okay, i have a 1977 f150 4x4 that will be my off-road and mud play toy. i am looking to put a snorkel on the truck to keep from having drowning problems when i get deep in the water crossing creeks and going through the deep holes round here. does anyone have any advice or sites that sell a general snorkel kit that i could adapt to my truck???

 

The air intake is located so high up that if you're running larger tires, you're highly unlikely to get water into the intake. You'd have to be submerged to the top of the hood pretty much. One thing you could do that would be simple is to disconnect the air supply hose from the shroud in front and attach a 90 degree angle to it and mount it to the inside of the engine bay. Put a drain hold in the bottom of it and tilt is slightly forwards so water will go out that hole instead of down the tube if you do happen to get any in there. I'd be more worried about screwing up the engine electronics going any deeper anyway.

 

One place that does not get too much water is the inside of the cab. Chances are, if you are creating a mud truck you dont need a heater or even a blower motor on the firewall. That being said, removal of these items provides, or leaves a rather large hole in the firewall. It is a perfect place to plumb the intake supply into. Mount your air filter inside and you should have few problems.

 

haha well the holes round here that my buddies and i go to are pretty deep. so i have no dought that i could submerge it to the top of the hood, but with that said, i have seen on some trucks and on some heavy equipment what i would call a mushroom style snorkle, or air filter. do you think that, if i can get my hands on one of those, i would be able to modify it to be useful on my truck? the main thing im corried about is splash up. i plan to run some flaps to try and conseal all the splash to the fender wells but that is about impossible. now as to keeping the electronics waterproffed, how could i go about that? because i had problems with that in my other ford that i had due to the fact that ford runs regular distributors and not HEI. well that and the caps are not water tight on the distributor. any ideas?

 

The difference between caps is minimal, and HEI style caps still get wet causing problems. You can purchase an HEI dizzy if you really want one, but dont expect it to do any better than your electrocib dizzy you have now.
Move your electronics inside where it stays reasonably dry.

If you are all that concerned about wet electronics, here is a trick:

Next time the wife has a Tuperware party, become a good customer. Purchase some containers that will provide enough room for your electronic pieces to fit into. Place a a hole in the container large enough to fit a water tight fitting and install the fitting. These fittings can be found in any hardware store.
Install place your electronic device inside of the Tuperware and sandwich the container between the device and the place where you will mount the device. The device itself will become the anchor that holds the Tuperware in place. The only holes in the Tuperware will be the mounting holes for the electronic device. They will actually act like a gasket and provide a seal.
Ok, so you have a Tuperware container with some sort of electronic box inside, something like your MSD box. Now when you have a need to turn your ride into a submarine you can install the lid on the Tuperware and you have a watertight seal. THis will keep water out of your electronics during your scuba adventures.
Keep in mind that all electronics develop heat, and greater demand items demand far more heat than other low draw units. That being said the cover has to be removed once in a while so that the electronic component does not overheat and fail.

For the Dizzy, you can seal the cap with rtv. You will have to leave provisions for a vent, but the vent can be routed higher than the top of the cap. Often a small loop is placed in the vent preventing water from entering the cap, yet still allowing the change in temps under the cap from building pressure. Cover the cap with something similar to that cover in that pic above. That was donated from an 80's Mustang and works well for keeping some moisture out of the MSD billet Dizzy that I use.
Also in the pic above, that piece sitting on top of the carb is exactly the piece that is reuired to build any type of snorkle system. If you really want something that sticks out of the hood or some stuff like that, you will still need to secure a hose to the top of the carb. That is the tricky part.

If you are running with a group of guys that are finding success already, why not copy on of their ideas?
What are they using? More times than not, using an existing idea is much easier than trying to re invent the wheel.

What have you done for differntial vents, transmission vents, and t-case vents?
How about the fan for the radiator? Using a special alternator for your underwater advantures????????