Installing One On A 1999 Jeep Wrangler TJ w/AC
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If you have ever made a deep water crossing in your Jeep, you know the moments of horror if you get to the point where the water comes up over the hood of the Jeep. There are a number of problems that can crop up during a water crossing, but the worst of these is getting water into your engine via the air intake.
The air instake on the TJ is located under the hood on the passenger side, near the front of the Jeep. It is a box that has an upwards-pointing horn on it and a big pipe/hose going from the top of the box to the top of the throttle body on the right-side of the engine. That horn on the front of the air box is the air instake. The air filter is located inside that box. There are spring clips holding top of the box on, which allow you to access the filter. It is designed so that the horn draws air from an air pocket under the hood itself. This is better than previous years where the intake is right behind the headlights - but it can still suck water into your engine if that becomes submerged.
Taking water in through your air intake is a bad thing. Water can get sucked into the engine just like air, but it does not compress just like air. This can cause catastrophic damage to the engine. If this happens to you, you are in a whole new world of hurt - especially if that Jeep happens to be your daily driver.
Three factors will help to prevent this
The good sense to keep your Jeep and yourself out of trouble unless you have the proper training and gear to handle it.
A good lift kit to get you higher out of the water
A snorkel for making really deep crossings.
If your operating environment includes deep water, you should consider installing a snorkel. The cost is far less than replacing your engine. They can also help in other ways.
By drawing air from a higher location outside of the engine compartment, you are feeding the engine cooler air. That will help it to run better. You are also drawing in cleaner air (unless you are driving through really thick clouds of crud), and if the snorkel has a ram on it you may be drawing more air in than the factory sytsem will normally provide. This has the potential to help your fuel economy.
I have long trusted ARB products - we have an ARB Air Locker in our front differential and hope to replace the factory limited-slip in our Dana 44 rear in the near future. The limited-slip is good, but ARB is better. ARB equipment is designed to last and really does hold up on the trail. I trust them. That's why we contacted them about our Project Jeep. ARB offers Safari Snorkels for many makes and models of off-road vehicles. They even offer the SH1055 Safari Snorkel for the Jeep Wrangler TJ.
Our TJ (made in 10-1998) called for a model SS-1050SH snorkel on paper, but it turns out that the SS-1055 will work just as well. According to Jon Snow at ARB-USA, the only difference is a slight change to the part you connect to your factory air-filter box. The new part works fine on earlier TJ's too, so that's what ARB sent us. Turns out they were right! It worked out fine.
The kit that ARB provides is very well made and is very complete - but note here and now that you do NOT want to throw away the shipping box until you retreive the installation template that is taped to the inside of the box. Here is a photo of it. DO NOT FORGET TO REMOVE THIS FROM THE SHIPPING BOX!
That template will help you with the most intimidating part of the installation - drilling a 3" hole in the side of your Jeep to pass the snorkel through into the engine compartment. If you can get over that hurdle, you can install one. It isn't rocket science, and we had no problems.
To start with you will need a few tools of your own. You will need a pop rivet tool, a set of screwdrivers, and some drill bits - including a 3" hole saw. A Dremel Moto-Tool is also a big help when making the required modifications to the factory air intake box and for de-burring holes you need to drill in the body. Some touch-up paint for your vehicle is also handy.
You also need to convert from metric to SAE, as the Safari Snorkel is made in Austrailia and the directions are all in metric. This is no big deal - we will help you out.
To start with, you need to open the hood and remove the factory airbox, the battery, and the battery tray. This is because the flexible duct which connects the snorkel body to the airbox passes through openings in the sides of the two battery tray supports under the battery tray. You need to remove the battery tray to install two protective sleeves, which insure that the duct won't get cut on any of the sharp metal down there.
The factory airbox is held in via three bolts. These come out easily.
