Jeep
Grand Cherokee ZJ
Snorkel
As
you may know the
snorkel for the Jeep Grand Cherokee is expensive
and hard to
find. I hate to spend my money on parts that cost a lot and give me
little by
way of return.. Meaning, why spend $400 when I can spend $40? So when
it came time to put a snorkel on my rig, I decided to go at it
in typical Swampy fashion - CHEAP. I started long ago with a cold
air intake.
You will have to start by removing your stock airbox.
Go to Lowes, Home Depot or a similar hardware store and pick up the
following: 4--90º angles, 3--45º angles and two
compression fittings along
with about
15' of 2" PVC. You'll also need an empty paint can (they sell them in
the paint
dept.)
Go home and get ready...
Start
by cutting a hole
through the fender right about here...
That
is just in front of
the washer reservoir. That is a temp gauge
lead
running across there.
Then
I cut a slightly
bigger hole on the outside of the fender so that
the 90º would fit inside.
I
ran mine along the
fender and then turned it up, then spun it and routed it along the
windshield.
Then
I put another
45º at
the top and a 90º along with a 2<4" adapter
for a cap.
So
that finishes the
outside... Once I got it all fitted together I
glued it together. Be careful, there is no turning back if it's
assembled wrong.
I
painted it white to
make it match my Zebra paint job.
Now
onto the inside... I
took a paint can and cut a hole in the top and
the bottom. I used the compression type fittings and put the nut on the
inside and tightened it as much as I could. Then I used black caulk
around the edges to seal it.
Do this on the top and bottom. I don't have a clear picture of this
step but I have this...
You
can see that its just
a union sticking out of the can lid, which is
on the inside so that you can change filters.
Then it just hooks up to the rubber intake tube and onto my stock
throttle body cover (this one came off a
Honda CRX.
)
I
used black caulk on
every single seam. There are absolutely no leaks
in the system. It's so tight that if I hold my hand over the inlet, the
engine will choke out and stall..
The underhood stuff will be unique based on what intake tube you use.
Like I said, mine is from an 88 CRX.
As
a bit of add on, I am
not happy with the thickness of the paint can.
The 5.2L engine is very strong and I can hear the can wrinkle when
there is force (acceleration) on it. So I made another trip to the bone
yard and picked up this.
It's
the airbox out of a
Hyundai Elantra. I can use the filters for
that unit instead of finding one to fit in a paint can. I will take
more photos when I get it finished up.
I need to cut the tabs off of it and seal the box.
Oh
... And no snorkel
installation is complete without a way for the
exhaust to get out, so I did this:
It
is removable so I can
still look like a pimp around town.
And
that's my snorkel
project. Let me know if you have any questions.
Carl
