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Safari Snorkel Review
These Aussies are making accessories that are very practical, useful, and increase performance. One such item is the Safari Snorkel. How does it benefit your car?
The main reason for fitting a snorkel is to make your car 'more waterproof'. Instead of going half wheel deep as specified by the manufacturers, you could go as far as.. your ECU. With the air intake being up there, it gets to breath nice cool clean air - as oppose to hot air from your engine compartment. Clean air cannot be over emphasised.. we fond that the air compartment box was filled with sand, grit and little pebbles.. only the air filter was there to save the engine. Then, there's the element of style - that says.. I am an off roader and ready for the water.
This particular one was installed in a Prado TZ 1KDZ (3litre) Turbo diesel. The snorkel came in a box with the template and fitting instructions. Use masking to stick the template on the body, use a permanent marker pen and draw in the outline and cut. Right. Right? The template did not look right on ours and Borneo4WD faxed us a few pages of varying instructions and wanted to send us more templates. Reason? The Toyota Prado TZ was an imported model from Japan and there are variations of Pradoes. Getting the right template is a must.
So we finally got settled to the 'correct' template - the original one that came in the box. It was painful for the hole cutter to make it's first cut. That was later followed by the hand angle grinder - hand grinders are used for everything here in Sarawak... After that we drilled in the 3 holes to fit the mount for the snorkel body.
The internal connects were made- we had to cut the air box. Something to be said about Toyota's air box placement. It is right above the front left wheel. Here in Borneo, (as in everywhere) we drive over all kinds of terrain. Mud Terrain tyres kick little pebbles and dirt and they find their way into the air box and stay there. What an as#! With the snorkel set-up no dirt can penetrate. The connections then went all the way to the air filter and engine.
On the outside, we screwed the top mounting plate and then tightened the snorkel top in place. Sounds easy right? Well it took a whole afternoon and part of the night to get it right. This was supposed to be a DIY thing, but not for those who have little practice (sorry Eddie). Here are some tips then:
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Get the right snorkel model for the car that you're fixing the snorkel to. Modification can be a real pain.
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Layout everything and rehearse the order for installation.
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The cutter must have good steady hands (cutting is an art as oppose to skill).
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Use a small worn out disc on the hand angle grinder
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If you find it painful to cut your car body, don't be there.
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Some people test fit everything on and then reassemble with silicon chalk to make it super waterproof.
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Trust Safari Snorkel with the template, they know what they are doing.
We got the snorkel at RM 1,300.00. Best place to by a snorkel is at Borneo 4 Wheel Drive in Kota Kinabalu. Email them here
Beware of imitation snorkels. Safari makes theirs from polyethylene and is a one-piece moulded Snorkel body. The imitation ones are made from fiberglass and I found that they puncture and leak. This increases the chance of engine water ingestion.
Apologies for not having installation pictures - which can easily be found on many website. Below are two.
http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/reviews/snorkel/
http://www.4x4review.com/products/body/safari%2Dsnorkel.asp