If you plan on driving your ATV through deep water or mud, getting a snorkel on your machine is something you might want to consider. A snorkel will help keep water out of your engine, so you can get through some pretty nasty areas on the trail without damaging your ATV.
If you get yourself into some deep mud or water for too long, your engine could stall. Your air intake could take on water causing major problems and costly repairs. I’ve done this before, as you can see in the picture, and that quad didn’t have a snorkel on it.
Luckily I was able to shut the engine off before major damage was done, but still it ruined the day of riding for us. I need to be towed out of the muddy water, then we had to open the air box and wait for everything to dry out before we were able to get the quad running again. If that ATV had a snorkel, there would have been no problems.
Snorkeling your ATV is when you install a system onto your engine that will allow air to get where it needs to even in deeper water or mud. You will most likely see risers or stacks sticking up from the quad to capture or release air safely above the water line.
After you install a snorkel on your machine, the only part you need to worry about keeping above water is the opening of those stacks.
Snorkeling your ATV is most useful for getting though deep water or mud. It will keep water out of the most important parts of your engine that are only supposed to subject to air. Feeding clean air safely to your engine to keep you riding through wet environments.
The main components you will need to snorkel are the air box, your clutch belt intake, and clutch belt exhaust. The clutch belt intake and exhaust will both need their own snorkel. If you try to connect them, the intake will be getting the heat from the exhaust and will overheat and wear out your clutch belt.
You may want to snorkel your exhaust ports as well. If you’re giving the engine enough gas going through the water, that pressure should prevent any water from entering the exhaust.
But if by chance water does enter through your exhaust it could cause major problems. This will most likely happen if plan to sit idling in the water.
It’s also a good idea to water proof your electrical connections. I’ve heard of people snorkeling their electrical box, but that seems like overkill. The point is to just prevent water from getting to the electrical parts of the engine.
Other areas to snorkel might include thing like your crackcase breather tube or differential vents and carb vents. If you’ll be hitting the occasional mud pit or stream crossing, the air box, clutch belt, and electrical stuff need to be taken care of as well as the carb breather if your engine has a carburetor.
There are some pretty good kits available on the market for most machines. The snorkel kits will vary from quad to quad because they are all set up a bit differently. A snorkel kit will be more expensive than making your own, but will come with everything you need and make for an easier quicker install.
Plus the kits might even come with some kind of warranty.
You can use this link to find a Good ATV Snorkel Kit on Amazon. Just be sure to get the right one for your machine. They kits will vary a bit and the parts are custom made for each different engine.
I don’t need to go over installation here because the snorkel kits come with instructions that are really easy to follow along with. You will need some basic hand tools to get the snorkel kit installed and you’ll be all set.
Making your ATV snorkel can be fun and won’t cost you too much money either. I’ll admit, a lot times it won’t look as nice as the professional snorkel kits you can buy, but if you do it right it will work all the same.
The cheapest thing to use is just some good old pvc pipe. You can find pvc pipe at any home repair store like Home Depot or Lowes. It’s best to know the path you’re going to take first and plan out how many bends, how much pipe, and how many 90 degree connectors you will need.
First, locate your air box and see what you’re going to need to snorkel it. A lot of quads already come with a factory snorkel, they just don’t go very far. In this case you can hook some pvc right to that factory snorkel and just extend it up as high you’d like.
I’ve seen some people use pool hose to navigate around the engine easier than you could with pvc pipe. It looks a little raggedy with the duck tape and all in this picture, but i’m sure if you secure it right and use some better connectors you can get a decent looking snorkel system going.
If you have a carburetor on your engine, it’s pretty easy to just extend the carb breather tube that’s already existing on the quad. You can find little tube connectors at most auto parts stores like Napa or Autozone. The just get some tubing and extend the carb tube up to a safe area on the machine.
Do the same thing for the front and rear differential breather. These lines are usually already ran pretty high up onto the quad up near the handle bars.
But if you want them to be even further up out of the water it won’t hurt to extend them.
