Since I bought a 3, I have been back and forth on the idea of doing something to the stock air intake.

Initially I could not understand why anyone would put one on a non-diesel, especially in California, where mine resides. It (stock side intake) is definitely good enough for most every situation, and a big improvement over old stock designs, but having done some work in the air box and intake areas recently after a few trips has made me revisit the question. I had to do a lot of sealing/routing to keep getting cleaner and cooler air into the box (the old drains will rot out and my box was sucking up mud directly into the air filter if I hit anything larger than a small mud puddle, and I came to find out that the channel in the fender has a ton of holes that will pull dust from the wheel well below). NO, I don't ford crazy deep or mud bog, but I have had a lot of splashes and annoying water ingress into areas I don't need water. I ordered a safari snorkel for a disco 3 (ARB says they are OK for the NAS V8), and an extra head of a different style so that I have both the strange ram design and a mushroom cap. The mantec-designed LR RAI is cool but it appears to be more work to seal it rather than start with a snorkel as a base.

What do people here think of the idea? I have read and reread most of the old threads that touch on this subject already, so I'd be interested to see how people look at them in 2016. My main concern is just keeping the air intake system more water and dust free. The look has grown on me but I have yet to install one. Will it provide good enough airflow for our NAS gas engines to justify having a cleaner air system? I am hoping the 3.5" approximate system diameter is a big enough "straw" for the engine to breathe through .


Trust me when I say I am fully aware that I will never ford a river with the amount of electronics on these trucks.

Loud? yeah most people would agree it will be loud crusing at highway speeds.
Efficient? jury is out on that one, I can't say for sure based on what I have read but I cannot imagine it would make efficiency any better. Lots of talk about ram air flow but it seems you'd need to be going much faster than a disco normally goes to see any substantial benefit over stock

The one thing that does make sense beyond just cleaning up the intake system is lower intake air temperatures. I normally see an operating intake air temperature of around 100F, so I do think it would be nice to have something a little cooler.


Regardless, I will report back on how the install goes and what numbers I can run with regards to mileage and temps

 

I have the safari snorkel on my rig, I trail it hard, and I wanted the snorkel to ford deeper water as well as run a pre-cleaner to limit dust intake. Some dusty trips I have had to clean the filter multiple times. I never even considered things like ram air, or temperature or what have you. Those were tertiary considerations at best.

Oh, and mine makes no noise at all. At any speed. But be forewarned the holes that need to be drilled in the a-pillar are a serious PITA. That a-pillar is thick metal, which is comforting in a roll over.

 

Are you using an IID tool? If so could you let me know what yours reads for intake air temperature?

Thanks for the feedback, very good to know.

 

Yep..A pillars all the way to B pillar,B pillar itself and also Cross member in both front and rear door are made of UHS steel(Ultra High Strength steel ) for a maximum accident or rollover protection.It is very brittle material though on terms of stretching, bending and drilling.

I also debated a long time for need of the snorkel of any kind, as I was in some hairy situations last year, crossing high water , but would rather buy a Chinese version from a company listed on Amazon, that sells it for a 140 bucks.I heard few reports of earlier versions , not this company though, that cracked in few spots, but this particular one provides roto moulded ABS products , which is also thicker and has Stainless steel hardware.Also it does not require drilling thru A pillar at all, rather relies on attaching to a A pillar cover itself.

 

Yeah that is an issue that came up when I was looking for models to consider. For something that is basically permanent on the vehicle due to the amount of drilling/cutting necessary, I do agree with Safari's premise that the chinese copies won't have the same material consistency AND UV resistance, especially after reading the report that engineering firm did at their request. After reading through those I can tolerate the price gap between the safari models and the china ones. That is good if there's a company out there that does good molding but now I always wonder what the UV resistance is going to be like.... I don't think my truck will ever be garaged .

I wonder how the model you're describing attaches then? After reading through the install PDF's for the "safari" kinds, it is only a few 5mm holes and then that's just for the plate to be riveted in. I figure if I snap the snorkel off or even want to remove it I would just leave that square piece sticking off of the A pillar.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

The expensive one looks awesome , I just can't justify the cost

I have noticed driving through decent size puddles the water splashes right onto the stock intake on the fender