air intake changes

Hey guys,

Everytime i go wheeling, im always scared im gonna hit a deep hole or dip the fan in to puddle and push water in to my stock air box. Ive been thinking of ways to fix this, without having to install a snorkle. the best ive come up with so far, is make some type of tube with a ball valve that will allow air to come in through the stock location, or switch to an alternate location. Right now, im thinking have pvc or some type of tube run from the stock air box intake to the top, back of the engine bay. It will be pulling hot air, but i would only be using this option when i was wheeling and is a much better alternative to drinking water. anyone done something similar? or have any better ideas? maybe replace the stock air box all together?

Ive seen people route the air intake into the firewall. No idea how its done though.


Stay out of the water, that will fix it.

route it to your AC...cold air ram induction

Here's what one of the guys I wheel with did

Here are some pictures and a description of my relocated air intake. The parts I used were:
air filter- K&N part# RU3130
3.5"X3" elbow- Donaldson part# P123462
3" elbow- Donaldson part# P105532
3" exhaust pipe
3.5" O.D. pipe
3" I.D. heater hose
and clamps
The donaldson elbows and heater hose can be gotten from Traction(heavy duty parts division of NAPA) or most tractor trailer repair facilities.





First I started by removing the wiper arms and the cowl cover



Then I cut a hole in the cowl and folder over the edges of the sheet metal for a bit of strength








you will have to trim plastic around cab air intake for filter to fit



next I drilled a hole in the fire wall and lined it with windlace so there wouldn't be any metal to metal contact







once all the holes are drilled and metal edges are cleaned up you can start installing parts. first slide the air filter into the cowl. Next install the 2" long piece of 3.5" tubing into the elbow. Loosly slide your clamps over the elbow and air filter. Put the elbow into the cowl and slide air filter over the end then slide 5" long piece of 3" pipe into the elbow through the fire wall and tighten this clamp. Install the second elbow on the other end of this pipe. I next went to the local exhaust shop and when I got there I undid the elbow going int the factory air cleaner and turned it around. They then bent me a pipe to fit from the factory elbow on the throttle body to the elbow at the fire wall. The factory elbow is slightly larger than 3" so I cut a small piece of 3" silicone rad hose and slid it over the 3" pipe to make up the difference. I also slid a second piece of this rad pipe over so the steel pipe didn't hit on the valve cover.





here is a picture just to give you an idea of the size of the air filter

do you not have to worry about it sucking water when it rains? does it choke out when it snows?

lowrad;

I saw this design not long ago on the JK's site. I really like it and want to do the same thing.

I am actually driving through the area this Sunday, just letting ya know if those parts go missing I have nothing to do with it.

nootay said:

do you not have to worry about it sucking water when it rains? does it choke out when it snows?

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problem i have with his design is that when i hit a water hold i see a massive wave of water go right into that inlet...on my old TJ about a gallon of water would pool up right where he just put his filter(notorious wrangler problem)

but i would never put a filter there....

ChrisRFewell said:

problem i have with his design is that when i hit a water hold i see a massive wave of water go right into that inlet...on my old TJ about a gallon of water would pool up right where he just put his filter(notorious wrangler problem)

but i would never put a filter there....

Click to expand...

that is what im afraid of with this design as well. Unless i come up with a better idea, i think im going to just run a tube from the stock opening to the rear, top of the engine bay. i thought about running in to the cab as well, but that would be awfully noisey.

Can you email me the full size pics for that snorkel build into the cowl? bbugaski at sbcglobal.net

What about adding more drain holes to the cowl? There is at least one drain for that are, right?

I'm guessing that the wipers no longer work with this setup? I have not taken my cowl off so I was not sure what the wiper linkage looked like. My guess it was taken out to run this setup.

squirrel80 said:

I'm guessing that the wipers no longer work with this setup? I have not taken my cowl off so I was not sure what the wiper linkage looked like. My guess it was taken out to run this setup.

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That would be correct, his wipers will not cycle with the air intake where it is! I tried this myself on my 98, exactly as you see it on this thread and there was no way to direct the filter towards the driver side without interfering with the wiper arm! Unless he used a super short filter and entered right over the cabin intake, then it might just fit........

Here's mine.




Wipers still work & I don't have any water in the air box even after a heavy downpour. Works fine in the winter even with snow & ice on the cowl. JIM.

Eeewww is that RV sewer hose? Just kidding looks like a good setup.

even that way i feel like i would drown the air box with the first big hole i went through. maybe you guys that have this setup do more rocks than mud and water?

If you're truly that worried about it that routing it to the firewall as the above examples show then the only way around it is a full blown snorkel. Illxj's design would only suck in water if it was high enough to completely cover the cowl and go pouring into it. If that happens then you're going to have more to worry about then water in your engine as everything would be shot.