 | Home > Td5 > TD5 Snorkel Test |
 
|
|
|
| Butters Member Since: 14 Mar 2013 Location: North Wales Posts: 23   
|
Hi everybody,
Been testing out a Mantec Snorkel (plastic modern shaped one) for 18 months, my motor has various performance upgrades, inter cooler boost box from BAS the usual stuff. Whilst it looks seriously cool, the Mantec Snorkel has seriously reduced the pull and performance of the engine over the last 18 months, how badly I will post when I take it off next month. Problems I've had since fitting it. At 60 to 80 mph water, yes that's right water from misty type rain or heavy rain is being drawn into the air filter!! Not sometimes but every time there is heavy rain or spray on the road the snorkel simply can't shed it as fast as the air is being sucked in. Spoke to Mantec and guess what, drive slower was there suggestion. Spoke to BAS they recommended bin it as the intake on the wing allows the water to wiz past and just intakes the air, breathing freely as designed. The snorkel is the mantec plastic modern looking one. I have made sure it's properly fitted, properly sealed and the water is definitely being sucked in at high speeds when tons of air is being used. The symptoms are momentary loss of power and a wet air filter when u open the air box up. I have spoken with loads of users of snorkels and this seems fairly common, so if you have a performance set up TD5 and are tempted by a snorkel think again as I have rarely been through water of unknown depth and would rather not than loose power every time it rains, oh and have to change air filters and drop speed to 50 in heavy rain, madness. Also I recon the water ingress can't be good for the engine, after all the snorkel is to stop water getting in not to cause a water ingress problem. I have checked the rubber thing supposed to shed the water from the system which is perfect, this water is coming in like a heavy spray in the air rather and because the snorkel is restricting air flow the pressure doesn't even allow the water to settle and flow out it's straight on to the filter. I will update when I've had it off the car what the difference is, it's probably going to be a quite dramatic improvement. To date my advice, from trying one over a good period of time and trying to like it is don't bother, even if you love the look of it, take a long stick or rod with you and see how deep water is before wading 
The breather wading kit from axles etc has made no negative performance whatsoever highly recommend as it has totally eradicated water in places it shouldn't be. Defender TD5 110 DC (Silver) Range Rover Vogue TD6 L322 2006> (Black) |
||
27th Aug 2014 10:41pm |
|
| Butters Member Since: 14 Mar 2013 Location: North Wales Posts: 23
|
 Click image to enlarge I recon it's because The holes in the underneath of the top of the snorkel are insufficient for the air flow being demanded by the engine, so the water and anything else in the air is being forced under huge suction through the holes and into the air box. If you measure the holes underneath the surface area the air can fit through is less than the standard wing intake, also it is going further down the tube which restricts airflow anyway. The solution is to double or more the surface area of vents underneath the snorkel intake allowing free flow of air and the separation of water, I could seriously design this better myself. It's fairly obvious that if you restrict airflow with a snorkel, the intake vents must be larger than what was originally there in the wing of the car, as the air is going further, traveling down tubes which further increases the pressure needed to get the air in. Bigger intake head could easily be designed and a stainless shield on the front, stepped off about an inch would deflect driving rain and bugs and if designed right wouldn't stop or reduce airflow into the snorkel head. The Mantec photo above is the one I have and I have to day it's Rubbish Defender TD5 110 DC (Silver) Range Rover Vogue TD6 L322 2006> (Black) |
||
|
28th Aug 2014 8:29am |
|
| taazzukcb Member Since: 30 Aug 2013 Location: Derbyshire Posts: 663 
|
Just for reference, this isn't a snorkel for water use, but a Raised Air Intake for sandy and dusty conditions.
It was also confirmed by the man who designed this that it wont pose any running restrictions on a standard tune engine (same bloke confirmed the first sentence to  ). For a standard tune this is pretty believable. |
||
|
30th Aug 2014 9:51am |
|
| K9F Member Since: 12 Nov 2009 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 9610 
|
For the purpose of the 'trial' surely having discovered the 'potential'solution to your problems and professing that you could do better yourself it would be better from an engineering perspective and for the benefit of others that may be experiencing similar issues to test your solution out before binning the RAI totally? After all the advantages with regards to power/torque over not having a snorkel/RAI are already well documented on here. If you go through life with your head in the sand....all people will see is an ar5e!! Treat every day as if it is your last....one day you will be right!! |
||
|
30th Aug 2014 10:05am |
|
| ZeDefender Member Since: 15 Sep 2011 Location: Munich Posts: 4731  
|
Esatto
 Tell someone you love them today because life is short.
