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Home > Maintenance & Mods (L322) > Fitted a Snorkel

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Haylands

Member Since: 04 Mar 2014
Location: East Yorkshire
Posts: 8354

2014 Range Rover Autobiography SDV8 Loire Blue

Fitted a Snorkel

After drowning the Rangie on it's last outing a snorkel then became top of the list of mods, no one makes one that I can find and after fitting one I can understand why, there is not a lot of room.....

I had a look at a mates Disco 3/4 and the rake of the windscreen and the clamshell bonnet are virtually the same as the L322 and it looked like a snorkel for a Disco would fit with some mods, managed to find one from a guy on another forum who bought it to fit his P38 but sold the car before he got round to it, a small donation to his beer fund and I had the starting point, it had never been fitted but did have some parts missing...

First job was to remove the wing and take a look at the space available, not much is the answer. The Disco, being on a chassis doesn't need such strong inner wings but the L322 has a lot of strength here and the gap between inner and outer wing is much less. The good thing is the original intake from the wing into the airbox and on into the engine is pretty well sealed, there are rubber "O" rings on the joints to the airbox, the box itself is pretty water tight, as are the joints to get to the inlet manifold, certainly good enough for the type of wading it will be doing, if you were going to try some Camel Trophy type wading with your head out the window just above the water level then it may need more work, mind you so would everything else on the car......

Inner wing with air intake

You can see here the limited space, the plastic wheelarch cover shows how close the outer wing is to the inner wing

Next job was to make an elbow to take the inlet back to the snorkel, the hole in the inner wing is around 3" diameter, but a 3" hose wont fit inside the inner wing so I made up an elbow that used the entire space available, the outer wing reduces in size from bottom to top and from front to back, I made this to accept a 4" intake pipe that is squashed to an oval inside the wing and I was hoping would allow enough airflow.

First rough mockup

Then some cleaning up and filler work, a quick check on fitment, it has to fit within the inner wheel arch plastic trim and it just does

Click image to enlarge

Finish it off to a standard that is easy to take a mold from

Click image to enlarge

Then take a mold off it to produce the final elbow, I didn't want to use the buck as it had got rather thick to get the correct shape and was made from plastic, filler and fiberglass....

Click image to enlarge

Then made the final elbow, doesn't have to be as polished as the buck....

Click image to enlarge

It has to be this weird shape to maximise the airflow

Fitted to the car

Click image to enlarge

Then fit the snorkel to the front wing, out with the drill and jigsaw....

Click image to enlarge

I had to enlarge the hole to aid fitting as it's so tight and forgot to take a pic of it, just maximised the size out to the fitting holes...

Also fitted the grill and cut this as well....

Click image to enlarge

Then fitted the new elbow with the air inlet pipe, this is two layered silicon hose with a metal spiral so holds it's shape and is bendable.. Used Tiger seal to attach and seal the elbow to the inner wing

Click image to enlarge

Then refitted the wing, pulled the pipe through the hole and fitted it to the snorkel, then had fun trying to get behind the wing to bolt the snorkel to the wing with the pipe in the way, was rather fiddly but managed it in the end.

Had to make a bracket to fit the top of the snorkel to the "A" pillar, it was missing, made it go underneath the "A" pillar trim so as to keep the door seal working as it should. Cut a small slot in the trim to fit it...

And that was the fitting finished.... then on to the aesthetics, not that they look that nice anyway, more function than form but this one had "Discovery 3" on it and it looked a bit funny with half the "so called" air intake vents poking out from underneath...

So to neaten it up I ground off the logo

Went over it with the D.A. sander

Also sanded off the awful plastic flash line it had all the way down the front...

Click image to enlarge

Then plastic primed it and painted it with truckbed liner, hopefully it will last, moved the side repeater to the cut out (this is for the wheel arch on a Disco) and painted the side vents body colour which I think looks better....

Painted the other side vents as well...

The finish looks better than standard but this is one of those cheap Chinese copies..

Click image to enlarge

It takes some abuse off road and gets smacked a lot but is very robust...

I had done some testing of the short term fuel trims before fitting it all so had something to compare with to see if the airflow was restricted, at 70mph they are between 1-2% higher so this would indicate it's getting a ram air effect at this speed and is in fact getting more air in, there is no noticeable drop in performance in acceleration. I fitted the innards of it all whilst visiting my Mother during the week as my brother was around to help with an extra pair of hands and it is about 220miles from where I live... It used slightly less fuel coming home than it did going so I think the airflow is fine.... If you cover the top of the snorkel it sucks in the pipework and stalls the engine so it appears to work well.... Off to the Lake District in September and there are some decent river crossings there so that will be the test....

Rocksliders next.... Pete
I now have permission from the boss to use Y.O.L.O. Enjoy life
__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

Last edited by Haylands on 4th Jun 2022 9:29am. Edited 1 time in total

27th Jul 2014 5:19pm

paulmoran2

Member Since: 27 Nov 2013
Location: Leeds
Posts: 1422

2013 Range Rover Vogue SDV8 Mariana Black

Love it Great job....some photos of the "wade depth testing" will be coming soon then?? GONE 2010 Facelifted 3.6 TDV8 - Stornoway Grey + 22" Overfinch Olympus
HAVE 1999 Discovery 2 GS 4.0 V8 - Silver - Off Road Toy
GONE 2013 L405 4.4 SDV8 Vogue. Black with Silver roofline and 22" s
HAVE 2015 Jaguar XF.

27th Jul 2014 5:47pm

nestu

Member Since: 17 Nov 2013
Location: Lancashire
Posts: 11

Job well done Looks great too

27th Jul 2014 6:57pm

RR2008HSE

Member Since: 06 Jan 2013
Location: British Columbia
Posts: 2932

I'm impressed. Nice, clear write up too.