The battery comes out and the battery tray is removed. You may have to work to find the bolts which hold it in. You can see three of them below. Ours had a bit of gunk down there which you want to clean up as much as possible while it is out. In our case we replaced the entire unit with a Wrangler NW Dual-Battery Tray at the same time. If you are planning to install either a dual-battery tray or a snorkel and have contemplated doing the other as well, it is a good time to kill two birds with one labor session. Be aware that these bolts may be difficult to remove. Also, mind the battery tray temperature sensor in the center of the battery tray.
Once you have the battery tray out, you can start to work on the airbox. You need to remove the factory intake horn, seal up the hole that gets left behind, and cut the hole for the new intake from the snorkel.
Remove the factory intake horn by roatating it 90 degrees and pulling it straight out. It is a good idea to clean the airbox up at this point if it has dirt on or in it. Most likely it will.
A metal faceplate is included with the ARB kit which you will rivet AND caulk to seal the opening left behind by the removal of the factory intake horn. You can simply place the faceplate onto the airbox, mark the holes, and drill each to 13/64". Make sure that it is positioned correctly. ARB does not provide a template for this - but as long as you are careful it is not necessary. Just make sure you seal it well.
As for the new intake, ARB includes a small paper template that you can tape right onto the air box to mark the new intake hole and the rivet holes to mount the new air intake. Don't worry, as long as you order the right unit that instake will clear your AC without any difficulty. It looks larger than it is.
We started by drilling the 13/64" holes for the rivets, then we used a Dremel Moto-Tool to cut this large hole. We used a large cutting bit which will both plunge cut and saw. It took me just a few minutes and it made a very clean hole. It was very easy to de-burr.
You are then ready to attach the faceplate and the new intake. Apply a liberal amount of silicone sealant onto the airbox surface, place the faceplate into position, and use the included rivets (and your own rivet tool) to attach the faceplate. Caulk this well. Do the same with the new intake. Let that silicone dry.
The next step will be the hardest for those folks that paint every scratch and nick that they pick up on the trail and is the "point of no return" in this installation.
You have to tape the large template (which was taped to the inside of the shipping box) to the passenger side of your Jeep. Make sure that it is lined up on the body seam. The ruler is to make sure it is level.
Note the three holes. The top and bottom holes are to be drilled to 5/32". Use a step bit (or work your way up from smaller to larger sizes) to make these clean. A Moto-Tool can be used to de-burr the edges. You can then use some touch-up paint to further prevent rust.
The larger hole is 3" (76mm). Use a hole-saw for this one and take your time. You will want to de-burr these edges, and then paint the exposed metal to prevent rust.
Your Jeep now has one big hole and two smaller ones in the passenger side. Congratulations! It is too late to bail out of the project now. Don't worry, it is going to look great and function well after you are all done.
The next step is to put the snorkel body into position, and drill the holes for the upper bracket whcih connects the snorkel body to the window frame. Insert the two threaded studs into the threaded holes at the base of the snorkel body. You can see the tube which is part of the snorkel body and passes through to the engine compartment.
Attach the upper bracket to the snorkel using the two screws included and place the body into position through the holes you just drilled. You can see the cutout on the inside of the snorkel body that allows it to sit over the AM antenna on the side of the Jeep.
Mark the position for the bracket where it meets the windshield frame using some masking tape, then remove the snorkel body and take off the upper bracket, and then put the bracket back into position where you marked it. You need to mark the three holes that will go into the window frame. When positioning this bracket, make sure that the door will not hit the backs of the bolts that hold the snorkel body in place when the door opens.
The kit provides three "hollow wall anchors" which you will be installing. These provide some spacing, and I suspect some shock absorbtion as well. Drill the holes for these to 5/16" inch and put the anchors in. Then secure the bracket onto the Jeep.
You can then mount the snorkel body to the Jeep by securing the two studs into the lower holes using the nuts and washers provided, and using the two included bolts to secure the snorkel body to the upper bracket.
I want to note here that we have a Sahara model here, which has that Sahara trim panel. We ended up using a Moto-Tool to cut a notch in that trim to allow the snorkel body to fit when it was in position. It's not difficult, but be aware that this may be an issue for Sahara owners. We really only needed to shave a hair of material.
