.....Please don't get discouraged by how long this is its very descriptive......
Well i finally got around to installing my snorkel in my 03 d22..
First off let me say, I will never go for the cheaper option again. What a PAIN IN THE ASS of a job to install the bloody thing. Considering my mate who helped me had installed a genuine nissan one in his patrol and said it was a piece of cake.
So we started on Sunday morning. The template was actually pretty good. I cut out the big hole on the template and fitted it to the snorkel body to check how it fit. The lug holes were a bit out but not too bad. So we taped the template onto the guard and marked the big hole.
It was now time for me to walk away. Its a nerve racking experience having someone put a 89mm hole in your guard. Once it was done though it was all systems go. After masking the whole guard off we sorted out where the bracket on the A pillar needed to go as this would give us a guide as to where the snorkel would sit (i recommend doing this as it made the placement of the lug holes easier)
The with the use of a little of the old handbrakes nail polish (black like her heart (i kid, i kid) around the lug holes, we placed the snorkel onto the guard and pushed marking where the holes were to go. At this point we had discarded the template. Now for more drilling. Easy enough to watch this time as the damage had been done.
Now came the tricky bit. Working out how to plumb this bad boy up in such a confined spot. Putting the body of the snorkel on isn't an issue, However that top lug, the one closest to the windscreen is a pain in the ass for us bigger armed lads....
Fitting the rubber tube to the body of the snorkel once it was on wasn't too hard however the hose clamp proved problematic. I have decided i don't like hose clamps, their a pain in the ass... But we got it on. Now for the tricky part. Having taken the air box and pre filter out we had to connect this weird looking "S" shaped plastic tube which sits both inside the engine bay and between the panels. Having to be fed through from the engine bay it then needed to be connected to the rubber tube inside the panel.
After lots of pissing around, with the rubber tube disconnecting due to not being able to get the hose clamp tight enough, and the plastic tube being ridiculously hard to manoeuvre into place we finally got it together..... For the first time... lol.... Thinking we'd had a win we started to put the air box back in, However with a few wiggles of the tubes the rubber one fell off (Glad this happened now and not after we had finished and was driving it through the mud and water)
By this time we had run out of daylight hours and we were well overdue for a beer. So we called it a night...... I told you this was long....
My mate couldn't make it back the next day as it was MOnday, so i went it alone for a while. I had decided it would be easier to get some flexi tube and silicone pipe and DIY plumbing all the way to the air box. After picking this up i did some tinkering with the flexi tube and realise it wouldn't work as it couldn't bend in a small space. i didn't even bother with the silicone pipe as i didn't have anything to use to connect them. So it was back to the drawing board.
Thinking back to all my night shift browsing on this site, i remembered seeing someone do a snorkel install by taking the whole panel off, (at least i think it was this site) While this may seam drastic and over the top just to install a snorkel, i had almost gotten to my wits end. The panel is easy enough to take off. Most of the screws had already come off to take the under guard in the wheel arch off.
Once the panel was off i was able to ensure all the lugs were done up tight enough, and get the top lug we couldn't reach, and also i connected the original rubber tube up and was able to make sure the hose clamp was super tight. Luckily my mate had said he would come over after work and with this help we were able to connect the tubes and make sure the second hose clamp was nice and tight and reconnect the panel and plumb it all to the air box in about 40 minutes.
In short, if you or anyone is going to install a snorkel, i encourage you to remove the panel to do so. Makes it SOOOOOOOOOO much easier.
I finished it all off by myself yesterday, I had forgotten to use the sikaflex on the joins so i did my best to get as much sikaflex on there as i could without having to take the whole thing off again. Think i did a pretty good job of it. The it took me about an hour to make sure the panel was on properly and all bolted up.
This bloody snorkel took two and half days of my life but it is finally on. I hope this helps anyone who is giving it a go themselves. having said all of this i still strongly encourage you all to put it on yourself. Its character building if nothing else.
