Do snorkels decrease throttle response?

I guess mine would be mostly for looks. But I have gone through a few puddles that were'nt close enough to the air box be a hazzard, but just a bit too close for MY comfort. I wanna get one now though.

 

This is completely true! They are used for water fording as well, but alone, they do not make your truck any more capable. You have to do other things. Many people just think, since they have a snorkel, they are a submarine, and they are gravely mistaken.

I am getting a snorkel soon, but I have also relocated my ECU, covered all engine wire connections, extended ALL 4 diffs (currently to engine bay, they will be extended into the snorkel when that gets on) and I will be installing an electric fan at the same time.....even then, it is preventative measures incase I NEED to cross something deep, but I do not go out looking for rivers to drive in, nor would I recommend that to anyone. And I have already crossed some pretty deep water, just using a bow wave.

I just want to get the point across that a snorkel alone does not help much, there are more important things to do before attempting deep water. I hate seeing people with dead trucks in the middle of a river because they had a snorkel and thought they could make it (plus they are a pain to have to recover..haha)

 

One more point that many people overlook when preparing their vehicle for deep water is the radiator fan. The stock fan on our trucks is belt driven, meaning the only way to turn it off is by disconnecting the belt. When driving through deep water, it is VERY common to throw a fan blade with then makes your engine cooling system useless (imagine the plastic blades slapping the water at high RPM, they don’t last). This is why it is good to shut the fan off.

For serious "water fording" the best idea is to install an electric fan so that you can shut it off whenever you need too. I would suggest that before a snorkel as well. Even if you get water in your engine (and you didn’t try to continually start it (hydro lock), you can get it out (pull plugs and watch the water show) but if you throw a blade, you are stuck.

 

haha fair enough, they do look bad a$$...just make sure you dont do stupid things because you have one, it can get you into trouble.

 

Sorry to veer off topic... First thanks for that I didn't know that our radiator fans were belt driven in our trucks. I'd also like to add that you can still drive even if you break a blade off the radiator fan. With a broken off blade the fan will just produce bad vibrations because it is unbalanced, it will still turn. I drove a hundred miles like that once before I could get it fixed.

 

Haha, yeah, i wish they werent belt driven, and you are correct, you can drive with a broken blade, but often times, its not just one that brakes, and without any fan blades, you have no airflow at typical "offroading" speeds.
Also, the other problem with the belt driven, is that the fan blades (esp our plasic ones) can deflect enough when they hit the water to tear into your radiator...not a good thing. So even if you dont throw a blade or two, you can tear into the radiator itself.

I am not saying this will happen everytime, but neither will hydrolocking...it is all preventative measures. Things that CAN happen and you build your rig to preven them.

 

Cool. Thanks.

 

to an engineer it's called "friction head" (i think?). the longer the tube, the more friction the air has going down the pipe. i helped a friend put on on a discovery. it didnt seem to make a diff.

 

I typically dont get too crazy because it's my daily driver so it needs to work right. But I think they look sick so I'm wanting to get one. But I just want to be sure there are no adverse effects form one.