Love it! Well covered! Amazing how many raised air intakes are not water tight. Another thing to consider even if it is water tight are the diff breathers and gearbox/transfer case breathers. If going through water with hot diffs and gearbox they will suck water in. It’s an option to have all breathers raised or allow the vehicle to sit and cool down before going through water. Just allowing to cool down will prevent water ingress but obviously takes more time :) Keep the videos coming mate. Love them all. Rusty says hi too :)
Tuesdays with uncle Leigh are filled with knowledge, but most likely, filled with short outtakes from past adventures. Which is awesome just by itself.
Spot on Leigh, they're mainly aimed at reducing dust ingress, I have pushed mine through deep flood water during the winter here in the UK, we always have floods in our part of the country so it has come in useful for that but the water was only just above the bonnet so its debatable whether the raised air intake was actually beneficial. However, most importantly for a non overlander (at the moment) they look really cool :)
We don’t have a snorkel on our Toyota Hilux but we have breathers pipes on our diff and in the engine and catch cans also we never planned doing deep water crossings, but when we have we know we are safe to do so without compromising our vehicle, we have done the Mitchell Riven up in FNQueensland to a Karumba/Normanton on a plastic bridge the water only came up to the top off the wheels and quite a few creek crossings we always get advise on depths and look 👀 too
for quite a few cars you DO need one. Take my hilux for example. It breathes above the right wheel. With the original bumper in place it's unlikely to get water in there. However with an alternative steal bumper it's likely wates is pushed in that wheel arch with quite some force as soon as you hit water that reaches the underside of the bumper!!! I did find cups of water in my airbox after doing some driving on forest roads with average water. (like halfway the wheels)
I get so many negative comments on my raised air intake on my Extreme Rodeo. And I get so tired of trying to make people understand that it's not for water crossings as much as it is for breathing cleaner air. (West Texas Dirt Roads & Trails) But, I do have all my breather tubes, (rear ends, engine & transmissions crankcases) raised to windshiled heighth for "just in case" I do end up having to swim a deep rivier. Which I have had to do. I was so surprised to find out that so many of the other rigs I was wheeling with in west Texas that had issues when we came upon the deeper river water than we expected, didn't have all their other breather/ vent tubes raised up above their poser air snorkles. I ended up dragging quite a few out to dry land so they could change out their water contaminated fluids before continuing on our journey. And let's not forget the ECM's that are usually on the kick panel or mounted under the seat. (Mine is relocated to up between the top spreader bars on my rollcage. Excellent video as usual Lee!
You said the word "Air" 31 times in a matter of 6 minutes, that is approximately every 11,5 seconds, ...impressive....it's a slow day at the office, what can I say!
This is such a good aspect to look at the use for these. I never considered the benefits of drawing cleaner air from higher than the stock location but this put simply from how you described it is accurate and for an overlander far more beneficial!
Raised intake is different then a snorkel! A snorkel is sealed all the way to the intake so you can submerge the engine. But a raised intake is not sealed! So theirs a difference between the 2...
The air from a raised air intake is significantly cooler as well thereby increasing power a little bit. It prevents hot engine air from entering the air filter and instead takes ambient air.
Sure, but a 'cold' air intake has proven to be of marginal or of no use in many studies. A longer and thus more restrictive intake would probably be even worse on power than any other option.
Another really interesting video, thanks Leigh. Completely off-subject a thought occurred to me when thinking back to your difficulties in getting a cell phone signal when you were on the Girrawheen station. Maybe I'm the hundredth person to suggest something of the kind but I wonder whether it would be practical to elevate the phone higher by using a helium balloon. The balloon itself I suppose need not add much weight and shouldn't be much of a weight problem, I realise though that a helium gas container may rule out the idea as practical for your needs but I thought I'd mention it in case it would be possible to get a small gas bottle and thus to help you with that problem?
You need the snorkel doing even low water crossings in case the unexpected happens. Like you sink lower than you thought or a wave or wake splashes your car when a truck drives past in flood waters.
We've unintentionally had the water over the bonnet, which is a bad idea for the electronics, but I agree the main benefit is improving airflow and reducing dust entry.
Depends on where you go, Leigh. Lots of places here in Oz there are plenty of water crossings that need one, especially in FNQ. But I agree, for overlanding it's probably not essential. I wouldn't be without one however. I've been in the situation where crossing was almost a life saving situation and the RAI made it possible, as the water was above the bonnet. I don't look for these situations though.
