There was this show when I was a kid called the Snorks. They were like the Smurfs, but they lived underwater and had snorkels on the top of their heads. That is what my truck has become. I followed up immediately after resecuring the removed brackets during the body lift and jumped right into cutting out the template for the snorkel. I had purchased a radiator hose extension (Class Type/length C) which is what comes up in the computer from Autozone for our trucks. I had hoped they sold just lengths of radiator hose, as I had read that 15" out to cover it. Well, it turned out the C length is perfect for those of us that are too lazy to drop the radiator back down 2".
Well, with the radiator connected, the last thing I needed to reconnect was the airbox. It was snorkel time!
I cut out the template recalling my childhood arts and crafts skills of cutting along the lines. The template recommends taping the top contour first, then taping the right side. The challenge is getting the flat template to match the contour of the body and having it sit relatively flat. Take your time. You'll be cutting into the side of a new truck. Mistakes are costly.
The 13mm diameter holes are no biggie. I ultimately made those as 1/2" because I'm an American. We don't do SI units! Ok, we do, but only begrudgingly. Although the steps recommend drilling the smaller holes first, I wanted to tackle the big hole and then test fit the snorkel body up against the template to confirm they were appropriately located. My hardware store did not have a 98mm hole saw. There was maybe a 92 mm and then a 102mm. I sprung for the 102mm and just told myself the extra 4 mm wouldn't be noticed but might be appreciated as additional tolerance.
What you will need to factor for is the tremendous amount of torque that will be fed back through whatever tool you are using if the hole saw binds up, as mine did,...repeatedly. It will try to break your wrists. First I used my Dewalt cordless which had plenty of torque but no leverage handle. I burned out the bushings on my Ryobi hammer drill with the leverage handle while mixing mortar for my tile installation. My rotary hammer only accepts the special bits. I was down to my last shot...my corded Dewalt 3/8" driver. It only has one speed...go. Although you can try depressing the trigger to various extents to get a relatively difficult to control range of throttle.
The lower half of the circle will cut no problem as the template for me fell on the fender flare for most of the circle. The problem came in when you clear that portion of the cut, and then step into the body about a half inch before making contact with virgin metal that hasn't been scored up to this point in the cut. The saw kept binding and then wrenching the tool nearly out of my grasp. I taped up my wrists like cheerleading days and went at it. Still was threatening to kill me. My dad had come over to watch and he was like "Son, stop!" He's driven me to the ER enough times in our collective lives I suppose.
So I got smart. I would rev the drill up while within the groove of the initial cut. Then I let my finger off of the trigger and allowed the momentum of the saw to carry the rotation as I moved the tool forward to engage the virgin metal.The tool was thus not under load and the friction of the cutting action would gradually bring the tool to a stop. Pull back, rev, reengage. So I used this technique of sort of 'bump sawing to complete the cut.
The work appears to be relatively neat given the ad hoc approach. I filed all of the holes and touched up the metal with rust preventive. It really came in a little bottle like white out. I think it was just expensive white-out that I got sold for $5 instead of $0.99 for the regular stuff.
My dad took this picture.
I asked him to get close enough to get the bottle in the frame in case I could parlay this into a sponsorship. Rustoleum is not likely to be inclined to contribute to this foolishness.
I was having the damndest time getting the intermediate connector installed. I asked Dad to try his hand at it as he has more patience than I do. I was devising alternate means of attachment. Turns out, it helps if you actually are installing the part in the correct orientation. We had it backwards, which wasn't apparent until we tried installing the snorkel body to it and realized that the snorkel body couldnt' reach all the way into the engine compartment. Duh. Flip it around, cut away some more metal, and make the connection.
This part is NOT fun. There is a cavity between the body panels where the 6 or so bolts that anchor the snorkel body to the body of the truck must be fastened. It narrows down to not much wider than the breadth of a mans hand and nearly fully extended up a mans arm length. So I've got my whole head wedged up in the wheel well. Were it not for the 4" of combined height increase, I probably would not have fit in here very well which might have necessitated removing the wheel. In this case it just required patience.
Here's another friendly "Don't do this or you'll hate yourself" tip. I thought it would be a great idea to caulk around the profile of where the snorkel contacts the body and sandwich the snorkely body into this bed of caulk. It just made for a slippery sticky mess when the things didn't quite line up. Don't do this. Think of something else smarter.
Another regret is that the outlet from the snorkel into the intermediate fitting could have been made longer. It connects via hose clamp, but there simply isn't much meat to the connection point on the snorkel body for this to be as solid of a connection as I would have liked. The components end up not being particularly air or water tight, especially suspect being the connection between the intermediate body and the stock airbox. This connection reuses the stock sponge gasket. Ultimately I'd like to get back in there with some appropriately sized PVC and make some true PVC welds or use rubber gaskets and hose connections to make a better seal. The stock airbox also has a very small hole in the bottom to allow for drainage of any incidental water infiltration. I didn't plug this up for now as I am wanting to evaluate the performance of the snorkel in the rain. When I inspected it upon arrival, I didn't see a means by which the snorkel itself can evacuate rainwater which may enter the airstream. My thought is that it must rely on this drainage hole in the stock airbox. For now, I did not seal this.
This is what the truck looks like fully lifted and snorkel in place. I still need to put my bumper on, but I decided to update my posts in lieu of trying to cram in another few hours of work. The reality is, that one shouldn't try fjording across any water that is higher than one's wheels. The idea behind the body lift and snorkel was that I wanted to increase the margin of error in the event a low spot is encountered to increase the differential between top of wheel and bottom of intake. The majority of the air will be drawn from significantly higher (less the impact of the potential points of infiltration discussed above). So although my truck is only about 4" higher than stock, my margin of "ooops" I feel is a full 12" above the top of wheel. Besides, if I'm in water that deep, I probably have bigger problems with door seals failing, an alternator going toast, or another electrical fault occurring first. The idea is that, if the circumstances permit, I'd throw on a pair of waders and walk the water hazard first to determine depth. If I can't walk it, I certainly can't drive it. Maybe use the winch as a lifeline. As long as I got somebody to winch whatever is left of me back in, that should be fine. :)
Looks great! Good, clean job.
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