Should You Install a Snorkel on Your 4WD? Which Snorkel Should You Choose
Yeah you should.
What are you doing without a snorkel if you’re planning to hit the tracks and do some touring? A lot of fun lies on the other side of puddles and rivers, but a lot of heartache resides in engines that take on water.
Benefits of Using a Snorkel on Your 4WD
Cold Air Intake
I’m sure that 95% of “cold air intakes” belong to misguided JDM or hatchback owners embarrassing their fathers by going to car cruises where they all take turns trying not to scrape their lowered cars on the speed bumps at the McDonalds car park and driving very slowly in general. This might be so, but having colder air does make a difference.
Colder air is denser, meaning more oxygen in the same volume, allowing for stronger combustion.
While I don’t think anyone should install a snorkel just for this reason, it’s a bonus. As the air is not passing through the radiator or engine bay, it’s not being heated prior to entering the airbox.
Of course some of this ambient heat will transfer into a metal snorkel, but the effect is minimal.
Increased Airflow
Most snorkels will increase the available airflow into the airbox, particularly those with a ram head. There’s no constriction point and where the air enters the snorkel, there’s freely available air.
Increased airflow will make the biggest difference if you’re planning to tune your car, particularly if you’re putting in oversized injectors etc. The snorkel will allow enough airflow to match the increased fuel.
Cleaner Air Filter – Less Dust
There’s been a few times, such as on a drive out to the De Grey river mouth in the Pilbara, when I’ve hit silt patches that instantly create such a dense layer of fluidised bulldust that I’ve momentarily thought I’d crashed into a very muddy river.
I’ve driven through silt without a snorkel and soon as you get out of it, it’s necessary to take the air filter out and give it a good bashing. The first time I drove through heavy silt patches with a snorkel, I stopped to clean the filter and it was totally pristine. The raised air intake from a vehicle snorkel, keeps a lot of the dust and crap out, saving the air filter from doing the work.
As silt is so light, it would be reasonable to assume that if anything was going to get sucked through a snorkel, it would happen to the silt before it happened to normal dust.
Allows for a Pre-Filter
Even with how well snorkels perform at keeping out dust, if you’re gonna be driving through a lot of bulldust, it can be worth having a pre-filter. A snorkel gives you such an option. You can slap a foam type filter, like the Uni Filters you see on dirt bikes, right on top of the snorkel.
The Obvious One: Driving Through Water
I’ve done river crossings where the waters flowing on your windscreen with the car starting to float sideways, but with the engine running perfectly fine. Aside from the fact that water getting into your engine will probably bend a conrod and knacker your engine, if you happen to be crossing a flowing river at the time, losing power to your engine might be the difference between getting washed away or making it through to the other side. Prevent water with a snorkel.
Even if you’re not planning anything as drastic, it does let you cross shallower sections of water with more assurance. I have managed to get water into the intake by hitting puddles that were only a foot deep, but hitting them with too much gusto and without a snorkel.
Downsides to Using a Snorkel on Your 4WD
Panel Damage?
The only real arguments I’ve heard against snorkels are that they’re usually installed unnecessarily on cars for people who are never going to need them. That’s a valid point, don’t be that wanker who gets all the gear on his rig and never takes it off-road.
The only other argument I’ve heard is that they can increase panel damage if you scrape the car against something, pushing the snorkel into the panel. This is true and I’ve seen it happen, but it’s pretty likely the panel was going to be damaged at that point anyway. Besides, that’s not a good enough reason on its own for ditching a snorkel.
Which Snorkel Type is Best?
Plastic/Safari
Stainless steel snorkels are all the rage right now, to the point where there’s starting to be an idea that plastic snorkels are inferior. A good plastic snorkel, such as those made by Safari, are a perfectly good snorkel. I’ve washed bonnets in rivers a few times using Safari snorkels and have never had an issue. I’ve even seen them dragged up against the dirt on steep banks without cracking or coming off.
The problem with plastic snorkels lie with some that come factory fitted, that aren’t true snorkels. A lot of these, such as the ones that came out on Patrols, 79 Series and D22s, are made from several pieces that clip/bolt together. They’re only good for keeping dust out and shouldn’t be used for any water crossings.
The other factor that has led people to believe that plastic snorkels are insufficient is that most stainless-steel snorkels require a custom airbox. As the new airbox is designed specifically for a snorkel and it has purpose-built components to connect everything, the seal is nearly always airtight. Most plastic snorkels are plumbed to the stock airbox by the guy at the local accessories fitting place and let me tell you, quality does vary greatly between these guys.
Ram Head
Some people don’t like ram heads on snorkels. A ram head is an accessory that goes on top and faces forward, so that the airflow while the vehicle is moving creates a positive pressure inside the snorkel.