Absolutely I agree and I've had one on all my vehicles for the last 20 years. Although how many of those you see on the road are ever going to go through a water crossing that deep... Also how many of those are actually 100% water tight. Usually it's the air filter housing itself that will have water ingress even if the intake itself is sealed.
TBH, I bet half the vehicles with snorkels don't have a sealed air-intake system anyway. However... it'a not just outright water depth snorkels help with. Year before last I was trundling through a 6" deep flood in a Ford Focus, some numpty in a van comes the other way, drowns my car, water must've got into the air intake, the car makes it another couple of miles and and then a conrod decides to stab through the side of the engine block. I'm guessing a snorkel, up at roof height on a 4x4, is a lot less likely to get water splashed into it.
A downside to a raised air intake. You will generally have more intake noise, depending on the vehicle type and snorkel design. Depends on the person, if that is regarded a negative or positive side effect.
I was under the impression the raised air intake was not necessarily watertight, it was only a raised intake, to get a watertight raised intake you need a snorkel From what I've been told Toyota sell a raised air intake but don't say its watertight so no change to fording depth
Thanks for the info! Curious, have you had problems with cold water crossings on the exhaust manifold? I had an old Isuzu that I replaced 2-3 manifolds that had cracked.
In my experience 99% of raised air intakes on modern vehicles are for decoration only. The stock "desert air intake" on the Tacomas spring to mind (and I'm saying this as a Taco owner.) I think the only legitimate scenario for having one is when you are regularly driving thousands of miles in heavy dust (like Leigh and Steph do).
Hi Leigh and Stef, If you watch the Aoto Expert John Cadogen" , he has done tests on snorkels and unless you do deep water crossings he found that you got less air flow through a snorkel due to the change of direction of air flow through the snorkel .if the normal air flow is under the front mudgaurd in front of the wheel you get no dust in the filter. I have done thousands of klms on dirt roads and will take the ir r filter out and there is hardly any dust inn it, also not all snorkels are waterproof. Don't take this as critisim it's just another persons view. I still enjoy the videos
Yes I would agree. The argument of the raised air intake for dust is used a lot but I never saw anything to back this claim. Original air intake are protected under the hood or the mud guard, air gets in indirectly so anything big (leaves, insects...) can't get carried by the wind and things like dust have to find their way through the engine compartment and have many opportunities to hit something (radiator?) and fall to the ground. While a snorkel directly takes air outside and it's not taking the air 1m higher than stock that will change that much the quantity of dust if you drive behind someone. The best way to see that is that your engine compartment is not getting dirty as quickly as your bonnet or windshield. The general answer to that is "yes but my snorkel has a pre-filter" which I would answer that you could perfectly add a pre-filter without a snorkel but no one feels it's necessary to bother. Fun facts some models of Land Cruiser used to be sold in dusty countries (ME, Africa, Australia) with an integrated cyclonic device directly inside the air box around the filter element.
Thanks for the comment. It's interesting you mention about the air intake under the mud guard as on the station we worked on recently we witnessed a Ford that had its turbo and then engine completely destroyed due to the air intake being in that location. I personally saw the interior of the air box full of small gravel stones which shredded the filter then went on to fill the turbo 😬 Not a location I'd want my intake after seeing that.
Good question... Possibly I should use the GrizzlyNbear account? We don't even try to understand the algorithm these days haha I'm not sure anybody has it figured out. I'll have to try using the GrizzlyNbear account to reply in future and see what happens. Thanks heaps.
Love it! Well covered! Amazing how many raised air intakes are not water tight. Another thing to consider even if it is water tight are the diff breathers and gearbox/transfer case breathers. If going through water with hot diffs and gearbox they will suck water in. It’s an option to have all breathers raised or allow the vehicle to sit and cool down before going through water. Just allowing to cool down will prevent water ingress but obviously takes more time :)
Keep the videos coming mate. Love them all. Rusty says hi too :)
Tuesdays with uncle Leigh are filled with knowledge, but most likely, filled with short outtakes from past adventures. Which is awesome just by itself.
Good style of pre cleaner. lots of tractors use that system for catching dust as well. Tried and true system.
As for water - I’ve discovered the hard way that I need an extended diff breather tube much more than I need a raised intake.
Love the midweek GrizzlyBear videos
Great info Leigh! 👍
On my Defender I use half of Wolf system. No rased intake just a side one from wolf.
