JDMJim I know what ur saying about more air means more fuel to burn but a mod like this does work. I did this on my last car, a 1996 Grand Am GT with a 3.1 v6. Snorkel removed and at the time was using the Fram AirHog filter and saw a whopping 1.3 mpg gain on pure city driving.

As far as the engine taking in more air, well how restrictive is the stock intake is the first ? The car takes in the same amount of air weather stock or modified up to a certain point of throttle opening. After that the effects of a low restriction intake gives the car more air than the stock setup allowed.

I'm debating this as well cuz it has worked for me personally on previous cars. Not to mention the added benefit of the increase throttle response and deeper intake sound. I'm just trying to see if a sri or cai will at least keep where I'm at mpg wise or maybe even increase it. I haven't done it yet cuz I still want the loud as hell intake noise from an aftermarket intake.

 

Yeah, the car isn't louder with the snorkle off. I may try out the TRD filter to se what happens. mine is really dirty and hasn't been changed sinceI bought the car. oops...
but why we get better mileage than those with a CAI/SRI makes no sense, to me. could be the placement of the intake sensor as I noticed some companies put it @ the TB and that isn't very smart. My friends car runs rough with it there.

 

What's better? TRD filters or K&N for mileage and/or performance?

 

TRD/K&N/AirHog/etc. all seem to be about the same to me as I have used them all. Most likely any real difference between them can't be told by the average consumer. They all work fine, I'd use whatever one u can get the best deal on.

Removing any snorkel or resonator box plus the high flow filter helps make breathing easier with the stock setup. Power gains n noise r their but not as signifigant as with a sri/cai. When alot of people get n intake they want to hear it and feel the power gain so their always flooring it, which u can't blame them. That's how u kill gas plus the compter is relearning and by constantly gettin up on it the computer is goin to run richer all the time.

 

Going to remove the snorkel tomorrow, but does anyone have ANY idea why the snorkel is there in the first place? Like I said, I am going to remove mine for the MPGs, but it seems like the factory wouldn't have put it on, if not for a good reason.

 

I feel your pain bunk...I have removed the snorkle on my box (this will be the third week its been off), and although I get a bit nervous while driving when it rains (hydrolock scares me to death) I have gotten my best mileage with the snorkle off, BoxOffice just might have come up with the best overall mod that you can make under the hood. Having said that, I also wonder why toyota put it there in the first place, I also wonder why toyota states in the owners manual not to warm up the engine of the xb...inquiring minds want to know!

 

Someone out there must have access to a Toyota Mechanic's ear. Couldn't you just ask for an opinion from them?
I have no doubt that the mileage reports are true but excessive engine wear takes more than three weeks to show.
A follow up question : Has anyone who has completed this mod completed an oil change after driving about 3000 miles and did the oil look ( or feel) any different than normal?

 

I did an oil change to full synthetic oil a few weeks ago, 2 weeks into the removal of the snorkle and approx 950 miles the oil looks perfect, and the oil leval unchanged.

 

I took mine off yesterday. Still have about a half a tank of gas so we'll see what happens with the mpg when I fill up. I was kinda reluctant to do this also. I'm not to thrilled about taking something off that I'm not sure why it's there in the first place, but seems like a lot of people have done it with no ill affects. I had heard it was there to keep water from entering the air box? Not sure where I heard that or how true it is.

 

It's more likely with the snorkle removed you are taking in warmer air from the radiator and engine block instead of from behind the left headlight and fender area. This reduces pumping losses of the engine by reducing vacuum when taking in warmer air to meet the needed air mass to produce power and also increases combustion temperature making the gas burn better. It should work great until the summer arrives and the air gets too hot. Anyone with a ScanGauge should check the AIT air intake temperature to see how hot it is getting. The chance of getting water directly into the air box would depend upon how the water splashes up from the left tire into the engine compartment. Then the water would have to travel up the intake through the air filter and over the top to get through the mass air flow sensor and throttle body - pretty hard to do unless you drive through a foot or two of water.

 

I removed my snorkle on my 2006.5 Xb when this thread started. My first tank of gas yielded me 33mpg, which is the best that I have ever achieved. However, my second tank of gas only got 28 mpg, which is one of the worst tanks that I ever got (I average 31mpg).

So what does this mean? What happened?

I believe that the snorkle removal basically does nothing. I think the change in mpg that everyone is seeing is only because they are mentally aware of saving gas when they drive. I think that's what happened to me. On that first tank, I was so interested on what type of mpg I was going to get that I was shifting into 4th gear when typically I would be crusing in 3rd. I was taking it easy on the highway, and driving less agressively. On the second tank, thinking that the 33mpg would continue, I drove my car like I normally would and maybe even more agressively. Hence, the crappy 28 mpg.

