Snorkel pre cleaner

Any retailer of snorkels or air cleaners should have them. You simply remove the head and it slides down inside the snorkel, and has a ring at the top to hold it in place, then put the head back on.

Mine cost about $14 I think. Money well spent.

Cheers,

Muzz

These are not a maintenance free item.

I am suprised that people would put one in the snorkel and forget about it !!

Couldn't agree with you more Willem. Snorkels are restrictive full stop. I have a Donaldson type Caterpillar pre-cleaner 'cyclone' for the top of my snorkel which is great. The filter bowl can be seen from the drivers seat and tapped out in a minute.

When the snorkel is not actually required (eg: city, highway use etc), I completely bypass the entire precleaner-snorkel-airfilter set up and replace it with a K&N 'rice boy' filter mounted direct to the intake manifold which I keep behind the seat in a ziplock plastic bag when not in use. Having the intake air pass through six sharp bends in a 75mm tube slows it right down and severly restricts airflow. If you don't believe me, try removing the pipe to the inlet manifold and go for a spin on the tarmac.

This gives significant improvements in power, fuel economy and noise reduction taking about 60 seconds to swap over when it required.

After fitting a snorkel on my GU myself, I found a ~700mm long pipe inside the inner guard that extends the air intake to roughly where the snorkel hole is made on the guard. Additionally, a large "small cell" foam block was cable tied over the end (standard Nissan fitment). Now while the foam block probably helps suppress induction noise, it also helps filter (restrict!!!) air flow prior to the cleaner. But once this foam becomes blocked with dust and moisture, how does one clean it?

The addition of a snorkel on a GU effectively involves only two extra bends (1. where the snorkel enters the inner guard and 2. the "mouth" of the snorkel) but now has the ram effect while moving and no foam restriction. IMHO this gives a higher airflow than no snorkel. I have an 8" Donaldson pre-cleaner that worked a treat on my 80 series, but I cannot fit it to the Nissan snorkel (need an angled adaptor which I have yet to make).

As for the original post about oiled socks, I think they help keep the airfilter clean but at a small loss of airflow. But as I don't have one, this is not based on use, just opinion.

Cheers

Captain

Ahhh, sorry Cap'n, neglected to mention the snorkel is on my HJ75, not the GU. Problem with this particular one is the air has to travel some 180' bends to get to the standard Toyota air filter assembly, and is then even further restricted by the outlet which I think was inintially designed to suit the 3.6l diesel, not a 6.5.

It's a chalk and cheese comparison on mine.

V8 diesel, you must have a very odd snorkel set up on your HJ75. On mine there is a 90 deg bend at the ram air intake and a gradual 90 deg bend where the 75mm snorkel tube enters the fender housing. The outlet from the standard Toyota filter box top to the V8 inlet chamber is also 75 mm.

But I think I have seen those arrangements where the snorkel goes a long way forward on the fender and then does a 180 deg turn to enter the original air inlet spout. A crazy arrangement, IMO.
Klaus

V8troopie, here's some pics (picture's worth a thousand words!) Mine is a 1985 HJ75 and the conversion was done by Brunswick a fair while ago so there may well be improved systems now (like throttle return from memory). As you can see, I just release the clips from the top of the filter housing, remove the plug (an 80mm plastic cup), take off the K&N and spin it into place.

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This vehicle was purchased from Shell Exploration and has the welded steel snorkel fitted (which is strong enough to stand on), underside bash plates, reinforced diff housings, 60l water tank, long range belly tank for additional fuel, HD radiator, oil cooler etc etc so it may well be a one off. I do know that Frank Hardey from Chev Power in Maddington said to get rid of the factory snorkel for more power on a mates HJ75 too.

I gotta agree with Captain, my snorkel goes straight down the guarg, 90 and straight into the airbox. The origional air intake had more bends in it and then ramed itself into some stupid looking plastic box with little tiny holes in it (obvously an induction noise restrictor).

V8troopie, forgot to mention that the outlet from the air filter to inlet manifold is certainly 75mm, but it's the silly flattened section as it leaves the top of the filter that's my main problem I reckon.

Just out of interest, try driving your rig totally unfiltered and see if it makes a difference. You've got a 6.2 in your 75 don't you?

Jeff & Captain, those tiny holes do sound like a worry. Be careful but, some 4 cyl motorbikes need a baffle on the intake to run properly (from bitter experience).