Cheers to bolth of you. 🍺&🍷
Spot on Leigh, they're mainly aimed at reducing dust ingress, I have pushed mine through deep flood water during the winter here in the UK, we always have floods in our part of the country so it has come in useful for that but the water was only just above the bonnet so its debatable whether the raised air intake was actually beneficial. However, most importantly for a non overlander (at the moment) they look really cool :)
We don’t have a snorkel on our Toyota Hilux but we have breathers pipes on our diff and in the engine and catch cans also we never planned doing deep water crossings, but when we have we know we are safe to do so without compromising our vehicle, we have done the Mitchell Riven up in FNQueensland to a Karumba/Normanton on a plastic bridge the water only came up to the top off the wheels and quite a few creek crossings we always get advise on depths and look 👀 too
Great summary about the Raised Air Intake. One day I will install one to my Defender too :)
for quite a few cars you DO need one. Take my hilux for example. It breathes above the right wheel. With the original bumper in place it's unlikely to get water in there. However with an alternative steal bumper it's likely wates is pushed in that wheel arch with quite some force as soon as you hit water that reaches the underside of the bumper!!!
I did find cups of water in my airbox after doing some driving on forest roads with average water. (like halfway the wheels)
I get so many negative comments on my raised air intake on my Extreme Rodeo. And I get so tired of trying to make people understand that it's not for water crossings as much as it is for breathing cleaner air. (West Texas Dirt Roads & Trails) But, I do have all my breather tubes, (rear ends, engine & transmissions crankcases) raised to windshiled heighth for "just in case" I do end up having to swim a deep rivier. Which I have had to do.
I was so surprised to find out that so many of the other rigs I was wheeling with in west Texas that had issues when we came upon the deeper river water than we expected, didn't have all their other breather/ vent tubes raised up above their poser air snorkles. I ended up dragging quite a few out to dry land so they could change out their water contaminated fluids before continuing on our journey. And let's not forget the ECM's that are usually on the kick panel or mounted under the seat. (Mine is relocated to up between the top spreader bars on my rollcage.
Excellent video as usual Lee!
You said the word "Air" 31 times in a matter of 6 minutes, that is approximately every 11,5 seconds, ...impressive....it's a slow day at the office, what can I say!
🤣🤣🤣
😂😂😂
This is such a good aspect to look at the use for these. I never considered the benefits of drawing cleaner air from higher than the stock location but this put simply from how you described it is accurate and for an overlander far more beneficial!
This was a great topic. Thanks for the information!
Raised intake is different then a snorkel! A snorkel is sealed all the way to the intake so you can submerge the engine. But a raised intake is not sealed! So theirs a difference between the 2...
The air from a raised air intake is significantly cooler as well thereby increasing power a little bit. It prevents hot engine air from entering the air filter and instead takes ambient air.
Sure, but a 'cold' air intake has proven to be of marginal or of no use in many studies. A longer and thus more restrictive intake would probably be even worse on power than any other option.
@@fawshaw3361 but still waay cooler than hot engine bay air 🤠
Another really interesting video, thanks Leigh. Completely off-subject a thought occurred to me when thinking back to your difficulties in getting a cell phone signal when you were on the Girrawheen station. Maybe I'm the hundredth person to suggest something of the kind but I wonder whether it would be practical to elevate the phone higher by using a helium balloon. The balloon itself I suppose need not add much weight and shouldn't be much of a weight problem, I realise though that a helium gas container may rule out the idea as practical for your needs but I thought I'd mention it in case it would be possible to get a small gas bottle and thus to help you with that problem?
You need the snorkel doing even low water crossings in case the unexpected happens. Like you sink lower than you thought or a wave or wake splashes your car when a truck drives past in flood waters.
We've unintentionally had the water over the bonnet, which is a bad idea for the electronics, but I agree the main benefit is improving airflow and reducing dust entry.
Depends on where you go, Leigh. Lots of places here in Oz there are plenty of water crossings that need one, especially in FNQ. But I agree, for overlanding it's probably not essential. I wouldn't be without one however. I've been in the situation where crossing was almost a life saving situation and the RAI made it possible, as the water was above the bonnet. I don't look for these situations though.
Absolutely I agree and I've had one on all my vehicles for the last 20 years.
Although how many of those you see on the road are ever going to go through a water crossing that deep...
