Safari Snorkel installation fiasco
July 17, 2005This "adverture" began with the fact that there is no notice anywhere that the 300TDI model of Safary Snorkel DOES NOT FIT left hand drive (LHD) vehice as is. Neither installation manual nor manufacturer's web site mention that is is designed for RHD vehicles only. So I thought it fits any 300TDI Defender.
This is schematical drawing of the snorkel. Note that it comes with new flexible connection hose that will replace the original L-shaped pipe (on the right). The main problem is that this pipe cannot be used on a LHD vehicle, because it is supposed to be installed on the same place where heater unit's blower motor is already in. The idea of using new pipe is good, though, because the existing L-pipe is 2-part design and connection between these 2 parts is very poor, so they may get disconnected by vibration etc.
Here we see heater unit of LHD vehicle. It is situated at right side so you'll need to remove it to install the snorkel.
To remove the heater unit properly you'll need to disconnect coolant hoses and control cables. Also be sure to loosen plastic heater air intake vent (pictured), otherwise it is much more difficult to remove the heater unit without breaking something.
This is the snorkel and its hose connection.
However, if you look inside the air intake vent where the shorkel connects, you see that there is no room for the new hose.
Moreover, if you position the snorkel on its place, it is appearent that you can't use the supplied round hose, because the connection is right on the same place as heater unit's blower motor. There is no room to bend the hose or change its direction. Also, considering diameter of the hose, there is no room to put it below the motor if you succeed to make new hose connection for the snorkel, that uses different angle. Bad news indeed.
So, what to do? How about using original L-shaped intake pipe, as does TD5's version of the snorkel (see schema above). It does not use custom pipe, it just extends the existing one. For this we need to cut off the connector and basically it will be the same as TD5's version.
Connector roughly hacked off using bit drill. Yes, you can fit it now and it probably could work the same as TD5's version.
However, when now trying the snorkel on, I saw new problems. This snorkel is made of one piece but the body of Defender is made of several parts that may have slight different angles (tolerance) on different cars (not much of a problem on "usual" cars). So the snokel did not fit properly! If upper bracket was on its supposed position, there was pretty big gap on the lower connection (see the picture). Actually you put special thick foam gasket there, but this gasket can't fill this kind of hole properly, at least in my eyes. If I position lower part of the snorkel properly, upper bracket is way off it's position. It is probably possible to make a new, custom upper bracket to solve this problem, however I'm pretty much pissed off by this snorkel by now and considered not to install it and opt for a Mantec snorkel. See below, why.
What I don't like with Safari Snorkel:
1) 1-part design may look good, however functionally it is inferior to 2-part snorkels that use flexible pipe between 2 parts, because upper and lower body panels are not properly aligned on all Defenders.
2) Its 3 main connection bolts are only accessible from engine compartment, in a location that is impossible to access on LHD vehicle without removing heater unit first. So if the nuts loosen or the foam gasket will flatten over time and needs some thightening, you'll need to remove heater unit every time and that is unneccessary PITA, especially on an expedition. Mantec snorkel has screws outside, so you can install, check and tighten them easily. Also, Safari Snorkel uses separate studs, bolts/studs that are permanently connected to the snorkel. So more potential for something to loosen up. The studs are pretty loose (could be more precise fit), you'll need to use a lot of thread locker or glue to minimize the risk of loosening.
3) You'll need to drill 3 big (16mm suggested, although this size seems way too big for 8mm studs) holes around your air intake vent. Not a too big problem, however, it is possible to use existing mount as Mantec snorkel does, without drilling any holes to the car body.
4) The bottom of the snorkel contains unneccessary "pouch" -- air passing hole is way above the bottom of the snorkel. I'm pretty sure that this pouch will collect 0,5 kilos of dust and garbage and you can't get it out easily because there is no "drain" valve on the bottom of the snorkel. The only way to clean it is to remove the snorkel. But removing this is... see point #3 above. I started to think that this pouch may be actually good for collecting garbage and vacuum cleaner with long hose can be used to suck it out from snorkel's top end, when the "hat" is removed. Wonder if someone has really done that?
It will most probably fit better on a RHD 300TDI vehicle, using the supplied replacement air hose. My modification makes it possible to install it, but the connection will not be too good (unless you go ahead and make some more modifications).