V8Diesel, thanks for the pics, they told me indeed a thousand things :-0
Whoever fitted your snorkel did not want to modify the air cleaner housing. It pains me to see that set up!

Mine was modified for a snorkel inlet at the point the housing is closest to the side wall. This is, IMO, still not the correct way to do it as for using the air filter element most efficiently the incoming air should hit it at a tangent and not at a right angle. As it was, the finer filter quickly got choked with gunk directly opposite the snorkel hole.
I re did the whole lot with a housing I got from the wreckers. The tangential air inlet goes nearly the reverse direction as the original Toyota inlet tube was. I used 75mm exhaust tube and fitted this to the housing after brazing it first to a plate that had the same curve as the housing.

The result is the filter element now gets dirty evenly round and seems to work much better. The swirling air action also neatly deposits bees and bigger gunk down that little water trap canister for later disposal.

the 'silly flattened section' you mention has not yet bothered me, I think is cross sectional area is near the same as the round further on. But, as you now have drawn my attention to this, I will experiment with fitting a decent knee bend there, I have the spare lid to play around with now.

I was never game to try to run the V8 without any filter, there is a *lot* of suction and I'm afraid my engine space is not so spotless to guarantee no gunk gets inhaled.

yes, I do have the 6.2, done 4 years ago by Brunswick motors.

V8troopie, good idea. The revised layout of the air filter box as you describe it would perform the same 'cyclone' effect as the Donaldson which would allow the use of a ram to give a positive pressurisation at speed to the snorkel I'd expect. You can see from the pics why my setup is far from ideal.

I paid about $120 for my K&N, because nothing else was avilable at the time, but Supercrap and Repco now have 'knock-off' copies for under $20 if you want to experiment.

After mucking around with just the basics of air in and out on my 6.5, I have found significant increases in power and drivability available over standard. Big improvements.

Let us know how you go with the filter lid V8, I still think it's the weakest link. Bunnings sel PVC pipe in just the right size for making an elbow, it's the wing nut that's the problem.

Ahhhhh, that explains why I have to keep rotating my Unifilter in dusty conditions. It does JUST THAT. There is a snorkel shaped dusty spot and the rest of the filter is reasonablly clean! I just had a look of a photo of my engine bay and even though the air box is on a 45 degree angle (almost) because of the flexiable rubberhose that goes from the snorkel into the air box it curve just slighty, probally enough to level out the air flow to go directly into the filter's side instead of swirling around the air box... Hmmm, another project!! ;-)

The point I was trying to make, is I have a normal paper element airfilter which will catch any oil particles that may come from the oiled pre cleaner.

Many people on this forum have had trouble with air mass sensors (me included), so doing ANYTHING to bugger them up is something to avoid.

I can understand your reservations, however I'm 99.9999999% sure you would have no problems with the troll. My air temp sensor in the Surf is RIGHT AT the entrance from the air box (ie right next to the filter) and it doesn't have a scrap of oil on it. As long you don't over oil the filter (you hardly need any oil on it, 2 x teaspoons) you won't have a drama. But hey, each to their own. It'll save you a heap if you do a lot of dusty driving if you don't have to replace a $50 filter every 10k.

Even the third part filters for mine are over $50, that's nearly a carton of bleep a service for free!!!:-)))))

And the other advantage is when you go for a day out with the boys and totally fill it up with crap, you can just clean it out so it's like new when you get home instead of driving around with a half knackered filter till your next service. And yeah I know you can blow the paper ones out with the air compressor, that's what I used to do, but it only works so many times before its just stuffed.

I think the sutup for a 3.0 SURF may be different to a 3.0 PATROL.

I don't know about the surf and you are quite welcome to keep using an oiled foam element filter if you like, BUT, quite a few 3.0 Patrol owners have had a nightmare trying to sort out engine management system faults because of oil particles stuffing up the air mass sensor.

It simply is not an option in a 3.0 Patrol.

nu uh, not for me.

I've had quite a bit of experience with our work 3.0L Patrol, faulty Air Intake Sensors, Faulty EGR Valves etc etc etc. Our work patrol is 100%%%%% stock and has never left the bitchmen. I feel personally that blaming third party add ons/components is an easy out for some of Nissans bad design flaws in their early versions of the 3.0L TD. All MHO of course !! ;-)

After the endless replies and feedback in this thread yours is the only one that makes sense. Cheap yet effective, I like it............

It's just the foot end of a stocking. Mine has been on for 12 months with no holes in the material as yet.