Took me a minute to see it honestly.. haha. Should be fine

 

is that actually a dome top? if so, where did you get it, and how much?

looking @ doing the exact same location but completely sealed, non-stock cone filter canister inside. I just need something to feed the cone filter.

 

where can i get it, and how much? i wanted to do a snorkel but i didnt want the one that u had to cut the fender.

 

The xj or tj snorkel? The xj's snorkel is a.......cereal bowl. I'm working on the writeup right now so I'll have pictures up soon.

 

Ok I finally am bored enough to make this write-up. This is how you install a Home-Depot snorkel for about $60.

This is what you will need:



What's not in the picture is CrankCase hose from advance auto parts. They have a bunch of hoses in the back and I chose the 1/2" hose. It's like $3 something for 2 feet of it.



I ended up using two 90 degree elbows instead of one cuz I made some last minute changes to the airbox mod. I also had 4 feet of PVC laying around to use so you may have to buy some pvc. I would say two feet is enough for this mod.

Now to start it off you need to measure and measure and measure to find where you want to put the hole and then remove the cowl cover and drill. I didn't really follow my own directions, i just pointed at a spot and drilled a hole.



It has rubber hose around the cut so i did not end up slitting my wrist and be listed as suicidal. To fit the hose around it, and this is what you use to get the crankcase hose around it too, is to slit the outside of the hose and slide it over the cut:

 

Like all men wish to say, One hole down, two to go.

Next comes the firewall hole. Time to drill another one. Find a spot where you feel a hole would look nice and DRILL:



I left the cut piece attached and just bent it back and painted it. I wanted the option to possibly return this to somewhat stock-ish so that can just be bent back and sealed up.

Check to make sure the hose fits in the hole. You know size does matter in this case.



Now would be the time to paint over the freshly cut holes to prevent them from rusting.

Next we take out the air box to drill hole # 3. This takes a bit of time to get the hole where it fits the best cuz there some junk to the right of the airbox that needs to be moved. Find the spot where you want the 90 degree elbow to enter the box and outline it. Cut the hole with whatever you please, and in this case I used a dremel. The hole saw I have is too big for the elbow so you have to custom-cut this hole. No biggie, easy job.



See, fits like a glove:





Now that you got all the holes drilled, it's time to get the flex hose and snorkel built to be installed.

In the parts picture, you'll see a long 8 ft section of flex hose and two 3" alum adapter fittings or whatever they are called. Put on fitting on each end of the hose and seal it up with silicone:



After you got both ends done, cut a 3" piece of pvc and silicone it on one end over the fitting:



While you got the silicone out, seal up the elbow on the air box:



and also seal up all the little holes on the bottom of the air box and make a cover for the factory intake hole on front. I used aluminum sheet metal and cut a square piece to fit over the hole and then siliconed it on.

 

Now is the hardest part of the entire mod, building the snorkel cap.

This is what it will turn out looking like:



I breezed through this part and didn't take enough pictures but it's actually pretty simple to do. You need to make 3 angled brackets out of 1/2" x 5" strips of whatever steel you prefer. I used some leftover steel from my RC build. Bend them up so they are all the time angles and lengths and then bolt them around the inside of the pvc using two screws per bracket:



Once that's done position the bracket/pvc in the middle of whatever cap you choose and use jb-weld to attach them. Let it dry overnight.





All done:



Will the JB hold? Hell yeah! I can twist the entire thing off the jeep just by grabbing the cap. It's not gonna fall apart for sure.

Now it's time to take all these parts out and install them:

 

You remember that extra 90 degree fitting I got (the one on the table)? Put the newly fabbed up snorkel cap into that fitting. Do not seal this up. This is the removable part of the snorkel. Route the flex hose with the alum fitting through the fire wall and up out of the cowl. Next take that flex hose with the aluminum adapter at the end and silicone it into the other end of the 90 degree fitting. Once that's somewhat dry, push everything back into the the cowl hole. It's difficult but do-able. Take your time.

While the fitting is almost completely in the hole, take that crankcase hose and put silicone on the inside of it through the cut section you made. Place it around the cut. I left on the rubber hose that was already on there previously.



You can use silicone or whatever you have to seal up the 90 degree fitting to the crankcase hose. I used RTV silicone that I use for my diffs.

Now You can reinstall the airbox and attach the other end of the flex hose to the 90 degree fitting:



All done:




Think you were done with cutting? Nope, one more thing. You will probably know the cowl cover won't fit now so you need to cut it to fit. Measure 32 times cut once:





Now all the hard stuff is done. It's time to touch it up and make it somewhat pretty:

I used regular paint to paint over the RTV that was grey:





All done:



Now you can leave the flex hose as is, that's up to you. I chose to get rid of the shiny chrome-like look under the hood and used exhaust wrap over it. It also keeps the air cool as it flows to your intake:



i still have to remove it and re-do the exhaust wrap so it's nice and neat. It's tough to wrap when it's new.

 

Hey mud, where does the kitty go? He was in the parts pic.

 

The cat was the parts inspector. She tested the sharpness of the hole saw just to be sure it was gonna cut well and by the looks of her, it seems sharp.

 

Sounds just like my shop cat.

 

Hey this is a great idea. Do you carry the extension with you for "deep water" fording? I've got a K&N and it doesn't have an "air box" but I think I could just rotate it, build a small box for it and/or just shove the filter into a larger flex hose, and then I'd have the stock air box area open for a second battery mod. I'd just have to make sure it seals up good and can be opened for cleaning the filter. Thanks for the write up!

 

That totally looks cool

 

Would have done that but down here in FL. i still have water crashing over my hood and right onto the cowl.....

Either way VERY clean setup......

 

i like the way it looks but i dont know bout you guys but every time i go into deep water it flows over the hood lol. And with that being right at hood level it would flow straight into it idk