Intake restriction with a snorkel

Ok, I figured I’d start a new thread on this subject as I basically thread jacked the last thread that we were talking about the filter minder install. I’m at a point to where I don’t really know what exactly to do. I’ve done some research, and I see that there are many options, but I was curious if anyone else has tried to make our stock airbox less restrictive without the deck plate mod? I guess I’ll start from the beginning, in fast forward...250k miles on my truck, decided to revamp it instead of replacing it. All wearable items replaced on the chassis added a supercharger, painted the truck. Ok, I’m done painting my truck and I’m about to reinstall the snorkel assembly. Backing up a little bit, I installed a filter minder on my airbox to monitor the air filter restriction, they do work, and are installed on many vehicles and equipment diesel and gas from the factory. Anyway, after installing mine, I noticed that it got pulled into the red with a new filter installed. Then did some more testing/research. I have narrowed the restriction to the factory elbow inside the fender well. Up until this point I’ve not been concerned with horsepower or any of that, I just drove the truck. My problem is that I’ve spent the money on the supercharger, I’ve spent the money on the snorkel. If I do the deck plate mod, that will basically make my nice expensive snorkel a Christmas tree ornament. I’d like to keep everything fully functional. I understand that if the deck plate is installed that the snorkel will be fully functional, but there’s still the hassle of opening and closing it. I’ve thought about exhaust cut outs for the airbox, bolting a throttle body to the air box, electric or mechanical with a cable. Then there is the fear of it leaking or not sealing properly. Now I’m trying to find out if anyone has ever tried to actually make the original airflow tract less restricted? I’m talking making the pipe underneath the fender a larger diameter, with a less restricted/larger elbow. Has anyone ever done this before? It’s tight up in that area, there’s not much room to work with, but I figured I’d give Tacomaworld a shot.

 

Interesting dilemma. The SC will add a lot of extra vacuum to the filter minder for sure so that may be normal. I see what you are wanting but I'm not too sure w/o compromising the box what to do. You may just have to do the deck plate and trust it will seal...

 

I’m not worried about a deck plate sealing if I go that route. I’m pretty sure that they are water tight. I’ll try to get some better photos of the elbow, and what I’m dealing with. I removed the snorkel and everything up to the air box with the elbow installed, and the gauge still showed the same restriction. I can open up the air box lid, with the air filter in place, and the gauge won’t budge a bit. I’m pretty sure that the hole in the side of the air box is too small as well. The deck plate may be the most simple choice.

 

Im interested in this.
I can see how there would be a restriction at Idle, but I would imagine at speed there would be more air pushed in to balance this. Any way you can set up a cam to record if it changes at while driving?

They make PVC duct work now with thinner walls than water pipe. they also have many adapters and fittings square to round, sqarre to round offset, on an on You may be able to find something that will fit to allow more space at the elbow.
I have some static pressure probes for airflow, if you where here we could drill some test holes and check pressure drop across each of those.
As for adding extra air you could look at hvac dampers,
https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32957396438.html

$94 Fantech IR 4 Duct Iris Damper, Manual, 4"

https://www.amazon.com/Fantech-IR-Duct-Damper-Manual/dp/B005D2JQ6O
They have many types of automated dampers now, different voltages and air operated too.



Possible might take some of the additional air from the cab??
DUAL SNORKELS!, HAHAH sorry I get carried away

 

I can actually rev the engine, in park under no load and see the gauge move half way to the red standing beside the truck. I’ll try to post a video of that tomorrow. If it moves like that under no load, no wonder it’s all the way to the red after a full boost test drive.

 

I’m also afraid that when I get this restriction fixed, I’ll run into another one where the snorkel comes through the fender. It’s always something...

 

We’ll if I had to dig deep Gadget posted findings that Toyota hid from consumers and its the fact that the deckplate mod is worse than losing the elbow. Toyota didn’t make this public knowledge it was results from the race team on ways to make more power, Both got similar dyno numbers but losing the elbow that goes to the snorkel brings in true cold air and unrestricts the intake track, and the deckplate is all good until stop and go traffic. KTM race team did the same thing making degree able cam gears for 525 four strokes only for the race team never to be in production, big companies keep secrets. I have taken my elbow and cut it flush and still plan on adding a snorkel just to deliver a colder denser air charge, ( I know it defeats the purpose of crossing water but to me its for performance)I also added the airaid intake tube that is eo cert and I cut the D shape out of my tb gaskets like the supercharged trucks but they use a o ring thats rubber if Im not mistaken so I cut the metal gasket for more flow w/a dremel and the bolts hold it in place on install. Free flowing on my n/a setup for sure , headers gutted cat with borla and I have 33’s and stock gears, it’s heavy like a panzer and it definitely moves with 267,000 on her.