Snorkel kits or snorkeling your ATV may be illegal in some states. I think for the most part it’s allowed on private property either way. But some states don’t allow snorkeled machines on public land.
Check your local laws before riding any modified machines on public land.
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A snorkel kit can give you safe access to terrain that is currently unwise to tackle. But is the benefit worth it? And how do you install a snorkel kit on your ATV?
An ATV snorkel kit protects your engine from the dangers of water and mud by keeping the water away from the engine and feeding air in, so your ATV can keep working regardless of where you take it.
The most basic aspect of a snorkel system is to shield the engine and run the snorkel from the engine's air intake system up high to a new location away from any water or mud you may drive in.
This is the most crucial part of your machine to be protected, but because there are many other components that need to stay dry or to get air, snorkel kits often cover other vehicle parts as well. This will vary from kit to kit.
Installing a snorkel kit may sound like a no-brainer. Why wouldn't you want one? But there are some downsides to consider before you make a purchase.
You can more safely tackle mud and watery areas. Many places you need to avoid now because they'll be too deep for your machine will be available to you.
ATV are waterproof & breathable riding gear
Find out the items that suit your needs
You could get a false sense of security and still damage your machine. Snorkels can't provide 100% protection against water damage, they just greatly reduce it. So, you wouldn't want to act like your ATV is a submarine.
It is illegal to ride on public land with a snorkel kit in certain states.
You should be able to ride on private land anywhere, but before you add a snorkel, you'll need to determine if it will impact where you can ride.
You will need to add the snorkel system to your routine maintenance list to make sure it doesn't get cracks, start leaking, or develop some other surprise issue.
You'll have to cut holes in your body work to run the snorkel through.
If you don't install the snorkel system exactly right, you could seriously damage your ATV. Make sure you are 100% confident you can do the install or that you hire a pro to do it for you.
Snorkel kits need to be designed for your exact ATV model.
There are kits that come only with air intake snorkels and the parts you'll need to install those.
You can also find kits that include some combination of snorkels for transmission vents, belt drive areas, drive train differentials, exhaust, and more.
Snorkel kits also come in ram or cyclone/vortex styles.
The ram style forces air into the car as you ride. Any dirt and debris in that air is forced to the back of the snorkel where it escapes through holes or a dump valve. The cyclone style is made with a bowl-shaped head. The air swirls inside and dirt and debris collect in the sides of the bowl where they are farther away from the air filter.
Cyclone styles are better for your air filter but not as good for your power and fuel economy. So you'll have to decide whether the air filter, your power, or your fuel economy get top priority.
If you intend to drive your ATV in deep water or mud, you should seriously consider snorkeling your ATV. Make sure you install it correctly and that it is legal to ride a snorkeled ATV where you want to ride.
You should also make sure that snorkeling your particular machine will benefit you. The ATV should have a rated wading depth, telling you the machine has been proven to be relatively safe against water at that depth.
If your machine has no rated wading depth, your machine may have no built-in protection against water and a snorkel can't provide as much protection as you need.
Make sure to buy a kit that is designed for your specific ATV.
Partially assembled kits are easier to install. You might want to look for one of those.
If you do plenty of riding outside of the mud where tipping and rollovers might be more likely, you may need to purchase a snorkel kit with a crash plate to offer the benefit of protecting your vehicle should the snorkel be ripped off in an accident.
Invest in at least a moderately-priced snorkel kit from a trusted brand. This is too important to rely on cheap, unreliable parts.
The kit should include all the parts you need and detailed instructions. Be sure before you begin.
You'll probably need to remove both of the side panels on your machine.
This may require the removal of other parts, depending on your machine.
Spray the engine and the air intake area with degreaser.
Pressure wash the engine, clutch covers, and intake area.
Dry the area completely with compressed air.
You may need to remove and clean other components depending on your machine and the kit.
You will need to drill holes for the snorkel. The exact location will depend on the snorkel and your machine.
There will be couplers you need to install.
