2024 Toyota LandCruiser 79 GXL: Scavenger snorkel

Air-intake snorkels for 4×4 vehicles have evolved considerably over the years but at the end of the day they are all designed to do the same job: to supply clean dry air to the intake of the engine in a way that is better than the OEM setup.

Some 4×4 specialist OEMs take off-road use in to consideration when designing the intakes on their vehicles, and many of them offer an intake snorkel as an accessory, but more often than not the OEM will call it a ‘raised air intake’ rather than a snorkel, and the inclusion of such a device does not raise or change the quoted safe wading depth of the vehicle.

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While fabricated metal intake snorkels have become more popular over recent years, traditional plastic snorkels have also evolved to supply more air to the engine, with the higher-quality brands using optimised plastics and flow-tested designs to ensure longevity of their products in harsh environments and the best airflow to the engine. And yes, even these evolved products just do the same old job of providing clean air to the engine’s airbox.

It was with much interest that we saw a different looking intake snorkel fitted to a LandCruiser at the 2024 Melbourne 4×4 Show. The snorkel was an early prototype of an all-new product from Scavenger Advanced Air Filtration and, while it appears to follow a familiar design at first look, there’s a lot more to it.

Built better

Scavenger came from a need to create a better way to get clean air into the engines of 4×4 vehicles, at a time when there was a lot of talk about ‘dusting’ in Toyota diesel engines and perceived problems with the OEM intake system.

Dusting is a term used to describe what happens when dust and grit gets past the air filter that is in the airbox, and then into the engine itself. Once this dust gets into the engine it can make its way into the cylinders and score the bores, which was a problem being found in affected engines.

Scavenger Advanced Air Filtration is a part of Western Australian company Work Air Technologies, a leader in the business of cabin filtration, particularly in mining vehicles. Scavenger started looking more closely at the problems occurring in diesel engines and the best way to remedy them.

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Cabin filtration is of utmost importance for the health and safety of workers in the mining industry and Work Air Technologies is the leader in this space. The company uses Freudenburg filters for this important work and these are regarded as some of the best in the business.

The company’s testing of OEM intakes and airboxes showed that the problem of dusting was coming from deformation of the OEM panel filter element due to the pressure put on it when the engine was under load. This flex in the OE filter allowed dust to get around the edges of the panel, so the problem was not with the airbox itself as many had claimed.

Freudenburg’s solution was a replacement panel filter that is much more rigid than the OE part, and is one that doesn’t deform and allow anything to enter the engine that doesn’t pass through the filter itself.

The testing done by Work Air Technologies revealed that there was more that could be done to reduce the amount of contaminants that get through to the filter itself, and this led to the development of Scavenger Advanced Air Intake Systems, or put simply, Scavenger Snorkels.

Clean air

With standard and most aftermarket intake snorkels, the air coming down the snorkel body and hitting the filter panel is unfiltered and it can contain a lot of grit and contaminants.

The Scavenger Snorkel is claimed to remove up to 75 per cent of those contaminants – be they dust, grit or even water droplets – from the intake tract before they get a chance to hit the filter panel. It does this in a couple of ways.

The intake of the Scavenger Snorkel bolts to the A-pillar just like most other snorkels but the opening in the head faces across the windscreen where it draws pressure-fed air that has hit the screen.

Upon entering the Scavenger Snorkel, the air passes through a section of cyclonic pre-separators that remove the contaminants from the air charge. As the contaminants and air move down the body of the snorkel, the contaminants are siphoned off to the atmosphere so that they don’t reach the airbox or filter at all.

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This siphoning-off occurs through a port with a hose that runs down to the OE fan shroud where contaminants are sucked out using the vacuum generated by the engine’s cooling fan. It seems simple but it took plenty of development and engineering to get right, and it allows Scavenger to make that claim regarding a 75 per cent reduction in dust and water droplets reaching the airbox.

Once the pre-filtered intake charge reaches the Freudenburg filter in the OE airbox, the filter itself has fewer contaminants to contain, which also reduces the amount of dust that builds up in and on the filter itself. The Freudenberg filter then purifies the air, ensuring that only the cleanest air reaches the engine for efficient and long-lasting performance.

The Scavenger Snorkel is manufactured in Australia using a UV stable, high-gloss polyethylene material that is made to withstand the climatic conditions of the Australian outback. Work Air Technologies supplies a limited lifetime warranty on Scavenger Snorkels. The intake face panel is aluminium and is available in a range of finishes to suit your vehicle. Also included with the kit are comprehensive fitting instructions, installation templates, required hoses and adapters, and quality hardware to complete the install.

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Extensive airflow and durability testing of the snorkel and filter were done in the development stage to ensure airflow is maintained and is in fact better than that delivered by the OE set up.

At present there are Scavenger Snorkels available to suit both the VDJ and GDJ 70 Series LandCruisers, the Toyota N80 HiLux and the 2022-on Ford Everest and Ranger models.

We chose to have our good friends at Marks 4WD do the installation on our VDJ79 LandCruiser. Marks is a distributor for Scavenger Snorkels and it took the guys there a good half day to remove the OE Toyota snorkel and complete the Scavenger installation.

Anyone who has driven a 70 Series with the factory raised air intake will know how much noise the intake creates, both induction and wind noise. Driving our Cruiser with the factory intake to Marks in the morning, and then out of there in the afternoon, was like chalk and cheese; both intake and wind noise were reduced significantly, making the cabin a much quieter place to travel in.

We hit the highway and got the Cruiser up to 100km/h and still there was almost no wind noise coming from the snorkel, resulting in a huge improvement in driving comfort.

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World’s best filter

The Scavenger Snorkel system features the highest efficiency filter on the market, designed to capture submicron particles that standard filters miss, thereby enhancing engine longevity.

Freudenberg filters are known for their superior quality, offering excellent flow, filtration efficiency and durability. Using advanced multi-layered media technology, these filters effectively capture a wide range of particles, from coarse dust to fine pollutants. The high-performance synthetic fibres with electrostatic surface charging optimise airflow while maximising particle retention. Head to freudenberg-filter.com.au for more information.