Thread: Snorkels on V8's

Here we go, can see this is one of those which side of the fence arguements. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif[/img]

Snorkel definately yes. Cleaner and cooler air yes.
And for the sake of the discussion a standard V8 of most available sizes consume between 500 and 850CFM at roughly peak revs (redline). What does that mean, most V8's will be happy with 300 cfm at 2000rpm, 500CFM if you floor it and a three inch diameter snorkel is more than adequate in supplying air.

Air Ram Effect ????? If there is no obvious gain from facing the intake forward then why do we do it ? Why not face it to the side or backwards or leave the end of the tube blank ? :? Ah of course, it looks better !!

Regardless I know from what I've done there is snorkel "Air Ram" effect and you don't need to be going particularly fast for it to happen. There is a boost as such and it doesn't matter if your carby, EFI or diesel but shouldn't be compared with the say the recognisable rush from a turbo spool up.
I changed from the more common "ram head" to the Donaldson bowl style precleaner on mine due to a carby fuel lean (heavy ping) only on the highway which I put down to the "forced induction" of the ram head, usually above 80kays. The most noticable thing, I'm still talking highway speed here, is the motor isn't as toey as it was with the ram head, seemed to have more power but since the switch runs much cooler water temp and doesn't ping at all now at any speed with the donaldson. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

So if you're going to the trouble of fitting a snorkel go with the donaldson precleaner rather than the ram head, keeps the filter much cleaner and handles heavy dust better.

Maybe I have this wrong but if having a snorkel is only to show "hardcore enthusiast" to others, if we want to stick to that line of argument, what's the story with lights on the top of the bull bar, at least 2 inches of mud caked to the guards and douse of panel damage ? We need to resit the driving test ? Oh come on !!!

Originally posted by Pedro_The_Swift
my 2 cents is
yes,
go for it,,
but dont be anywhere near your pride and joy when they start cutting the guard!!!!!

I have no intention of watching an apprentice with a jigsaw

Come on, I did all the work my self, It dosen's hurt unless you cut your self.
Look in the gallery under "Hok under the knife"

Originally posted by DiscoTDI+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DiscoTDI)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-Pedro_The_Swift
my 2 cents is
yes,
go for it,,
but dont be anywhere near your pride and joy when they start cutting the guard!!!!!

I have no intention of watching an apprentice with a jigsaw [/b][/quote]

The guys at OL were talking about one they fitted before mine and had to replace the Guard because a hole was cut in the wrong spot, and another where someone went to mark the center wil a drill hole and the drill ran along the guard leaving a nice grove.

They could have told me this after I had mine fitted :?

Good scare story Big Bugga. That would be more unexperienced fitters than anything. Don't these guy's now about a centre punch first. Or a nice sharp drill bit. Better still a template that Safari snorkels supply anyway. Anyway it becomes their problem if they do any damage.
As for the pro's and cons of fitting a snorkel it does have the benefit of all the afore mentioned pro's including a ram effect. Some of these may only be marginal though. I have had snorkels fitted to diesel, petrol, petrol/lpg and lpg only. I have also had ram filters, cold air intakes etc fitted to V8s. The main benefit of a snorkel is cold clean air. Just having cold dense air on its own creates a small ram flow effect. Forcing it down a tube, snorkel head facing forward will increase the ram effect into the induction. Basic physics, but not to a great effect as some people believe. It will also because of cold, dense forced (ram effect) air give slightly better fuel economy and performance. The greatest performance gains I have noted are on a straight petrol engine, followed by a turbo diesel engine although these are relatively minor. The petrol V8s seem to pick up extra performance in the top end department where a higher volume of air is required. Dual fuel or straight lpg systems are different altogether. The petrol will love the extra induction but the lpg will not. Lpg systems require an equal pressure system to operate at optimum efficiency. They can still run with the snorkel head facing forward, but do not do so as well. With the current Rangie I have it came with a snorkel and was facing forward, being lpg only. I rotated the snorkel rearwards to negate the ram effect, so it could suck cool, clean air still and its performance and economy improved by about 10%. I have had a couple of engineers ask why I have the snorkel reversed and when I explained that it was on lpg said that it now makes sense and that theory is correct.
Above all though buy the snorkel for clean cold air to protect the engine more than anything else. Remember when in convoy on really dusty roads to reverse the head so you are not sucking dusty air and having to clean the filter every stop. Better still buy a Donaldson pre cleaner to catch the dust before it gets to your main filter. Just put on before dusty trips.

Thans Craig - thats what I was gonna say!

But I got the $hit$ with a comment/s made - I know the Ram Effict is only slight - I never said it wasnt, I was simply putting foreward my idea which in the following will be confirmed that the Snorkel DOES offer air to the motor at a SLIGHTLY INCREASED rate.

Not to be confused with a the RAM AIR theory on some muscle cars etc.

Joatt - <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>With out doing the maths and in a nut shell I would like to bury the myth of "ram" effect from a snorkel(no offence to landrovermick).
[/b][/quote]

Mate do the maths by all means then show us - as id be happy to have it proved to me where I and some others may be wrong [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

I also found this : Safari themselves refer to the item atop of the snorkel as the "Charge Air Ram"
see here :

http://www.safarisnorkel.com.au/docs/snork...kel/air_ram.htm
I quote "Safari air ram has been redesigned to ensure optimum airflow"

Now thats the $hit I been talking about there !!!!!

Regards

Mick

Soooo,,

Its OK to turn the snorkle head around and run them backwards???
have often wondered what happens at high speed, is there a slight vacuum effect behind the head?
willl this make the engine run lean? ( a much more important consideration than some minor ram effect)

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

Now thats funny - perhaps we can do the math and dispel that toooo..

Joke

Mick