Snorkel Prefilter

[Dmski]

Hey all,

Wondering what peoples recommendations are on snorkel prefilters. I'm looking for options to suppress dust ingest offroad, but that can be left on for bugs and ish for onroad. These are the options I'm seeing.

Unifilter foam insert or cover on the snorkel head (oiled)
Cheap women's pantyhose cut to cover snorkel (also oiled)
Donaldson Cyclonic bowl or topspin prefilter

From what I've read, the Donaldson prefilter is not intended to be used on the freeway or at speeds really above 40 MPH.

Have people found a good solution that can be left on all the time? Or is this wishful thinking and I should just have the donaldson for offroad and the standard ram head?

 

[toy_tek]

I've had a donaldson topspin for almost 8 years and probably close to 50k miles. Had to replace it a year or so ago - it had seized up. And once a small stone got lodged in the vanes. Other than that - does a pretty incredible job of keeping nasty silt dust out of the regular air filter.

 

[lugueto]

I've been looking for one as well, I don't want oiled prefilters as they require maintenance.

I would much rather use a cyclonic prefilter. Not the most aesthetic of options, but function over fashion so no problem!

 

[Dan Grec]

I have the cyclonic one that AEV sell on their snorkel for Jeep.

I have been extremely impressed with it - during desert and sand dune driving in Morocco and Mauritania, I clean the air filter daily and it doesn't even need it - the thing still looks brand new!

-Dan

 

[Dmski]

I've had a donaldson topspin for close to 8 years and probably close to 50k miles. Had to replace it a year or so ago - it had seized up. And once a small stone got lodged in the vanes. Other than that - does a pretty incredible job of keeping nasty silt dust out of the regular air filter.

Glad to hear you like the topspin! Have you left it on full time then with no ill effects on freeways?

 

[toy_tek]

Yes, it's a permanent installation. I'm not a fan of big honking snorkels up to the roofline, so I did a custom lower profile install that cost me about $120 including the Donaldson. I used a 3" outlet part #24168. SOAZ Tim and I engineered the mod in my garage with a few beers, we also put one on his old 4R. After 7 years and probably over 15k offroad miles, it would be difficult to deny it was a success.

 

[Dmski]

^ looks excellent! Like the low profile and is perfect for dust and some water. Glad to hear it works well at all speeds.

 

[Dmski]

Just found this for those interested. CFM calculator so you can size your prefilter correctly. http://www.widman.biz/English/Calculators/CFM.html

 

[LR Max]

I've had a donaldson topspin for almost 8 years and probably close to 50k miles. Had to replace it a year or so ago - it had seized up. And once a small stone got lodged in the vanes. Other than that - does a pretty incredible job of keeping nasty silt dust out of the regular air filter.

Those are very popular for construction equipment, which can and will see a lot of dust. That is the route I would go.

 

[Hillbilly Heaven]

You guys with small engines are so lucky with this one. Setting up a pre-filter for 800 cfm (647 cfm per the calcs) requires a huge pre-filter even if I use duals with 4 inch outlets.

Love the cowl mounted pic above. Nice and clean looking.

 

[Rando]

Yes, it's a permanent installation. I'm not a fan of big honking snorkels up to the roofline, so I did a custom lower profile install that cost me about $120 including the Donaldson. I used a 3" outlet part #24168. SOAZ Tim and I engineered the mod in my garage with a few beers, we also put one on his old 4R. After 7 years and probably over 15k offroad miles, it would be difficult to deny it was a success.

This seems like a far better solution to driving in dusty conditions than a standard snorkel which people like to justify as a dust reduction device. I spent some time thinking about using a standard snorkel as a dust reducing device in this thread and I can't really think how it would be effective: http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...Depth-vs-Snorkel-Height?p=2139323#post2139323