These steps will probably need to be repeated for more parts, depending on your kit.
Give your snorkels extra support by zip-tying them.
Replace the parts of your machine that you removed.
You will need to give your ATV a test ride and make sure it isn't running lean because you've increased the air flow. If so, you can install a reducer on the appropriate snorkel or reset to compensate for increased airflow.
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In the category "A" we regularly acquaint readers with new products from the world of ATVs .
.. But this time we will not talk about another four-wheeled creation but about the eternal. About snorkels for ATV. Who does not know, such a refinement can turn any all-terrain vehicle into a submarine.
Dmitry Zlenko
Farewell, guarantee!
For all its seeming simplicity at first glance (a kind of complexity: put a pipe on the air filter housing and pull it up), installing snorkels on ATVs is fraught with a lot of nuances. And before deciding on this, we recommend that the ATV owner think hard about whether he needs it? Firstly, if the ATV is freshly bought, then the withdrawal of "breathing tubes" promises to remove it from the warranty. From the point of view of a dealer who provides technical support for an all-terrain vehicle, such a refinement is nothing more than interference with the design and violation of the factory specification of the product. Here it can be objected that, they say, such tuning does not harm, but quite the contrary - it helps to improve the parameters of the technique, because when fording fords, water ingress into the engine and variator is excluded, and air filter pollution is also reduced.
Fair. But only in part. If, when installing an external air intake, the docking seams were not perfectly sealed, then during the first immersion, water will be in the system, wet the air filter, it, in turn, will become limp, tear and dust will begin to be sucked into the combustion chamber without hindrance. A few kilometers - and thick smoke will pour out of the exhaust pipe of the ATV, which will become an unequivocal indication of the piston bulkhead.
But even if the stem is soldered properly, the motor can be killed due to the wrong diameter of the snorkel. A pipe that is too small in diameter results in the fact that the right amount of air is not supplied to prepare the correct combustible mixture, as a result of which the mixture is too rich. The fuel does not burn completely, soot forms on the spark plug and on the valve seats, and this eventually leads to the fact that, due to soot, the valves will not close tightly and burn out completely. It is believed that for ATVs with an engine capacity of 300 to 500 "cubes" the diameter of the snorkel pipe should be approximately 50 mm, for all-terrain vehicles with an engine capacity of 600 to 800 "cubes" the diameter should be at least 63 mm.
I don't have enough air...
However, even a perfectly matched snorkel diameter is not a guarantee of good ATV performance after tuning. The fact is that when removing the air intake, it is necessary to install a so-called air receiver near the air filter, the volume of which is calculated by the formula: engine cubic capacity multiplied by five. Say, if the engine displacement is 500 cc, then the volume of the installed receiver should be 2.5 liters. This air reservoir is necessary so that when the throttle is pressed sharply, the ATV does not stall due to lack of air, as well as for the stable operation of the “fiery heart” at high speeds. The fact is that at a crankshaft rotation speed of 4000-5000 rpm, the air flow speed in the intake manifold reaches as much as 500-600 km/h. Provided that the length of the "breathing tube" has grown at least 30-40 times compared to the standard dimensions of the air intake, it is not possible to quickly pump the required amount of "oxygen" at such a speed through a narrow tube.
CVT in danger
Another subtlety of ATV snorkeling is that the air intake is needed not only for the motor, but also for the CVT. Unlike most automotive transmissions (manual and automatic), CVTs are 99 percent of the time on ATVs. And this type of transmission needs good forced cooling, for which manufacturers install cooling inlet and outlet pipes. If you do not snorkel the variator, then water will get into this knot when storming a deep ford, the variator belt slips and the quadric will not go anywhere else. The air intakes of the variator must be made quite large in diameter. The minimum diameter of the snorkel tube must be 55 mm. Ideally - 63 mm. If you make a pipe of a smaller diameter, then on an average 500cc ATV, overheating of the variator with the melting of the variator weights and tearing the belt into flaps will happen after about an hour and a half of active driving. The inlet and outlet snorkel of the CVT cooling system must be of the same diameter - this will provide the unit with the best possible ventilation.
