Snorkel Pre-Cleaners
06-23-2016, 05:22 PM
#1
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Snorkel Pre-Cleaners
When I purchased my JK a year and a half ago, someone had been nice enough to install an AEV snorkel. Not sure if I would've spent my money on it, but i'll gladly let a previous owner throw down the cash.
Anyways, we are all aware of the supposed benefits touted by snorkel manufacturers:
My snorkel came with the "ram air" top, essentially just a hole facing forward. Looks cool, but I've always questioned its ability with the 3rd point. I live in a pretty dusty area down here, many sandy/dirt roads, lots of dust when off-roading, etc. My latest air filter has been in for 5k miles and is already very dirty and has quite a few bugs/ debris sucked into it. No bueno.
I decided to research and procure a prefilter and while doing so, ran into a few snags. Hopefully this will help out a few of you if you choose to go down this route.
First, I have a gen II AEV snorkel. Meaning the intake tube is 4" diameter. Gen I and most other snorkels seem to be 3-3.5" diameter. That leads to a limited selection of pre-filters. The common old style, clear bowl pre filters come in the nice 7" size for 3" tubes, but 4" tubes require bumping to a 10.6" diameter pre cleaner. This isn't that much of an issue, as it turns out they flow much better. The Donaldson pre-cleaner is rated at 339CFM. Compared to the 7" filters are all closer to 250ish CFM. BTW, according to calculations, a 3.6l motor at WOT in high RPMs is capable to ingesting around 350-375cfm. Now, does our motor do that? I have no idea. But, wouldn't want the to restrict that airflow if can help it.
Now, I went a head and purchased the cleaner, mounted it and immediately knew I'd made a mistake. It's huge. Mounted, it stuck out further than my mirror. Not a fan. Driving? No difference, in sound or power. Very happy about that at least. I came home, boxed it up and returned it.
Pro: Cheap. $45? shipped? I like the look of the clear bowl. Proven effective.
Con: Huge. Looks too big. Have to manually empty. Only 75% efficient. Sits above roofline
Next, I looked some more. AEV's precleaner is from Sy-klone. It's uses air to separate out the dirt, then ejects the heavy particles (sand, snow, etc) out a small slit. No need to empty it. It's also much more compact. Odd thing though, from everything I've read (someone can correct me if I'm mistaken), AEV uses a Sy-clone 9001 prefilter. This works on a 4" tube, but is only rated for 100-275CFM. That seems low. Sy-klone does offer a 9001R, same diameter, actually a tad shorter, but rated at 275-350CFM. I searched high and low, only place I could find to purchase a 9001R was directly from Sy-clone. They have a warehouse about 1.5 hrs from here, so a quick call got the job done.
Pros: It's much nicer proportioned.
Cons: Much more expensive. Might require a slight modification.
Donaldson vs Sy-klone
Bottom of the sy-klone
Terrible shot of it mounted
When bottomed out, the edge of the cleaner touches the a-pillar. I thought of trimming the cleaner. For now, I just raised it up so it puts a gap between it and a-pillar and i'll keep an eye on it.
the exit for the heavy particles, facing rearward.
I have not yet driven with the 9001R installed yet. Not expecting to notice anything, except hopefully a cleaner airfilter.
Anyways, we are all aware of the supposed benefits touted by snorkel manufacturers:
- Higher water fording capability
- Lower air intake temperatures
- Less dust and debris being sucked into the air filter
My snorkel came with the "ram air" top, essentially just a hole facing forward. Looks cool, but I've always questioned its ability with the 3rd point. I live in a pretty dusty area down here, many sandy/dirt roads, lots of dust when off-roading, etc. My latest air filter has been in for 5k miles and is already very dirty and has quite a few bugs/ debris sucked into it. No bueno.
I decided to research and procure a prefilter and while doing so, ran into a few snags. Hopefully this will help out a few of you if you choose to go down this route.
First, I have a gen II AEV snorkel. Meaning the intake tube is 4" diameter. Gen I and most other snorkels seem to be 3-3.5" diameter. That leads to a limited selection of pre-filters. The common old style, clear bowl pre filters come in the nice 7" size for 3" tubes, but 4" tubes require bumping to a 10.6" diameter pre cleaner. This isn't that much of an issue, as it turns out they flow much better. The Donaldson pre-cleaner is rated at 339CFM. Compared to the 7" filters are all closer to 250ish CFM. BTW, according to calculations, a 3.6l motor at WOT in high RPMs is capable to ingesting around 350-375cfm. Now, does our motor do that? I have no idea. But, wouldn't want the to restrict that airflow if can help it.
Now, I went a head and purchased the cleaner, mounted it and immediately knew I'd made a mistake. It's huge. Mounted, it stuck out further than my mirror. Not a fan. Driving? No difference, in sound or power. Very happy about that at least. I came home, boxed it up and returned it.
Pro: Cheap. $45? shipped? I like the look of the clear bowl. Proven effective.
Con: Huge. Looks too big. Have to manually empty. Only 75% efficient. Sits above roofline
Next, I looked some more. AEV's precleaner is from Sy-klone. It's uses air to separate out the dirt, then ejects the heavy particles (sand, snow, etc) out a small slit. No need to empty it. It's also much more compact. Odd thing though, from everything I've read (someone can correct me if I'm mistaken), AEV uses a Sy-clone 9001 prefilter. This works on a 4" tube, but is only rated for 100-275CFM. That seems low. Sy-klone does offer a 9001R, same diameter, actually a tad shorter, but rated at 275-350CFM. I searched high and low, only place I could find to purchase a 9001R was directly from Sy-clone. They have a warehouse about 1.5 hrs from here, so a quick call got the job done.
Pros: It's much nicer proportioned.
Cons: Much more expensive. Might require a slight modification.
Donaldson vs Sy-klone
Bottom of the sy-klone
Terrible shot of it mounted
When bottomed out, the edge of the cleaner touches the a-pillar. I thought of trimming the cleaner. For now, I just raised it up so it puts a gap between it and a-pillar and i'll keep an eye on it.
the exit for the heavy particles, facing rearward.
I have not yet driven with the 9001R installed yet. Not expecting to notice anything, except hopefully a cleaner airfilter.
06-24-2016, 03:30 AM
#3
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06-24-2016, 04:00 AM
#4
JK Junkie
I'v got the clear bowl from RR. I think it was $50 no problems. My wife laughs when it gets stuff in it because it just spins around and around. I went down some overgrown trails up in NH last week I managed to get small spaghetti roots in it. I personally like it.
06-24-2016, 02:31 PM
#7
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The pre filter is definitely better when traveling dusty roads.