 

See if you can get a good scanner and read both banks fuel trim short and long term, not saying the airflow gauge is bad just might give you peice of mind if there isn’t a fuel burning issue. Please let us know if you haven’t changed the tb gasket to a full circle one too. Good luck hmu I can help.

 

I didn’t know gadget did that test. It makes sense, the colder air is the best. It’s going to take some time but I’ll probably get it figured out. It can’t be very far off. I’ve been comparing intake snorkel designs on various equipment since I noticed this problem. The main difference is of course size, but the length of some of the intakes are ridiculous.

 

Here’s the thing, the truck runs fine. There’s actually probably nothing really wrong with the set up like it is. It’s restrictive compared to nothing being there at all. I even tried a different filter minder off of my dad’s F-250 7.3l, same results. This filter minder is a simple device that is mainly used on heavy equipment. It’s purpose is a quick check of air filter health. I’m fully aware that it’s only two clips to check mine. Ever since the snorkel install, I’ve been catching a lot of bugs in the air filter. Especially in the summer at night time. I added one just because, then it showed me a problem that I didn’t know was there to begin with. If you think about it technically, it’s simple. All that needs to happen is let atmospheric pressure freely flow to the filter at a rate that the engine can’t overcome. Then that filter minder won’t move until the filter gets stopped up, then there will be balance brought back to the universe and the wall will be finished between us and Mexico and everything and everyone will be just perfect! Damn it.

 

I did the elbow mod years ago-it's totally cut off. You guys might have a problem if you want to run a less restrictive air pipe in place of the original snorkel-the fender doesn't allow enough room. The only thing I can think of is to cut and fab a "bulge" into the fender externally to allow enough room for a fuller pipe to the snorkel.

 

There is some wiggle room at the elbow, but not much. I was thinking about moving things down a bit as the fender opens up the further down that you go. I’ve also thought about removing the filter minder all together, plugging the hole and calling it a day. It’s reminding me of things back in the day messing around with mustangs. You want a fast street car, but before you know it you’re driving a full blown race car down the road. Everything has a domino effect. If the shit would work out in real life as it does in my head, there wouldn’t be any problems at all lol!

 

So without the snorkel in place, leaving just the stock elbow and fender tube, the restriction is gone?

 

This thread has taught me why the PO must have removed the elbow on my truck...when I went to install my snorkel, the freakin stock tubing was gone and I had no idea lol. Now I know why.

Also subbed for results because I have a supercharged/snorkel'ed truck as well. Haven't noticed any issues but this has my curiosity

 

This is my experience with F-bodys.

To me, its a truck. Do truck things with it. I don't feel the urge to make my truck faster. Just to make it perform better at getting me to some cool places in the middle of nowhere. Same rat hole however...

 

Exactly! I understand completely. I installed the supercharger to have more pulling power when I’m hauling loads. And dammit I’ve wanted one since I’ve owned the truck. I’m in no way trying to make this truck a race truck in any shape or form. As a matter of fact I actually view my truck as more towards a piece of equipment than anything else. I’ve got so much going on with it right now it’s not even funny. I plan on putting together a build thread after everything is done, and showing it off a little. It’s going to be more like a Swiss Army knife than a race car, I promise!
I went to work on it today and like so many other times I got caught up on a tangent. I was reinstalling the radio antenna mast under the fender. I noticed that it was broken. I was epoxying it back together and then saw how it got broken. Somebody (me) skipped a step when drilling the fender for the snorkel around five years ago and drilled right into the radio antenna mast underneath the fender. Luckily it didn’t cut the middle wire of the antenna coax cable, but the shield wire was touching it. I simply combed all the two separate circuits apart and epoxied it in place to where it wouldn’t move. No more radio static! Like I said before, it’s always something.

 

Turn the snorkel intake backwards they still pull cold air actually colder if quoting Pontiac and their ram air and you’ll get little to no bugs anymore, thats how we run em in the Mojave desert keeps the cold air and the filter isn’t covered in sand, works great.

 

Helps too when you're going fast through water/mud pits...sending a sheet of water or mud right into the snorkel head is a good way to ruin your air filter, trust me

 

Well how do you guys have your snorkel plumbed? Just the way it was supposed to be installed?

 

Yup, I just installed mine maybe 2 months ago. Was worried at first about running lean from restricted airflow or something, but honestly I haven't noticed any negative side effects. And my intake temps are a lot lower now which is a big plus. So I haven't given it much thought to be honest.

I have an AFR gauge and my numbers are still the same as before the snorkel so it didn't change anything really that I can tell, aside from intake temps