Some just don’t like them because of the look. Each to their own. Some believe that it creates higher chances of water or dust ingress because it’s facing the direction that the water or dirt is coming from. This isn’t true, despite seeming plausible at first glance. The way the water flows from the wheel, sends the mass of water behind the ram head and is actually less likely to suck in dust or water than a rear facing snorkel. If you don’t believe me, film yourself in slow motion going through some gnarly silt and you’ll see the plume go behind the snorkel. Now I know what some of you are thinking, that silt isn’t comparable to water. Silt just shows us how the air is moving and believe it or not, air is a fluid, just like water. Water, being much heavier, wont make it as high as the silt and air.
The only time a ram head presents a problem is in very heavy rain where the water is in the air. Most levels of rain will only provide enough moisture to where it can separate and settle easily in the airbox. If it is really bucketing down however, you can just turn the ram head around.
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel snorkels are awesome. They’re strong, airtight, very durable and they look cool in either exposed stainless or powdercoat.
The only down sides to a stainless snorkel are the cost, which are much higher than that of a plastic snorkel and the fact that you usually have to cut a bit more of the panel out to make them fit snugly. That’s not really a problem though, as there should be no reason to ever take a stainless snorkel off your car.
I am tossing between Staino and Plastic but cannot decide. I love the look of the stainless but I am concerned about the apparent noise and I have heard they can have water enter the airbox even from condensation. Any thoughts?
G’day Baz,
Yeah, they are definitely a lot noisier. I think the plastic ones can vibrate/flex in sympathy with the induction sound, somewhat absorbing it whereas the staino ones just resonate it without dampening it.
Smaller engines, straight 4s etc. sound a bit like a pug or a French bulldog trying to suck down air, when fitted with a staino snorkel, but if it’s a V8 or even a V6, the induction noise can actually sound pretty decent.
I don’t think condensation is all that much of a problem, but stainless snorkels actually do have a problem in the rain. Because they’re generally such a wide diameter without anything like a ram head, they will be sucking in a bit of rain when driving in the wet. The key thing here, is to make sure you’re getting an airbox with a drain. Most stock airboxes have one, but they usually get swapped out when fitting a staino snorkel. As it’s popular for these new, custom airboxes to have a contained pod style filter (see the image attached), it usually creates a gap between the bottom of the box and the filter, so that there is some buffer for water to settle before draining. Not all these boxes have drains, and some are manual, so look for one that has some space between the bottom and the pod filter, and has a drain.
The benefit of plastic, is that they often have ram heads and they use the factory airbox. And even though it seems like having a ram head facing into the rain would be a bad thing, it causes the droplets to hit the back of the ram head and run down the snorkel and eventually hit the drain. This is better than the rain remaining partially aerosolised where it may be pulled through the filter. The other benefit of a ram head, is that it directs the noise away from the window.
You can get stainless snorkels with ram heads like this one from Fatz Fabrication, but they start to lose that sleek look that you’re probably going for with staino.
I have a plastic snorkel on my 79 as I try and go for practical and cost-effective, but then every year when the 4WD show comes around and I’m trying to gain attention so I can sell more tours, I start to wish I had some of the fancier fruit such as a staino!
Hopefully that helps.
Cheers,
Toby
Cape York trip June 2025, Old Tele Track
That’s ripper mate. It’s gotta be done.
I also thought that the snorkel makes no difference to your vehicle wade depth as the other critical elements – electrics, interior cabin waterproofing etc. are not changed so still should not exceed the wade depth. The main snorkel advantage was really for less dust in the engine intake (which is a significant thing) and not a lot else.
That’s true to a point, but less so in a diesel (particularly an older style diesel). But, the engine stopping due to wet electronics is a very different outcome and expense of repair compared to bending rods because of non-compressible water going through your intake.
I’m not too concerned personally with water in the cab, that’s why I got a workmate with vinyl seats and flooring. Yes, there’s still insulation under the vinyl and a whole host of other reasons to avoid water in the cab, but if you live somewhere like the Pilbara (aside from Karratha and Hedland), then crossing rivers in the wet season is simply a part of life.
I’ve personally done plenty of river crossings with water coming right over the bonnet, where I’m bloody glad I had a snorkel. With that said however, I’m sure 90% or more of snorkels, are a waste of time and money and just a part of this new wave of kitted-out 4WDs cruising around the suburbs.
Good point, I am looking at getting one for the 2022 MUX (it has the intake right up under the bonnet level which is better than some) prior to my outback travels when I retire in a year or so – sounds worthwhile. Thanks
That’s excellent. Retirement done right!
I hope you check back in and let us know how you go once you’ve hit the tracks.