You are almost done. Now come the two hardest parts. You need to relocate the vacuum reservoir, then you need to route the flexible duct that carries air from the snorkel body to the air box.
The vacuum reservoir is located under the battery tray, but will not allow the flexible duct to pass through. You need to find a location where it can be re-mounted somewhere on the firewall. It took a us few minutes, but we finally found a suitable location on the firewall. Once that is out of the way, you are ready to proceed.
You can see the relocated vac reservoir on the firewall below where the negative battery cable is.
The kit includes two lengths of rubber edging material. This is installed around the edges of the openings in the two supports that hold the battery tray. You would be surprised at how sharp some of the metal is down there. It may take a few minutes because it is not easy to reach in and see what you are doing. Expect to work mostly by feel. Once that edging is in there, you can route the flexible duct. It runs through those openings and connects to the tube on the snorkel body and to the tube on the new intake you installed on the factory air box.
As for connecting the flexible duct to the snorkel body - we found that to be the hardest part of the process simply because there isn't much room down there - it is again a case of working by feel. It is easiest to reach up from under the Jeep. Place the included hose clamp over the tube on the snorkel body, and then fit the flexible duct over the snorkel body. Having a second person who could watch from above while I worked from below made the tack easier. Once the flexible duct is in position, tighten the hose clamp.
View from under the Jeep
You can see the rubber edging where the hose goes through the battery-tray support and the hose clamp where the hose connects to the snorkel body.
We took the extra step of sealing the outside of this connection using silicone sealant. The installation instructions have the following warning clearly noted:
"IT IS THE INSTALLER'S RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE ALL CONNECTIONS ARE WATER TIGHT".
That is a good idea.
Once the lower connection was in place, we then hooked the flexible duct up to the air box. We put the airbox back in, and using a hose clamp as for the lower connection, did the same thing to the airbox.
We then attached the ram onto the top of the snorkel body using the black hose clamp provided.
That completes the installation of the Safari Snorkel. Aside from drilling that 3" hole, the installation is quite easy. Double check your hose connections, put the battery tray and battery back in, and you are ready to go when the sealant has dried.
As you can see, it looks good at Moab too!
Are there drawbacks to the Safari Snorkel? Only three minor ones that we could identify.
It can't be removed without leaving a 3" hole in the side of your Jeep. I don't know why you would ever want to remove it, but I wanted to make note as it could be a drawback for someone.
It limits you somewhat on your selection of aftermarket windshield-mounted light bars. You will need to make sure that the lightbar does not interfere with the ram or the snorkel body. We are looking for options which are known to work.
After installation, you can no longer EASILY remove the passengers-side door. The snorkel body has a cutout which fits over the upper door hinge. This is the only thing I personally did not like about the Safari Snorkel, but it my opinion the advantages far outweigh this inconvenience. Besides, if you are in water this deep you will appreciate having your doors on - especially with how cold the runoff is around here.
Of course, you can't use mirror movers with the snorkel on the passengers side, but if you don't take the doors off what does it matter?
You can remove the bolts holding the snorkel to the upper bracket and move it far enough to clear the door hinge, but this is not recommended. You can also shave the hinge bolt down to shorten it and make the process even easier - but again, this is not recommended.
If you can live with these issues then you won't have any issues with the Safari Snorkel. What you will gain is the ability to more safely take your Jeep into areas that a stock vehicle can not go. You still need to remember the principles of safely crossing water - and you should take other precautions such as an electric fan that you can manually shut off and sealing your distributor and other electrical components - but the peace of mind you gain from not having to worry about destroying your engine is well worth the time and investment of installing an ARB Safari Snorkel.
James Bell Jr.
For More Info On The Safari Snorkel:
ARB USA
720 SW 34th St
Renton WA 98055
800-761-8193 - Voice
425-264-1392 - FAX