Snorkle be gone!

Ok, so when I first got this new-to-me '97 I kinda liked the whole look it had...... but as time has passed, I found I'm just not into the snorkle. I wanted it to go - but knew I'd have to deal with a 3" hole in the fender...... Hmmmmm, what to do about that? Sure, get a fender have it painted and be done...... but got to thinkin' I could still save the cold air quality the snorkle provided...... I just didn't know how. Then someone pointed me in the direction of a marine parts store. Looked like a marine vent would do the trick.

So, I tore that snorkle off to see what I was going to have to deal with. Wasn't pretty. 3 bolt holes and one 3" hole.

Before:



Here's the holes:



Cut and test fit of the vent:




Once I had it fitting snug......... I kinda forgot that the washer reservior had to go back in behind it. The vent has a deep recess to it and several inches of it's position was over the washer res. I originally figured I'd have the vents angled to the back in "traditional" form, but the vent recess was off-set and less of the recess interfered with the reservior if I turned the vent facing forward....... and I also got to thinking that in that direction, it might even provide a little ram-air benefit, not much, but maybe a little so flip it around I did.

Because the 3" hole cut down into the body line, the vent wouldn't sit flush on the fender surface. I started thinking of how I was going to fill the gap on the ends of the vent. I found some black foam generic use weather strip and made a sort of gasket on each end. I also used some stainless hex-head screws to match the screws on the Bushwhackers. Worked out pretty good!

Here it is bolted up and done:






Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out - considering the alternative. It's bigger than I'd like, but not hideous and it ended up being JUST big enough to cover all the holes - barely! And because the vent was 3 1/4" wide and the hole was 3", I didn't have alot of room to position it much different than how you see it. If I'd have put this vent on a fender that didn't have holes, it would have been a bit above the body line rather than on it, and a bit farther back. But I'm kinda diggin' it and it serves a purpose.

Tomorrow, I'll be re-configuring the intake under the hood a bit. I think I'm going to get rid of the K&N cone filter and filter housing in favor of a stock air box - but I'm gonna cut a 3" hole in the rear of the box and run the flexible air hose from that to the fender hole and put a rectangle K&N in the box.

More tomorrow. :thumbup:

Nice- fake zoomies'd look better, though.

Heh heh, yeah...... Zoomies........ :roflmao:

I think it looks great... Shoot now ya got me wantin to do some .

So whatcha doin with the snorkle?

It finally just came to me....... I knew this vent reminded me of a rare production car somehow........ '87 Buick GNX:



And...... you can get reproductions for $45 a set...... those would be perfect. :thumbup:

goodburbon said:

So whatcha doin with the snorkle?

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Some vulture already has dibs on it........

While hacking into this project, I got to thinking of an even better set up for the cold air draw.........



In this pic, you can see the 3" hole cuts into the unibody bulkhead - which is hollow. Now, if a person were to simply cut into the inside of that bulkhead on the engine side, then on the fender side, cut an elongated rectangle and build a thick foam gasket to pinch between the fender and the bulkhead that fit around an external vent mounted farther back and a bit higher than mine....... dayum, that'd be bitchin'.

I'll probably do just that when I find another fender in this color....... :thumbup:

Just make sure you have a drain hole in the airbox. I choked out my jeep in a heavy downpour with my snorkle once. It didn't kill it, but it was pissed at me.

Im with Crimzon. I like that a lot. Might think about doing that in the future.

It will be interesting to see how noisy it is with the stock air box.

Hypoid said:

It will be interesting to see how noisy it is with the stock air box.

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Can't be any noisier than an open element air tube and cone filter. I had a Rusty's air tube on the yella heep, and the Truggy has one currently - both pretty damn noisy. I'd think the air box would do a fair job of quieting the noise over an open element set up.

Wow!

I never put the air box back on the '97. It's pretty a gawdawful sound. I must be getting grumpy in my old age, I don't like the noise.

Hypoid said:

Wow!

I never put the air box back on the '97. It's pretty a gawdawful sound. I must be getting grumpy in my old age, I don't like the noise.

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Well duh! It's sucking air with no obstruction at all - just a big Hoover..... :twak:

Yella, you now have ANOTHER PM from me...

That thing is going to suck someones lunch out of there hands when you drive by. :wierd: Why don't you put some of those ballast pump jets on the back. And some dock bumpers hanging out the window.

Looks good Troy And it good to use the stock air box Those cia are awful noisy

Aaron used this K&N system to build his "sealed" air intake to the snorkle:



Or, at least the hose and cone filter canister. The bracket and solid tube section for the CCV isn't with this setup and he fabbed in a K&N throttle body cap to connect the tube to. Pretty clever set up with the snorkle - just not my thing.

The "vulture" will be getting the snorkle, cone filter and canister and whatever parts are left that I don't use to make my home-brew CAI.

Yup, I like the looks of that. :thumbup:

Yella how much did those vents run ya?
They might look kinda cool on the hood...