Thread: Air intakes, snorkels and brands

Originally Posted by jimb

debruiser

Bloody good question! The one I am referring to is the commonly known Mantec Platic Jobby
Mantec | Quality Land Rover Accessories

On the Mantec webioste the product codes are below here, but it is pretty recognisable RAI, also mostly accepted that it is identical to the Land Rover RAI, accept for the branding, and that Mantex make the LR ones.

115-RAIDEF Defender 300TDi, TD5, 2.2 and 2.4 Puma
Raised Air Intake for Defender 2.4, 300tdi and TD5 (RAIDEF)

Ahhh yes. I saw that one.... doesn't float my boat personally.... Looks too plastic and too..... whats the word... "toyotaish" or maybe japanese rubbishish...

I was looking at this one:
Mantec | Quality Land Rover Accessories

Jimb,

Stopping during a water crossing refers to driving the car through water (as in a water crossing) and not making it to the other side and thus losing your bow wave. (I was not referring to stopping and starting the engine)

Without a bow wave the water will start pouring through every one of the car's many seal gaps and in cars with electronic management (like Pumas) this is a problem beyond getting water in the air intake.

General common sense should prevail with water crossings and many schools of thought teach that they should be avoided if at all possible. While the car is obviously capable of water crossings there is an absolute host of issues that will start hounding you if its done too often.

1. Suspended sediment will start destroying your serpentine pulley bearings from the very first time you enter muddy water. I have seen them fail after only one day's play at the west's infamous "Power Lines" track.

2. Hot mechanical components suddenly cooled by cold water (like your diffs and hubs) will suck water in past the seals (even with perfectly functioning breathers) with the resultant wear to your mechanical components. Much worse with suspended sediment...

3. Breathers need extending in any case if you plan to wade through water deeper than 650mm odd otherwise you just have another point for water to be sucked in.

I have a raised air intake on my vehicle for the dust encountered in convoy and I have sealed my standard plumbing and ducting for this purpose and this purpose alone.

Cheers,

Lou

Each to their own, that one you like looks functional but bit like grab what ever parts you can to make this thing. Your comment about the Plastic one looking to japanese/toyotaish though - that is why I am little stand offish with Safari because it almost the quintessential toyota, nissan patrol etc accessory; safari Snorkel- whereas the Mantec ones have a much different aesthetic about them- even the one you like looks similar in design to the plastic jobby- just different materials.?

Definitely horses for courses. I did think that the metal pipe one looked like they just went to bunning's to get some down-spout and a can of black fiddlybits! hmmm tempting... na I wouldn't' actually do that.

Well there goes my little pipe dream of poking my head out of the drivers window, positioning my nose and mouth next to the snorkle intake, making sure both I and the Deefer were still alive whilst ploughing through a deep river . . . .

Oh well😂


😃🚣⚓

I thought this was an interesting part of the description of how ARB view the Safari snorkle on their website . . . .


Protecting your engine from dust and water ingestion is essential when driving off road. A Safari snorkel will ensure that clean, dry air is always available, regardless of conditions.
Anyone who has spent time off road almost certainly would have experienced dry dusty roads, water crossings, snow or torrential rain whilst driving, testing both vehicle and driver and leaving your engine vulnerable to costly damage.
Created to protect 4WD engines from the hazards of dust and water commonly encountered in touring and off road driving, Safari snorkels relocate your air intake point from the relatively low and vulnerable position under the bonnet to a higher and safer location where a constant source of cool, clean and dry air is available.
Manufactured in Australia from premium quality polyethylene, Safari snorkels are UV stable and incredibly resilient to withstand the harsh Australian environment. All systems are individually designed to suit most popular 4WD models and undergo thorough research and testing prior to being tooled for production.
Safari snorkels are positively sealed to provide the ultimate in engine protection during river crossings and dusty conditions, while the quality fixtures and fittings ensure superior appearance and long term durability.


Should this make me more relaxed or should I err on the side of caution and stick to driving through small puddles ?��


Ian

Ian,

All Defender snorkels or RAI's are potentially water proof. They are all essentially a single moulded plastic tube that's attached to the Defender's wing. That is however where the warranty on the product and its performance ends.

You still have to duct the clean dry air to the engine without ingesting water or dust between the bottom of the snorkel and the engine's intake and this is where the problem lies.

All makes of 4x4's have dump valves for letting out water and impurities ingested by the air intake prior to reaching the air box. On early Defenders is was easy to seal these and have essentially a sealed system with no air or water leaks.

The modern Defender do however have very little space on the sides of the engine bay and there is little heed given to "excessive" sealing of the air intake system. On nearly all modern 4x4 (Puma Defenders included) the joints on this ducting is essentially push together fittings with no o-rings or jubilee clips.

So the long and the short is that if you really want to drive through water you need to take sealing the system into your own hands (with after market products like Nugget's duct) and do the seal check I described earlier.

There is now way on earth a company like ARB will be interested in any reparation for damage suffered due to water ingestion between the bottom of the snorkel and the engine intake...

Cheers,

Lou

Originally Posted by Ian1878

I thought this was an interesting part of the description of how ARB view the Safari snorkle on their website . . . .


Protecting your engine from dust and water ingestion is essential when driving off road. A Safari snorkel will ensure that clean, dry air is always available, regardless of conditions.
Anyone who has spent time off road almost certainly would have experienced dry dusty roads, water crossings, snow or torrential rain whilst driving, testing both vehicle and driver and leaving your engine vulnerable to costly damage.
Created to protect 4WD engines from the hazards of dust and water commonly encountered in touring and off road driving, Safari snorkels relocate your air intake point from the relatively low and vulnerable position under the bonnet to a higher and safer location where a constant source of cool, clean and dry air is available.
Manufactured in Australia from premium quality polyethylene, Safari snorkels are UV stable and incredibly resilient to withstand the harsh Australian environment. All systems are individually designed to suit most popular 4WD models and undergo thorough research and testing prior to being tooled for production.
Safari snorkels are positively sealed to provide the ultimate in engine protection during river crossings and dusty conditions, while the quality fixtures and fittings ensure superior appearance and long term durability.


Should this make me more relaxed or should I err on the side of caution and stick to driving through small puddles ?��


Ian

If you have an issue, it won't be with the snorkel, it will be with the factory ducting to which the snorkel attaches - this ducting goes from your air filter box to the small intake air box behind the RHS guard and is not sealed from the factory. When my snorkel was fitted the installers did a good job of sealing this section, however I subsequently fitted a nugget kit because a) it's hard to confirm how good a job others have done, b) I wanted to be confident and c) the standard ducting is highly restrictive and opening it up makes for a happier engine.

To be clear, you can confidently do 500mm water crossings without any if tgis stuff - but if you want to go deeper or are risk averse, then you need to dig deeper.

PS you can test your install by blocking your snorkel, but the pressure calcs make me very wary of this approach ymmv