first off i like the look of a snorkle...but i'll never have my front in burried in water..that said..does a snorkle give much more benefit than a normal CAI...looking at that mod but i want whats best for my engine...any help or opinions would be appreciated

 

neither is really good for your engine as far as peformance goes. you're not going to be like "WOW" but if you want to make your engine loud therefore making it feel 'good' then get the CAI or HAI

 

I have run both...

AirRaid CAI - it has an awesome growl if you like it and at times a nice little turbo whistle. The issues is that it is pretty open to the hot engine bay temps but performance was improved over the stock box. I noticed with some mild off-road trips in water my pre-filter was a little damp from water spray. Some modifications you could enclose the box a little better to protect against water spray. Also, I have seen a few lads on trips just splashing into some water have there CAI filter soaked.

Snorkel - I found with a AFe drop-in filter and my snorkel it has just as much if not more grunt than the CAI as you are drawing in a lot Colder air and your not drawing in any warm engine bay air. The biggest benefit is way less chance of hydrolocking than a CAI and it looks cool and you get lots of comments about it!

 

I don't know if many people know but, when you get a snorkel and you do water sports, you really need to extend everything that will be submerged or buying the snorkel is absolutely useless.

 

What do ya mean by Extend? Like waterproofing?

 

Raising your differential breathers and transfer case breather, and in the case of the automatics, another transmission breather. Just some fuel line will do it. A few writeups on the subject are available. I think making sure your electrical components are well sealed too.

 

I ride a lot of dirt roads in AZ so I justified the Snorkel as more of a relocation of the air intake and less of a water fording upgrade.

Besides filling up the inside of the jeep with water, your most likely issue is getting water into your crankcase/Transmission and getting the ignition system wet when crossing water. To seal both is a HUGE undertaking.

And please never cross water that is moving past a snails pace. 2" of water will take you off your feet and drown you. Not much more than that will start to push a car down stream!!!.

 

Yep very simple job to extend your diff breather tubes, transfer case and tranny. Maybe 1 hr and about 20ft of fuel line, some hose clamps and a few zipties and ensure your stock box has been siliconed and sealed!

 

agreed - about 1 hour like what Triplejeep said and my daughter helped me with it. She's more into wheeling than my boys.