But shout it at them in German because life is also terrifying and confusing... |
||
|
30th Aug 2014 11:28am |
|
| CFB Member Since: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire Posts: 803
|
Does the Safari version cope better? ISTR it has run off channels for rain water ingress. Andy
|
||
|
30th Aug 2014 3:52pm |
|
| charliebaja Member Since: 05 Aug 2013 Location: Surrey Posts: 211 
|
I have also suffered the exact same issues with my Mantec Plastic jobby!! I will be removing it form my 110 and replacing it with the Safari Snorkel. I will keep you posted as to how i get on and hopefully no more drenched air filters and loss of power in the rain/!!
|
||
|
30th Aug 2014 10:59pm |
|
| davew Member Since: 02 Jan 2012 Location: North Yorkshire Posts: 888  
|
If it can be changed around, you should have the snorkel intake facing backwards, not forwards. Facing it forwards just scoops up rain water as you drive along. Some people seem to believe they get some form of "ram air" effect by facing it forwards, as any engineer will tell you though, that's completely misguided as any possible gain is offset by increased drag.
On our overland motor we use an ARB cyclone top for dusty/sandy conditions and when crossing deserts or on dusty tracks it certainly collects a LOT of sand/dust particles in the cyclone bit. When not in dusty conditions we use a rear facing Safari-Equipe top and not had any issues with water in the air filter even in the UK. Safari-Equipe Top: Click image to enlarge ARB top: Click image to enlarge http://www.yorkshireoffroadclub.net/ |
||
|
30th Aug 2014 11:42pm |
|
| Butters Member Since: 14 Mar 2013 Location: North Wales Posts: 23
|
Thanks charliebaja would be good to know if they're all useless or just the Mantec,
Re not a snorkel, I was sold it as a solution for the flooding we had in North Wales with a wading kit for all the breathers for he purpose of keeping the water out of the axles gearbox etc. if it was for dust only why the hell did Mantec sell me it and the Mantec wading kit designed to go with it ? Oh and it's been through water to the bottom of the windscreen glass briefly and a constant depth of about two inches up the snorkel base with no issues so it's fine wading bone dry in fact,input get on a motorway with spray and your in trouble. Crazy Defender TD5 110 DC (Silver) Range Rover Vogue TD6 L322 2006> (Black) |
||
|
30th Aug 2014 11:51pm |
|
| Butters Member Since: 14 Mar 2013 Location: North Wales Posts: 23
|
K9f
I would love to make my own better top to go onto the MAntec plastic jobby but if you look close at the photo you can see there is no way without massive expense and plastic forming. Moulds and all sorts of expense you could achieve this as a non manufacturer. Joking aside an up turned industrial sized tin of beans as a snorkel top would have better airflow all round and would allow rain to whizz past like the wing vent does on std defenders. Though the wheelie bin idea is more appealing and looks better, if fellow defender bloggers don't sell me another tried and tested solution
The reason I raised it originally is everybody seems to go along with a product they have spent a lot of money on, until one person has a moan thinking they may be on their own - it's nice to see many with the Mantec Plastic jobby are having the same problem all with varied states of tune from std to high performance set ups. I'm going to try the beans can when I have finished this run of work over the next few weeks or a piece of stainless capped tube as a hat on top of the snorkel and see if my theory of better airflow will reduce the water being sucked in. Has anybody else had a Southdown snorkel or a safari one they are on the list to research as much feedback good or bad would be great... Thanks Defender TD5 110 DC (Silver) Range Rover Vogue TD6 L322 2006> (Black) |
||
|
31st Aug 2014 12:05am |
|
| charliebaja Member Since: 05 Aug 2013 Location: Surrey Posts: 211
|
I use a snorkel on my 110 now because quite a few years ago on an old C reg 90 cab-top I was off roading at Bagshot in Surrey and went through a water splash and managed to bend a con-rod costing £800. So as you can see I don't want that to happen again, admittedly the TD5 air vent is positioned differently, but just don't want to take the risk.
DaveW - the snorkel cannot be turned around as it has a fixed dome head and draws the air up from the bottom from a cyclone style vent. |
||
|
31st Aug 2014 6:57am |
|
|
|
| All times are GMT |
< Previous Topic | Next Topic > |
Posting Rules
|
Site Copyright © 2006-2024 Futuranet Ltd & Martin Lewis
