DOUBLING DOWN

10,000-MILE TEST OF SY-KLONE'S SNORKEL PRE-FILTER

- Sean P. Holman

For those of you who have a snorkel on your 4x4 and have braved all the snorkel jokes out there about how deep the gutter to your local mall is, we know you are the enlightened ones. Of course, you know that snorkels have benefits beyond deep water crossings. You know that snorkels, such as the American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) offering on our Wrangler JL, get your intake out of the dense dust near the ground and up in a cleaner, cooler air.

Most snorkels are equipped with a ram-air intake head from the factory, but there are a number of bolt-on snorkel head upgrades that can give you even better performance by doubling down on air filtration without affecting engine performance. Our favorite among these snorkel heads is the Sy-Klone 9000 Series, which is available as an upgrade from AEV or through the company Snorkel Upgrade.

Unlike other pre-filters that require some sort of maintenance, such as emptying the dust out of a collector bowl, Sy-Klone's patented design requires zero maintenance. Shaped like a mushroom, the 9000 Series uses the suction from the intake tract to pull air from underneath the pre-filter into a chamber where there is a spinning rotor that provides cyclonic action. This causes the heavier-than-air particles, such as dust, to be pushed to the inside wall of the dome and ejected through an ejection slit on the side of the housing.

The result is a cooler, cleaner air charge that allows your primary air filter to be more efficient and last longer between servicing. Another benefit of the Sy-Klone 9000 Series design is that it keeps things like insects, leaves, snow, ice, and rain from entering and obstructing your intake path. In fact, the 9000 Series is so effective that it is standard on the military's JLTV and on a wide array of agriculture and mining equipment, and it's suitable for diesel and forced-induction applications.