Written/Phtography by Albert V

One day I had my head under the hood of the Toyota and all looked well, except... damn, Toyota did it too – they stuffed the air intake for the engine right behind the headlight. I know, they do it so you get a ram air effect into the engine and it draws the coldest air possible for the best running conditions, but the first puddle I hit is guaranteed to soak the air filter if not feed water droplets into the engine and at worst case feed water full on into the engine for devastating effects. Now I know lots of vehicles are like this but it doesn’t mean I have to like it – and fortunately, it can be easily corrected.

Like them or hate them, a snorkel is the way to go. You can go ahead and make your own, but I am not too keen on PCV toilet pipe on the side of my vehicles. Luckily, ARB USA carries a full line of Safari Snorkels built in Australia for most makes of Jeeps, Toyotas, Nissans and more. The snorkel is made of tough, impact-resistant injected plastic, designed to pull air from above the front window frame. This not only protects your engine from water intrusion into the engine and air filter but on dusty roads pulls from the cleaner air higher above the ground.

Because most of these snorkels are designed for Australian vehicles there can be some hook-up issues under the hood – remember they drive on the other side of the road and that means some changes under the hood to accommodate the steering system being backwards to ours. Another difference is that most of their vehicles are solid axles (yes, you can grumble now). However the outer system of the snorkel will comfortably match your body styling.

The snorkel comes with some hosing for under the hood and a template to lay on your fender to cut the access hole for the snorkel. Brackets are also included to attach the upper portion to the window frame pillar. A hole saw can be used to cut the hole into the outer fender and through the inner fender to access the engine bay. Once the body of the snorkel is lined up, you will be able to see what you have in the way inside the engine bay.

The air box on the Toyota is a sealed unit at the front of the engine compartment on the driver’s side. We needed to remove the box to find a good access point and to plug the hole that faces the headlight. There was also a little problem with the power steering reservoir, but a fresh bolt hole in the inner fender was all that was needed to slightly relocate it closer to the firewall.

It only takes one good water dunking of someone’s rig to make you appreciate the value of these units. The Safari Snorkel from ARB adds peace of mind when crossing water in almost any vehicle. The snorkels are made from UV-stable, cross-linked polyethylene for the ultimate in strength, and provide high flow air ducting to ensure air supply in excess of engine requirements. Each component is designed for maximum dust and water sealing. The unique evacuation system effectively disperses rain and unwanted moisture.

As the snorkel didn’t come with the right tube for under the hood, we still needed a trip to the hardware store for some three-inch plumbing pipe to redirect the new access hole in the air box around the box and into the inlet in the snorkel. We used the supplied rubber connector that came with the snorkel to connect our plumbing to theirs for a good airtight seal. With the pipe in place and the old hole plugged there wasn’t much else to do but install the top air inlet and tighten everything up.

Like it or not, I have received a ton of comments on the product – mostly positive many asking if I have ever gone that deep in water (the snorkel is above my head when I am sitting in the drivers seat, so I think not).

As another side bar, during our recent event in Apex one of our trail leaders in a Jeep Cherokee went through a hole that I had driven through several times over the previous few weeks. He had 33-inch tires and a hood about the same height as our Toyota’s. Second time unlucky, and Chris hydro-locked his engine and needed to be towed back to camp, after which I used my car trailer to haul his Jeep back to Vernon. Oddly enough, the XJ has an air intake right behind the headlight... so I see a snorkel in Chris’ future pretty soon too.

Safari Snorkels are also available for Jeep TJ’s and Cherokee’s, Toyota Tacoma’s and trucks, most Land Rover models, Ford F250/350 trucks, Suzuki Vitara and Izuzu Rodeo.

The air box on the Toyota trucks and 4Runners is located on the driver’s side behind the headlight. A long air tube reaches across the motor and into the fuel injection. Air is fed into the air box by an inlet right behind the headlight – you know the place that water splashes when you hit a puddle.

There really is only one way to solve this water intake problem and that is by relocating the air intake tube. First we are going to move the intake hole in the box to the other side so we can plumb a new pipe into the air box. This also requires us to plug the hole behind the headlight.

We used a hole saw to cut a hole in the engine side of the air box for the new tube. The Safari Snorkel was designed for the Australian version of the 4Runner, so a little creative ducting needs to take place to get the outside portion of the snorkel to work with the air box location on the North American trucks. 3-inch plumbing pipe works perfectly.

The kit comes with a template that you tape to the side of the vehicle along the fender line. The template marks out the holes for the bolts that hold the snorkel to the vehicle and the location of the large inlet hole for the snorkel tube.

Next up, you guessed it – whack a hole in the side of your truck. Thankfully the template is very accurate if you tape it in the right place. Since we were replacing the rusty driver’s side fender anyhow, we chose to do a test fit with the old fender first. We got it right the first time so we had no problem with the template location. You need to drill through both the outer and inner fender.

When you are cutting through the inner fender watch out for the wiring harness. A hole saw can do some damage pretty quick. We also had to relocate the engine coil over a few inches so we could get the new air tube to connect to the snorkel

Inside the air box we used a 45-degree fitting and glued it to the piece of pipe sticking into the air box. This holds the pipe in place and seals the hole up pretty well. We used a few layers of silicone gasket sealer around the pipe edge to make a watertight seal around the tubing.

With the hole cut in the inner fender we could then make up the inner piping with the ABS plumbing pipe we picked up from the local hardware store. We used plumbing pipe-dope to seal all the connections after we test fit the arrangement.

Here is our new fender with the hole for the tube and the three mounting holes for the snorkel. We used a die grinder to oval the holes to match the template but a file can be used as well.

Besides the three holes in the fender there is a mounting bracket that needs to be installed onto the body. Three holes will need to be drilled into the post beside the windshield. The L-bracket fits onto the side of the snorkel to keep it steady at highway speeds and over bumps.

Before you install the snorkel onto the body there is a seal that needs to be installed onto the back. This seal acts as a buffer between the body and the snorkel to protect the paint and stop squeaks and rattles. We used spray-on contact cement to hold the seal in place on the snorkel.

With the snorkel bolted to the fender we could connect the PVC pipe to the snorkel with the supplied rubber connector. The snorkel also comes with large band clamps to tighten the rubber to the fittings.

With the tube under the hood connected all that remained was to install the intake head on top of the tube. A black anodized band clamp comes with the kit for this use so it blends into the black plastic of the snorkel. I am pretty sure we won’t have to worry about water in the engine any more as the intake is above your head when you sit in the passenger seat. You’d have a lot more to worry about (like a ride home) if you go over the top with water. The height of the intake also works to keep dust out of your air filter and engine by drawing from clean air farther above the ground in dusty conditions.

Before we closed up the air box, we finished off the install with a washable K&N filter.