Inner Fender Snorkel

I have replaced the air filted on my 07 fx4 one too many times due to dirty water coming past my headlight and filling the airbox. I did not want to cut a hole through my freshly painted fender, so i made a custom snorkel to fit my needs, the intake pulls air from the cowl, through holes between the inner fender area and the engine compartment, from the rear of the fender near the doors, and any other nook or cranny not sealed.

Origonally preformed and posted by: --weezl--

Difficulty 3.5/10

Labor time: 5 hours

Total Time including curing: Approx 30 hours

Total cost of materials: <$20

Parts needed:
-3"x6' semi-rigid aluminum drier ducting
-tube of very strong adhesive, i used PL premium industrial/construction adhesive (available at home depot)
-tube of less permanent adhesive like silicone (optional, you CAN use above for both)
-flat smooth, rigid waterproof surface, i used my old mudflap
-rust inhibiting primer spraypaint

Tools Required:
-Drill
-Razor knife
-3" hole saw
-Round file (or 3 1/4" hole saw)
-Duct Tape
-Caulking gun (as far as i know, pl premium comes in nothing smaller than caulking size)
-Ratchet set
-Pen

the problem from a small puddle... this filter was replaced about a month earlier...




first step was removing the airfilter housing from my truck, this was a lot more work than you would think... it's a simple pull up on the engine side of it, it will pop off eventually... there is an intake silencer that slides into it, take it off, i forget how it's hooked on maybe turn? i don't know... it's simple though... once it's off you're good

next step was to make a plug for the stock hole, i was surprised that the hole was not round... for this, i needed something flat and waterproof, i happened to have my old mud flaps kicking around, so i held one up to my box and traced the hole out with a pen...


trimmed it down a little more as i didn't want this whole big thing glued to my truck


i also washed my housing in the bathtub to clean it a little... (don't let your wife/mother/ocd roommate know) and i drilled a 3" hole in the flat section of the fender side of the box, i checked several times that it would line up well, then took the plunge... (no pix)

the next step was to remove the passenger fender, very simple (no pics)

from here i put the box BACK in the truck, i placed my 3" hole saw in the airbox to line a hole through the hole i cut in the box, tapped the arbor with a hammer to give a little dent, removed the airbox again and drilled this out with a regular drill bit, not with the hole saw, this is because i wanted to drill from the outside in, so i could hold onto the drill a little better, but needed to know where to put the pilot bit.. so i cut this out, the next step was to use my round file to make this hole bigger, the reason being, the INSIDE of my drier ducting was 3" which is the same size as my holesaw... so i filed away for close to 2 hours, checking regularly to see if it was big enough, i made sure to have a little bit of wiggle room, just to make sure it wouldn't cut through my dryer ducting, and also so that there were absolutely no sharp edges. Once the filing was done, i spray painted it with some rustoleum, i only had black on hand, but being this was an unseen part, i didn't care, so i sprayed it up...


next i went back to my airbox, i glued the 3" drier ducting (pictured below) onto the 3" hole, using PL premium industrial/construction adhesive (comes in a caulking tube) i used LOTS! the more you can put on here, the better it is, the better it will seal, trust me, it's solid... this stuff has a little bit of flex, and will never break... because this stuff takes 24 hours to cure, minimum, i taped it in place using duct tape on the inside, and sat it to dry... the ducting can be pulled to make it longer, so a 6" section is only about 2 feet when it's all packaged up, i made it a little longer than it was in the packaging, but not by much...










so after this cured over night, i started with gluing the "plug" in place. for this, because i wanted to be able to have the stock intake used again, i used black silicone. i covered the hole in the silicone (in this pic, you can see the pl premium on the outside of the ducting)


after using some wax and oil stripper for prepping surfaces for paint on it, i fitted the plug to the hole


installed the whole shebang into the stock mounting location


bent it back into place, this is almost the final position for my ducting, it got no longer from this point


from here, i made a loop with zapstraps, using 4 zapstraps total, in this design... zapstrap 1 got cut right at it's box where the arrow is, i didn't need the tail at all, all i wanted was the box, the loop of 3/4 is put around the 3" ducting and tightened it up, from here, the tail on 2, and the box of 1, which is still at the end of the tail on 2, is placed at the top of the ducting, and over the lip, where the fender mounts, and into the engine compartment, the fender goes on top of this, and is sandwiched between the two, the fender is now bolted back on, but not tight, once all the bolts are back in place, i pulled up on the tail of 2, as much as i could (got about 13 inches of pull on my 13 1/4" zapstrap) the box of 1 is then slid back down as close to the fender lip as possible, to prevent 2, from sliding back inside the fender, and the snorkel dropping from it's position at the top of my fender


at this point i tightened up all of my fender bolts, re installed my headlights and corner marker and of course always install a new filter when yours looks like the one at the top...


with that, i'm done!

I have had this mod on my truck for about 4 months now, i have noticed absolutely no decrease in power, and no increase in fuel consumption, however i did not get any benefits in those areas from this mod, i have also been in very deep water since, and have had no issues with water in my intake

Disclaimers:
1) The modification as listed above is a listing as to how i modified my truck, not a suggestion of how to do your truck properly or safely, this worked well on my truck and that is all I am claiming. I take absolutely no responsibility for you following or failing to follow my instructions and damaging your own ride. The responsibility of any such damages to your vehicle is on the owner of the vehicle and/or the person making such modifications

2) The Ranger Station.com, The Ranger Station.com Staff, nor the original poster are responsible for you doing this modification to your vehicle. By doing this modification and following this how-to you, the installer, take full responsibility if anything is damaged or messed up. If you have questions, feel free to PM the original poster or ask in the appropriate section of The Ranger Station.com forums.

hahaha, got the legal disclaimer at the bottom... should have made it small print.

done!