Safari Snorkel, to seal or not to seal.

[Blade74]

Hey All,
I fitted a Safari Snorkel yesterday to my TD5 and sealed all the joins with the correct sikaflex sealer.
My brother and dad were helping me and both agreed I should not seal the two drains (the round rubber drain flap near the side panel and the split drain under the air box). They both were worried about the amount if rain getting into the snorkel when driving in heavy rain.
When I had both drains removed I sucked on them and they both sealed with suction. The rubber on the air box was a little older so I may buy a new one.

Would these two drains in effect always be sealed whilst the motor runs and therefore not be a problem?

Does the head of the snorkel catch majority of the water and I should just sikaflex the two drains?

There was a tiny square hole in the air box which didn't have a drain hole valve which I did fill up with sealer.

What do most people do or what is most people's opinion of this?
Thanks

[PhilipA]

My opinion may be different to most.
IMHO if you are stopped in deep enough water to enter the airbox, you will more to worry about like the car floating. The ECU may also be underwater .
The bow wave of a moving car will keep the water level low inside the engine bay.
Lots of water does come down snorkels in really heavy rain and the head drains do keep out a bit but certainly not all. This is doubly true if you do not regularly clean the head drains as they get choked up by dead bees, flies, leaf litter etc. This can happen in a few days when travelling.
In my case on an RRC, I sikaflexed up the gulper but left a pinhole open, the theory being that rain will drain away before any damage and the pinhole will stop water rushing into the airbox giving time to switch off when you finally accept your stopped position is hopeless.
That is what I will be doing to my D2 when I fit my snorkel.
Regards Philip A

[austastar]

Hi, I left the first drain at the bottom of the downpipe. To stop water geting up and to allow water to get out, I put a length of clear plastic tube on it, and tucked it up near the brake booster, sealing it closed by sliding it over one of the bolts there.

The theory is I can see if there is water in the tube after heavy rain and lower it to empty it.

The one in the air cleaner box is still open, if I am faced with water that deep I will have an hour or two for a coffee, and possibly goop it up with some blue tack or gaffa tape.

cheers

ps (edit) Tip: when putting the sikaflex on, use your fingers, have a bunch of kitchen plastic bags handy, use these as gloves for each application. Yes, it does waste a bit of sikaflex, but it saves a lot of cleaning up.

[goingbush]

Any amount of rain coming into the snorkle is not enough to hydrolock your engine, it will get turned into vapour long before it gets near your inlet manifold, thats if it can make its way past your air filter element.

What about water injection, thats why your motor runs better when its raining.

[Loubrey]

What about water injection, thats why your motor runs better when its raining.

That plus cooler, denser air...:D

BTW do they do water injection in diesels? (honest question!:eek:)

[goingbush]

That plus cooler, denser air...:D

BTW do they do water injection in diesels? (honest question!:eek:)


Get better diesel performance with a water injection kit (http://www.alcoholinjectionsystems.com/WaterInjectionSystem.html)

[eddy]

I am going through the resealing of my TD5 Defender snorkel and discovered that the pipe [flexible,wire reinforced] connecting the filter box to the air intake had disintegrated.I think it is part number PHD103620[3"idx2.5"idx12"length].
Has anyone discovered a more durable replacement?

[goingbush]

I have a 3" air duct pipe from autobahn , it goes all the way from the air box to the safari inlet on the guard, thus doing away with the stupid 2" joiner with the duckbill under it. It sits under the steering shaft nicely.

worth doing for removing the airflow bottleneck alone

[laney]

If you are worried about water getting into your air box in heavy rain turn the snorkel head around so it faces to the back of the car this seems to work well in dusty conditions to.