Page created: 2-Dec-03

Re-published: 1-Nov-09

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Fitting Instructions

Installation

A raised air intake, or snorkel, seemed like a good idea for a number of reasons. Firstly, I have in the past damaged a Land Rover engine with over-enthusiastic wading, although I’m not particularly keen to plough through bonnet deep water just for the sake of it. Secondly, at the time I was just about to head off to Morocco, which is a notoriously dusty place to drive through. When driving in convoy the air at roof height tends to be less dust laden than lower down so drawing in air higher up is better for the engine. It also tends to be cooler than under the bonnet, which can offer an advantage to a turbo diesel, as cooler air is denser and therefore provides more oxygen for the combustion process.

The choice of which snorkel basically comes down to two options. There’s the metal ‘drainpipe’ type as fitted to Camel Trophy Discoveries, or there’s the injection moulded plastic type, which is a more recent development. Although there are a few variations now available from a number of different companies, at the time I was choosing it was either Mantec for the former or Safari for the latter.

I chose to fit the Safari snorkel, which I purchased from Terrain Master. It appeared to me to be the best thought out kit as it was purpose designed for the Discovery, whereas the Mantec type is essentially a development of the installation designed for the Land Rover. It looks good too.....  

Fitting was fairly straightforward, although cutting the large hole in the wing of what was otherwise a pristine vehicle was a bit nerve racking! The kit and instructions are very comprehensive though and the job was completed in about 2 ½ hours.

After I fitted the snorkel I noticed a distinct increase in performance, which I initially put down to the intake being less restrictive than the standard arrangement. However, other people that I know who have fitted the same kit have not always seen the same improvement so I now suspect it’s just as much dependent on the state of tune of the engine.

Otherwise, the snorkel has performed extremely well. During the Morocco trip I periodically checked the air filter and there was very little evidence of dust contamination, whereas others on the trip had to unblock air filters on a number of occasions.