Here is the story so far...
I’ve been planning a home made snorkel for over 18 months now. Firstly for the 1984 Range Rover I had but that has sadly passed on (still looking for a home for the stripped chassis & body, gearbox & engine!). I bought a proper mushroom top last year at Billing for I think £20, a length of 68mm black drainpipe and a handful of angled joints at the local DIY store in preparation for it. Since getting Chugaboom, my 1990 V8 Discovery, The plan has been resurrected.
I’m going out on Sunday with a few fellow Mud Clubbers and so I spent a couple of hours today searching the web looking for suitable flexi hose to use to connect the rigid external part of my planned snorkel to the airbox. With little success.
So, in an effort to please our rambling friends… of to the scrappers and within ten minutes I had three lengths of varied flexible air intake pipe. £2 the lot.
Tonight, I started the design process and thought I’d share it with you lot.
After juggling the various bits of flexi pipe I chose the one that was a nice tight fit for the airbox and happily it was also a nice tight fit for the drainpipe. One end was jubilee clipped to the airbox, the other, after a bit of thought to get it round the oil filler spout, to a short length of drainpipe. This then connected to a 45° bend, a longer straight piece of drainpipe, another of the flexipipes to give manoeuvring room going through the wing and finally to a short piece of pipe.
It’s worth noting that the short lengths of pipe are useful for connecting bends. The bends do not joint together directly but with a little careful measuring and a few attempts at cutting a STRAIGHT cut I found that short pieces did the job.
On the outside, working down from the mushroom top we have a 45° bend, a straight length, a piece of flexi intake pipe (left over from a planned rebuild on my old Classsic. It’s a new part through Land Rover Classic Parts… trouble is… they come in bags of ten… but I think the bag only cost me about £7… and I have 8 left!), a straight piece for along the wing and finally a 90° bend that once the wing is cut, will link up with the engine bay half.
To support the snorkel I found a couple of brackets at the local DIY store (B&Q but I’m sure others have something similar) two flat ones about 100mm x 40mm that slot nicely behind the A pillar and still allow the door to operate unhindered. These will be used to support the top part of the snorkel. A single angle bracket will support the section along the wing. I’m not planning to drill into the pipe to fix, rather I’ll use jubilee clips in the hope they’ll be strong enough.
All of the drainpipe is cemented together with Marley Solvent Cement that essentially welds the plastic of each piece together providing a watertight seal.
I have all the pipe work made up tonight, tomorrow I cut the wing, rivet the brackets and fix the pieces in place. I’ll take more shots and post them then… hopefully to critical acclaim!
Here are the parts required:
Mushroom Top 1
68mm Drainpipe 1
90° Bend 1
45° Bend 4
Flexi Pipe from Air Intake Valve on Range Rover 1984 (Part No.613519) 1
Flexi Pipe from Vauxhall (Scrap Yard) 1
Flexi Pipe from Citreon? (Scrap Yard) 1
Large Jubilee Clips 7
Marley Solvent Cement KS2 1
Flat Bracket 2
Angle Bracket 1
Edge Trim 1 Metre
Rivets 10
All the pictures are in my gallery and I’m happy to answer any questions.
Skibum
Step by Step Pics