Cheers guys
Sammy
Well i finally got around to installing my snorkel in my 03 d22..
First off let me say, I will never go for the cheaper option again. What a PAIN IN THE ASS of a job to install the bloody thing. Considering my mate who helped me had installed a genuine nissan one in his patrol and said it was a piece of cake.
So we started on Sunday morning. The template was actually pretty good. I cut out the big hole on the template and fitted it to the snorkel body to check how it fit. The lug holes were a bit out but not too bad. So we taped the template onto the guard and marked the big hole.
It was now time for me to walk away. Its a nerve racking experience having someone put a 89mm hole in your guard. Once it was done though it was all systems go. After masking the whole guard off we sorted out where the bracket on the A pillar needed to go as this would give us a guide as to where the snorkel would sit (i recommend doing this as it made the placement of the lug holes easier)
The with the use of a little of the old handbrakes nail polish (black like her heart (i kid, i kid) around the lug holes, we placed the snorkel onto the guard and pushed marking where the holes were to go. At this point we had discarded the template. Now for more drilling. Easy enough to watch this time as the damage had been done.
Now came the tricky bit. Working out how to plumb this bad boy up in such a confined spot. Putting the body of the snorkel on isn't an issue, However that top lug, the one closest to the windscreen is a pain in the ass for us bigger armed lads....
Fitting the rubber tube to the body of the snorkel once it was on wasn't too hard however the hose clamp proved problematic. I have decided i don't like hose clamps, their a pain in the ass... But we got it on. Now for the tricky part. Having taken the air box and pre filter out we had to connect this weird looking "S" shaped plastic tube which sits both inside the engine bay and between the panels. Having to be fed through from the engine bay it then needed to be connected to the rubber tube inside the panel.
After lots of pissing around, with the rubber tube disconnecting due to not being able to get the hose clamp tight enough, and the plastic tube being ridiculously hard to manoeuvre into place we finally got it together..... For the first time... lol.... Thinking we'd had a win we started to put the air box back in, However with a few wiggles of the tubes the rubber one fell off (Glad this happened now and not after we had finished and was driving it through the mud and water)
By this time we had run out of daylight hours and we were well overdue for a beer. So we called it a night...... I told you this was long....
My mate couldn't make it back the next day as it was MOnday, so i went it alone for a while. I had decided it would be easier to get some flexi tube and silicone pipe and DIY plumbing all the way to the air box. After picking this up i did some tinkering with the flexi tube and realise it wouldn't work as it couldn't bend in a small space. i didn't even bother with the silicone pipe as i didn't have anything to use to connect them. So it was back to the drawing board.
Thinking back to all my night shift browsing on this site, i remembered seeing someone do a snorkel install by taking the whole panel off, (at least i think it was this site) While this may seam drastic and over the top just to install a snorkel, i had almost gotten to my wits end. The panel is easy enough to take off. Most of the screws had already come off to take the under guard in the wheel arch off.
Once the panel was off i was able to ensure all the lugs were done up tight enough, and get the top lug we couldn't reach, and also i connected the original rubber tube up and was able to make sure the hose clamp was super tight. Luckily my mate had said he would come over after work and with this help we were able to connect the tubes and make sure the second hose clamp was nice and tight and reconnect the panel and plumb it all to the air box in about 40 minutes.
In short, if you or anyone is going to install a snorkel, i encourage you to remove the panel to do so. Makes it SOOOOOOOOOO much easier.
I finished it all off by myself yesterday, I had forgotten to use the sikaflex on the joins so i did my best to get as much sikaflex on there as i could without having to take the whole thing off again. Think i did a pretty good job of it. The it took me about an hour to make sure the panel was on properly and all bolted up.
This bloody snorkel took two and half days of my life but it is finally on. I hope this helps anyone who is giving it a go themselves. having said all of this i still strongly encourage you all to put it on yourself. Its character building if nothing else.
Cheers guys
Sammy