Off-road psychoanalysis
But not only for the above reasons, sellers remove snorkel quads from the warranty. The presence of an external air intake is like a litmus test, by which you can accurately determine how frostbitten the owner of the ATV is in terms of operation. If there is a snorkel, then the owner of the ATV regularly and with pleasure lets the equipment go all out, almost not sparing it. Under such a rider, not only will the ATV break down, the Soviet tank will beg for mercy! So what's the guarantee?
Do not dive from the hot
After all, what is the logic: if you have a snorkel, then you can dive into any ford with acceleration. However, do not forget that the quadric is full of oil seals. When the vehicle travels on a dry surface, all the rubber seals of the motor and gearboxes get quite hot. And when the ATV is dipped into cold water at full speed, the seals instantly compress and let the h3O through.
An emulsion is formed, the parts of the gearboxes and the motor will soon become unusable.
In addition, snorkeling without taking the radiator to the top does not make much sense, since diving into the swamp slurry, we will clog the radiator cells with dirt, which in turn will inevitably lead to overheating of the power unit. So it turns out that seemingly harmless “improvement” entails a bunch of problems.
In connection with all of the above, many have probably uttered the rhetorical question: "to snorkel or not to snorkel - that's the question." If you have a new ATV and you are counting on a warranty, then remote air intakes are definitely not for you. If you don’t believe in a used garage or a free repair under warranty, then snorkels can be quite a useful thing. The only thing is that they need to be installed by competent specialists, coupled with the removal of the radiator. Naturally, it should be remembered that water procedures must be taken measuredly, avoiding sudden cooling of the seals (as we already know, this leads to water getting inside the motor and gearboxes).
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12.04.2018
7 90 consequences, then you need to prepare the equipment, in a special way protecting engine from moisture. Without special training, crossing the next shallow river, a water hammer may occur, followed by an oil change and costly repairs. In order not to be exposed to such danger, experienced ATVs install a snorkel.
the working functioning of the ATV engine when overcoming water obstacles and driving on dusty roads. And also the snorkel will help to significantly cool air and ensure that it enters the filter or variator. Due to such Cooling increases the power of the ATV and significantly saves fuel. In addition to all the useful properties, the snorkel will give your ATV more aesthetic look.
It is clear that the installation of a snorkel is an important and necessary procedure for hard use of the ATV.
But before making a decision to the installation, you must take into account that the removal of the air sampling pipes threatens to lose factory warranty for new equipment. Since tampering with the device breathing system of an ATV is considered a violation of the factory parameters of the ATV.
But if the ATV is not new or you are not afraid of loss warranty and you still decide to install a snorkel, follow a number of our recommendations:
- make sure that there is a complete sealing, otherwise at the first deep puddle, moisture will penetrate into system and wet the air filter, causing dust to be sucked in and subsequent breakdown with piston repair;
- choose the right diameter snorkel tube . For 300-500 cc ATVs, we recommend using a 50 mm tube, and for more powerful 600-800 cc ATVs - at least 63 mm. With the wrong when choosing a tube, the valves may burn out;
- do not forget to install the air receiver.
This is a container with a small supply of air, which may be needed when you sharply press on gas so that your ATV does not stall at high speeds;
- almost 100% of all-terrain vehicles have CVTs and their must also be provided with a cool air flow. This is necessary in order to so that when overcoming a deep-water obstacle, the ATV does not get up "Tightly" due to water getting on the variator belt;
- note that the snorkel must be installed without radiator extension up does not make sense, because in a deep ford, the radiator cells can become clogged dirt. This will lead to inevitable overheating of the units and constant complex washing equipment.
The snorkel is a must have for your ATV. He will allow you to overcome a deep ford, without fear of driving on a dusty off-road, as well as give additional power due to a more cooled air. Remember that equipping a new ATV with a snorkel deprives you of guarantees. Consider all practical advice during installation.