27th Jul 2014 7:12pm

Joe90

Member Since: 29 Apr 2010
Location: Hampshire
Posts: 6414

Spectacular modification, very brave to cut into the wing! and some lovely glass fibre work.

Not sure I like the look, but this one is all about function, yes as hats off to you for where you take your FFRR, a far braver man than me! .
Experience is the only genuine knowledge, but as time passes, I have forgotten more than I can remember
Volvo V70 P2 2006 2.4 Petrol 170bhp Estate SE
MG Midget Mk1 1962

Previous: L322 Range Rover TDV8 3.6 2008; L322 Range Rover TD6 3.0 2002; P38A Range Rover V8 1999

27th Jul 2014 7:42pm

Welshdragon

Member Since: 20 Jan 2012
Location: here and there...but not where I should be
Posts: 1899

2003 Range Rover Vogue 4.4 V8 Monte Carlo Blue

Tidy job there, well done good write up too

Just hope you have sealed up all connections well, would be very in some deep water if all went wrong and a kitted 90 winched you out If it dont work.......burn it!

If the IId tool cant fix it.......burn the FF.

If the FF cant be fixed......buy a Land Cruiser!

If the LC cant be fixed..............................................BUY a horse !!

27th Jul 2014 7:55pm

GraemeC

Member Since: 01 Jul 2012
Location: Chester
Posts: 836

2007 Range Rover Vogue SE TDV8 Zermatt Silver

Fantastic job, great skills 2007 Zermatt Silver TDV8 Vogue SE - now sold but was a great car!

27th Jul 2014 8:02pm

n1cktdv8

Member Since: 19 Aug 2013
Location: Cheshire
Posts: 1754

2008 Range Rover Vogue TDV8 Stornoway Grey

Never ceases to amaze me the lengths that peeps go too...this is a fine example of that and you should be very pleased with yourself mate

Is this where I put the car details and a bit about myself ?........

27th Jul 2014 8:25pm

Haylands

Member Since: 04 Mar 2014
Location: East Yorkshire
Posts: 8354

Thanks for the comments guys, I am pretty pleased with it but can't say I really like the look of them, does spoil the lines of it a bit.... Pete
I now have permission from the boss to use Y.O.L.O. Enjoy life
__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

27th Jul 2014 8:53pm

RR2008HSE

Member Since: 06 Jan 2013
Location: British Columbia
Posts: 2932

^ I think it depends on the car. It may be a bit"different" on a stock FFRR, but if you throw on some off-road tyres, a winch, sliders, and roof rack with ladder and I think it would fit in perfectly.
And just about perfect with a Tangiers Orange respray.

28th Jul 2014 6:30am

XXXAngelXXX

Member Since: 25 Mar 2007
Location: Stuttgart
Posts: 4994

2013 Range Rover Vogue SE 5.0 SC V8 Havana

Great job !! All my spelling errorz are belong to me!

2023 FFRR L460
2021 AM new Vantage

28th Jul 2014 7:28am

Bagus

Member Since: 14 Apr 2014
Location: London
Posts: 200

2016 Range Rover Autobiography 5.0 SC V8 Loire Blue

Well impressed. Looks a top job

28th Jul 2014 11:42am

kingpleb

Member Since: 07 Jun 2011
Location: Maybe here. Maybe there, I get everywhere!
Posts: 8455

Looks fantastic!!

You ran into the same issue as me, nowhere was interested in making one other than a bespoke unit for a 4 figure sum!

Interesting you used the D3 unit as I was looking at using one from a P38 or XJ jeep so it would run along the wing.
What have you done about the elbow and airbox inside as thats not water tight from the wing to the inlet? Also the Axle breathers come up in the engine bay so these could get plumbed into the post airfilter but pre turbo pipework to keep them only using clean air.

The next big thing you have to do if you haven't already is seal the cabin supply box up. Dont faff around too much with this as i found spending 10minutes taking it off and cover the firewall/bulkhead tubes was the easiest method.

The doors and stuff you should fine are fine as they are double sealed but remove the seals if they look even slightly funny and feed them rubber feed like the gummi phelge stuff reccomended on here somewhere to keep them soft! i've had water up the side windows on the passenger side and coming over the windscreen on a water crossing before and not suffered from it due to the engines air pocket and the water height dropping massively on the drivers side so it was well under the wing intake

Glad to see some more MTR's being used in anger! If they ever wear out look to get the Scorpion ATR tyres as they are getting great ratings on the disco forum and dont suffer like the MTR's do when used on the road in wet weather FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

28th Jul 2014 12:49pm

Weejock

Member Since: 30 Dec 2011
Location: UK
Posts: 418

2002 Range Rover Vogue 4.4 V8 Epsom Green

Now that is an impressive install! I can certainly appreciate how much effort has gone into that and it makes it look like a factory kit too.
Out of interest what else are going to do prep wise for wading? The amount of electrics would worry me plus the aging door seals! Incidentally I came across 'CorrosionX' for another project which is used in the US military on aircraft for corrosion protection with having the adding benefit of making electrical connections water resistant. It's like a thick WD40 but with high di-electric strength so even circuit boards can be coated in the stuff. Might be worth spraying your electrics with some.

28th Jul 2014 3:38pm

kingpleb

Member Since: 07 Jun 2011
Location: Maybe here. Maybe there, I get everywhere!
Posts: 8455

Important bits are usually in water tight boxes. The alternator could do with a good coating of something as they are pretty exposed. FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

28th Jul 2014 3:47pm

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