Also how many of those are actually 100% water tight.
Usually it's the air filter housing itself that will have water ingress even if the intake itself is sealed.
My raised air-intake is 2.3m high 😅 It looks cool 😃 that is the most important 😏
That's a little higher than the one on my OKA, but mine is invisible from outside.
Haha absolutely! That's also a very valid point 😉
Steffi would certainly appreciate a Raised Air Intake on the living area....given the Australians reputation for expelling noxious gases.
TBH, I bet half the vehicles with snorkels don't have a sealed air-intake system anyway.
However... it'a not just outright water depth snorkels help with.
Year before last I was trundling through a 6" deep flood in a Ford Focus, some numpty in a van comes the other way, drowns my car, water must've got into the air intake, the car makes it another couple of miles and and then a conrod decides to stab through the side of the engine block.
I'm guessing a snorkel, up at roof height on a 4x4, is a lot less likely to get water splashed into it.
thank you for detail video
if you add some biologic oil into the can of the prefilter, the efficance is much higher ;)
A downside to a raised air intake. You will generally have more intake noise, depending on the vehicle type and snorkel design. Depends on the person, if that is regarded a negative or positive side effect.
I was under the impression the raised air intake was not necessarily watertight, it was only a raised intake, to get a watertight raised intake you need a snorkel
From what I've been told Toyota sell a raised air intake but don't say its watertight so no change to fording depth
I just revisited ep100, but it looks like even when stuck in a frozen river, you didn't really need it as a snorkel (:
Only Mongolian blokes power required in those frozen rivers 😉
Thanks for the info! Curious, have you had problems with cold water crossings on the exhaust manifold? I had an old Isuzu that I replaced 2-3 manifolds that had cracked.
How about a raised breather for the diffs? Is it all just hype, or is it a good idea?
Who is Ray, and where do I buy his air intake? Thanks
I also think there is a theory that the air higher up and further away from the tarmac is cooler, not sure how scientific that is though...
In my experience 99% of raised air intakes on modern vehicles are for decoration only. The stock "desert air intake" on the Tacomas spring to mind (and I'm saying this as a Taco owner.) I think the only legitimate scenario for having one is when you are regularly driving thousands of miles in heavy dust (like Leigh and Steph do).
Hi Leigh and Stef, If you watch the Aoto Expert John Cadogen" , he has done tests on snorkels and unless you do deep water crossings he found that you got less air flow through a snorkel due to the change of direction of air flow through the snorkel .if the normal air flow is under the front mudgaurd in front of the wheel you get no dust in the filter. I have done thousands of klms on dirt roads and will take the ir r filter out and there is hardly any dust inn it, also not all snorkels are waterproof. Don't take this as critisim it's just another persons view. I still enjoy the videos
Yes I would agree. The argument of the raised air intake for dust is used a lot but I never saw anything to back this claim.
Original air intake are protected under the hood or the mud guard, air gets in indirectly so anything big (leaves, insects...) can't get carried by the wind and things like dust have to find their way through the engine compartment and have many opportunities to hit something (radiator?) and fall to the ground. While a snorkel directly takes air outside and it's not taking the air 1m higher than stock that will change that much the quantity of dust if you drive behind someone. The best way to see that is that your engine compartment is not getting dirty as quickly as your bonnet or windshield.
The general answer to that is "yes but my snorkel has a pre-filter" which I would answer that you could perfectly add a pre-filter without a snorkel but no one feels it's necessary to bother.
Fun facts some models of Land Cruiser used to be sold in dusty countries (ME, Africa, Australia) with an integrated cyclonic device directly inside the air box around the filter element.
Thanks for the comment. It's interesting you mention about the air intake under the mud guard as on the station we worked on recently we witnessed a Ford that had its turbo and then engine completely destroyed due to the air intake being in that location.
I personally saw the interior of the air box full of small gravel stones which shredded the filter then went on to fill the turbo 😬
Not a location I'd want my intake after seeing that.
Just wonder Leigh why you reply with your private account rather than the Grizzly account. Does it help for the algorithm?
Good question... Possibly I should use the GrizzlyNbear account?
We don't even try to understand the algorithm these days haha
I'm not sure anybody has it figured out.
I'll have to try using the GrizzlyNbear account to reply in future and see what happens.
Thanks heaps.
These midweek videos are great and informative. Thanks!
snorkle if used sikaflex and sealed every join haha
good video ! well explained !