To snorkel or not to snorkel

You can cross deeper water but remember if you plan to cross a deep creek or something put something the front of the vehicle to slow down water ingress to help protect your alternator and other electrical items. I gained about 0.5ltr per hundred km economy & a small power gain there definitely worth putting on . I no nothing about the cheap one's as long as they channel the water away correctly are made of sturdy plastic & is big enough to supply enough air I suppose it would be ok. I have only had tjm snorkels before and point the snorkel head forward the way they are designed to be used even in torrential downpours they won't suck water into your motor.

your biggest restriction is the air box air intake, no more than 50mm wide.
i cut that out and fitted a 3inch inlet, she breathes now, goes well for a 2h.

trouble with a snorkel you buy, they come with 2mtrs of hose to connect from the snorkel to the filter, reducing any benefits..
that was for my vehicle, landcruiser, maybe not yours.

you should be right without it, it will help the 2.8 breathe better, but still your stuck with the 2.8 power, or lack there of, mind you you got pretty good economy..

hilux's are generaly have high clearance from the factory, and youd have to be going into some deep crossings to drown an engine, or drive stupid across a river to do damage.

its only a 100 bucks soo yeah not much money to install some extra safety for your engine.

After 22 years, 2 hiluxs '89 model and a '96 model and nearly 1,000,000 km between the 2, the best thing to do to your hilux is put extractors on it. It will make more of a improvement than the snorkle will.
For deep water just disconnect the plastic pipe that comes out of the air box and goes into the intake. Its about 6 -7" long and you just need a large phillips head screwdriver to remove it. I did not have a snorkle on my 2 hilux's i just removed the plastic pipe i mentioned. For really deep water, put a blind infront of the radiator.
Their is nothing you can do to the 2.8 to more power out of it bar turbo, the extractors will help it breathe a bit better,just change oil every 5000km religously and oil filter every 10000km and you should get another 270000km out of it.

My son has a mazda 2004 and while he was out 4x4 driving and needed to cross water on the track. It was only about up to the hubs but he hit it a bit hard and splashed water into the wheel arches and such. Bang - filled the air intake which happens behind the headlight in the wheel arch and stopped the engine with major damage to the turbo.

We emptied all the water out then and there but the turbo had bend all the fins over so it need replacing.

Not really that much water. If you can afford it then they are a good idea in Australia even for getting cleaner air from higher up.

Cheers

Serendipity

oliver,

Just to add a few more points about a snorkel for the Hilux.

When a snorkel is fitted to the 2.8 motor it always resinated as though the dash was going to fall off. There was no real fix to the problem except for fitting a turbo.

$100 of eBay for a snorkel is cheap, and unless you are going to fit the snorkel yourself it will cost you more to fit it. The trouble with some of the cheap snorkels is that they do not fit the guard and the template that is supplied is not that good.

If you are going to fit a snorkel for water crossings, which most drivers do, don't forget to fit diff breathers.

Wayne

Don't buy a cheap snorkel, they crack, don't usually fit the guard, the brass inserts pull out and many of them are made up of fiddly bits that u have to make sure you seal up properly. Buy a genuine or Safari or a well known brand. Probably the cheap ones have not been tested for sufficient flow! Ebay is a good place to look for a quality bargain. Michael

yes, get a snorkel

If you do stuff like this, then yes :-)

Cheers Tony

Before we purchased a 4WD we researched the types of terrain and crossings that we may encounter. The one crossing that convinced me to get a snorkel was Nolans on the tele track on Cape York. When we crossed it the water was lapping over the bonnet. Maybe I could have disconnected the inlet to the air filter etc etc. But it was so easy just to stick the water blind on (two straps to the mirrors) and just drive across.

We are happy that we did. Less dust into the filter as well when on the dirt roads and tracks.

A bit like insurance I suppose. Some never have accidents. Some do. We chose to fit the snorkel as insurance. Happy.

Phil.