Different approach to a snorkel

I've considering doing this mod and was wondering what would happen with silt/fine dirt. A lot of the places I go are mainly silt and such. How much of the dirt came out when you cleared out the filter? did you notice any power loss before hitting the highway? Now I'm back to debating if I should do this mod.. LOL

 

check out post #19. You can also route it into the cab itself

 

The road back to the hwy was a slow 20mph road out. Once I hit the hwy it bogged and started knocking. I pulled off and bagged out the filter it was clogged completely.

 

That so far has been the only down fall. But it's normal for dessert silt to cause issues. Still running this with no other issues. I should of cleaned it before leaving camp.

 

Interesting. We have a lot of clay here and the offroad area I frequent is either a slippery mess or fine fine clay dust. I am terrible about replacing my filter and haven't noticed an issue in years of it sucking in the dust.

 

Ya the only time I had a problem was that day. If you saw the Pic you can see it was thick slit. It came over the hood like a wave of water. The pit was about 4ft deep of fluff. During the race a full size truck hit it so hard he went ass over front. Shit was nasty.

 

Holy shit that looks like a lot of work... plus side is that during the summer time, the air will be cooler in the cab.. That noise level in the cab has got to be something fierce!

 

An idea soo good someone put together a "kit" and is charging for it.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/thor-4x4-cowl-intake.723009/

 

Any tricks to popping off the plastic cowl cover? Im pretty good at breaking these types of things. Might just be bolted in but there’s usually some sort of tabs that i break easily. And i dont have the truck with me at the moment. Just ordered more parts

 

It's been a few years, but my recollection is that it's pretty much held in by a few "bumper clips" that will pop out fairly easily with a thin screwdriver. It'd make sense for the cowl to be somewhat easy to remove since it tends to fill up with leaves/pine needles from time to time (at least on my truck).

I definitely don't remember it being very hard to remove the grille over that area.

 

Thanks man. Stupid question but haven’t been close to the truck recently to take a look at it and make sure i got everything

 

No problem. Mitght be 100% wrong about the attachment, but I feel like I'd remember having had to fight it to any real extent.

 

^Same here...

That's all I think it's 2 or maybe 4 total

That's half of what TW is here for!!!

 

great writeup. I ditched my fender liners a few weeks back and needed to get this done before the next trip.



now I keep wondering what I should put in that big empty space? And I pulled my son out here and said "look at the engine bay -- this is why I don't want you ripping through the mud!"

 

@bmgreene; thanks so.much for the write up and parts list. I just made the order as I just finished this whole thread.
As for the pre-filter; I've always used and will use for this mod, the tool box liner with the holes. Plenty air will still get in, while leaves and pine needles won't.
I'll also be using a hard plastic or divider to keep intake air from a/c because it makes sense. This should be going in once I receive all the parts.
My only question is; Was the entire cowl removed, or just the portion that needs to be worked on?? I vantage remember??
However, when I did have my water leak on passenger floor, I replace my gaskets along the cowl, and problem was resolved. (For those with this problem)
Anyhow, this is one damn good thread for a damn good mod. (Will update soon enough regardless thread age) Haha!!!

 

Lol!!! One more thing I forgot; I'll also be wrapping this with exhaust wrap to keep the cool air cool, and exhaust/engine bay heat away.... . Ok Bros of the Taco, Laters!!

 

i wouldn't recommend leaving the duct tape under the hood.

aft a few months, the stick layer starts to melt a little bit and get goopy, then dry out.

unless you have actual heat resistant duct tape.

 

No Problem. I'm a little amazed that all of the parts I linked years ago are still available at the same links today. I've been thinking about putting a piece of 1/4" 302 Stainless screen over the horn on mine, but lately all the time I manage to get off my ass for wrenching gets put into my T4R trail rig build instead of the Tacoma; or else attach a paracord drawstring around the base of the sock to prevent it from being able to suck in through the intake horn.

From what I remember, the cowl is a single piece along the whole width and is only held in by 2-4 bumper clips, takes about 20 seconds to remove entirely, but probably also flexes enough that you could work around it if you chose to. The most important thing is to use a punch (16-penny nail would probably work as well) to dimple the center point of the hole and then drill a 3/16" pilot hole; this thing passes through the wall so close to some kind of tubing lines that you really don't want to risk having the hole saw walk on you when you go for the full-sized opening.

I'm not sure if the exhaust wrap will really help much, but I suppose it can't possibly hurt anything as long as it stays in place. Silicone is pretty good insulator if you're using the long 3 inch "hose" that I did, and the aluminum tube is already decent at reflecting radiated heat. Either way, the air passing through that tube is moving at 15 ft/sec when the engine is idling (assuming a 4.0L v6 idling at 800 rpm), which only gives the air about 0.1 sec or less to pick up heat from the tube, and only the outer 5% or so of the airflow is even directly exposed to the surface of the tube to do so. When the RPM is up around 3500, that flow speed increases to around 70 ft/sec which gets the exposure time down to around 0.02 seconds. The chance that the air picks up more than maybe 1-2 degrees along the way (and that's being generous) is negligible.

 

This seems like a pretty hacky idea. If already cutting up the truck, why not the fender which is easier replaced than the firewall? Snorke will perform and sound better too.

But this is what you really want… UMP:

 

The original intent of this mod is just to get the intake point out of the wheel well, with the added benefit of eliminating the "ice cream scoop" which reduces the intake area to maybe 30-40% of the area of the rest of the intake ducting. And to get a similar level of function at a much lower cost than a full snorkel; the parts I used totaled out to about $100, and I had to spend maybe $25 on a hole saw big enough to cut the bulkhead, but I believe the OP/inventor of this thread used mostly stuff he had sitting around the house and maybe spent $30-40 total (at that time, a snorkel was probably $300-350 plus installation)

There isn't a whole lot of difference to the sound (a little more engine noise inside the cab, at least without a baffle separating the engine intake from the A/C intake) for those who think it matters. As for performance, forcing the engine to pull air through a path with all of the shape/direction changes of most molded snorkels will take a lot more work than pulling through maybe 20" of straight tube with a single turn (through which the diameter expands from 3" to 4"); that extra required suction pressure is sometimes referred to as "negative boost" and it's never good for engine efficiency and will never increase the amount of power output at the shaft, let alone at the wheels.

I haven't done any detailed fluid dynamics calculations in over 25 years (since college), and the particulars would be very dependent on the specific geometry of the snorkel being used, but if there's any gain from most snorkel kits vs stock, it's because of the obstruction at the "scoop" where the inlet protrudes into the area inside the fender above the plastic shielding creates more resistance than the snorkel, and this setup eliminates that scoop with a much less constricted flow path. It can hit the mpg a bit if the driver doesn't adjust for the engine breathing easier (the EFI will pump more fuel into the mix when the MAF registers the increase in flow).