hassle and cost.
 
Snorkels are great at one thing.
Stopping water ingestion.

Down side is:
Your air filter will become dirtier much faster, requiring either more cleaning or replacement more often. Believe it or not, but where the air is taken from factory is unbelievably good at preventing most of the crap getting into the air box.

Intake restriction due to the amount of bends in it, and the length of the pipework.

In any turbo car, the real measure of oxygen is not what the air temp is hitting the turbo.
Its how good your intercooler can work.

Dropping the intake temp at the turbo inlet by 20deg, does not mean your post intercooler temp will drop 20deg...

On a naturally aspirated engine, that 20-30deg cooler air would make a hell of a difference to power and economy even with the intake restriction. So if you owned a v6 petrol, I would say it could be a performance gain.
 
I must differ here, good for more than one thing

I dont and prolly wont ever do a river cross, but first mod I did (at the dealer)was the snorkel and only for the fact that all our 4by work utes and one holden commy ute for the three years on eastlink dirt haulroads needed a clean and or replacemet filters on a monthly basis, none had snorkels.
i don't have that issue whatsoever now.
 
funny you say that Northside .. just put a unifilter in after i installed a snorkel he's the damage after only 100km believe it or not on a country road . yes i put a paper filter back in
 

Attachments

  • Photo on 21-11-11 at 9.44 PM #5.jpg
    Photo on 21-11-11 at 9.44 PM #5.jpg
    137.6 KB · Views: 149
No doubt a silly question but if the insects & rubbish find their way into the air filter, what happens to the rain that hits the inlet & goes down?
 
thanks for all the comments fellas, i think i might leave the snorkel for now and see how it goes, i dont do enough off road work to need it and if not going to give me anymore benefit with power etc, probably not 4 me. thanks again
 
I'm astonished nobody brought up that bullshit about ram-air.

No doubt a silly question but if the insects & rubbish find their way into the air filter, what happens to the rain that hits the inlet & goes down?

Some of it goes out the water drain in the snorkel head, if fitted.

Some of it would work its way down to the air box and go out the drain, or evaporate.
 
:idea:

if ya dont want bugs down ya snorkel...put some flyscreen over the inlet or even turn the head around.

As for the water,there is a thread already that deals with that issue...it even has diagrams...for those that like to look at piccies.

Also the ramair debate I think was BUSTED with my detailed wind/air speed experiment in the same thread
 
Last edited by a moderator:
funny you say that Northside .. just put a unifilter in after i installed a snorkel he's the damage after only 100km believe it or not on a country road . yes i put a paper filter back in


fancy that....thats what my intercooler looks like after a night of kroozin and it doesnt even have a snorkel fitted:rant::rant::rant:
 
Anything you add either over the snorkel or over the air filter just decreases its flow even further.

Turn the head around, and you have lost the benefit to some positive flow at higher vehicle speeds.

Any water drains must be blocked when the snorkel is installed, or they are simply water entry's.
This is why safari use the type of head they do, to significantly limit the amount of water ingestion into what should be an absolutely closed system ( no drains!)

Also any of you guys using unifilters should be cleaning you AFM frequently. The amount of oil needed to make those filters actually work is ridiculous and alot of it ends up on the AFM elements.
 
Back
Top