After 28mpg, I put the snorkle back on because I felt as though I lost some torque, and the engine wasn't running as smooth. Since the snorkle has been back on, I have been seeing 31mpg again, and in some cases 32 mpg.

I just installed the K&N Typhoon Cold Air Intake on Friday, and we'll see what happenes to my mpg.

The bottom line to me is that removing the snorkle did have a positive effect. It made me aware of mpg. I now pay attention to my driving style, and try to do what I can to conserve on gas. People with the Scangauge II (I don't have one yet), probably go through the same process.

 

I've read thru 75% of this thred, and I still don't understand what part I'm supposed to take off..

could somebody try to explain it to me as if I was a 3rd grader?

 

look at the graphic you posted, go to the very bottom, see the hose going into the air box? Thats the snorkle,

 

got cha!

 

Still thinking about the snorkel removal. I get 37 MPG as an average / last three tanks 39 MPG and have gotten over 400 miles on th tank twice.. Maybe in the summer time when I'm bored.

 

The purpose in removing this is to help the engine breath. Just look at how small the opening is on the end of the snorkel to when it gets to the airbox. Its there to not only restrict incoming air but also to quiet intake noise. If anyone sees a loss in mpg its because ur using the better trottle response much greater and u also want to hear the deeper intake. A snorkel delete plus a highflow filter netted me a 1.3 mpg gain on a V6 Grand Am in pure city/short trip driving plus some neck snapping throttle response, so for the 1.5 it should be greater. Perfect example of all this, my friends 06 corolla S. The car has a very narrow snorkel and removing that with the TRD filter gained a much deeper sound n much greater throttle response. Yes he has complained about mpg but he's gettin very good mpg now that he finally learned to not floor the car all the time, lol.

The purpose of the box itself is to created a nice shot of air when u floor it which in term gives u a hard off the line launch that a cai just lacks. But with that nice shot of air there is the drawback in the upper range pull because of the restriction in the snorkel, so by pulling it out u get a bigger opening in the box so u see gains throughout the entire rpm range. Again if anyone is second guessing a mod like this don't, I've done it to 3 totally different model cars and all have seen gains, the biggest was an 05 accord only because the intake resonator was sooo huge/restrictive/ and heavy.

 

About 6 months ago (before I had heard of removing the snorkel), I started watching my driving style and tried to get high MPG . I went from 32 to 37 on my commute (~60MPH). I kept the revs below 3K during acceleration, but I think the biggest gain was due to slower top speed. The drag on the box is a MPG killer.

 

bunkla "The drag on the box is a MPG killer."

Thats y u get an egg, lol. Just playin, but seriously yes keep the speed low n u will see big gains in mpg. With my 5spd I can do 40mph in 5th gear which is great for around town, this helps me get about 31mpg with very little highway driving. So something like this will deff be a plus to me, still wounderin about an sri or cai n how they do though.

 

I don't quite agree with you. I think my first tank after removing the snorkel I was mindful of how I drove but after that I went back to my normal driving style (much to the chagrin of my girlfriend) and for the 5 or 6 tanks I've done since I've seen a solid 2-3 mpg increase. I averaged 31 normally and without the snorkel I'm doing 33-34 and have never dropped below 33. Though I'm curious as to how a CAI or even a K&N drop in will do.

Maybe you just put your foot into it bit too much when you were getting the 28? I would think that, being the engine is probably running a little richer, that with more "spirited" driving, your mileage will go down.

 

I've got to agree with SecretAgent; there are just too many other folks here who have increased their mileage. And I'm not a kid; being 49, at my age (and the inherent perceived "responsibility") you can believe that I ran several tanks to make sure my improvement was not just some weird fluke before I posted it to a world-wide forum! My only guess is that something's not right with your car somewhere. If you're truly not driving it any harder, I'd have someone run a diagnostic on it for you. OR, you might want to consider resetting your ECU first, just to see if that helps the situation.
When just about everybody else here has gotten at least a LITTLE better MPG after ripping out the snorkle, the evidence certainly seems to scream "IMPROVEMENT". Based on pure logic, the removal of such a restriction to the intake speaks for itself.
I definitely understand your statement about thinking that maybe everybody's just driving smarter (which is still great!), but I personally have stopped my quest for high mileage the last several tanks and am now driving quite "normally", and I'm still in the high 35 to high 37 mpg range commuting (with aftermarket tires back on), which is still FAR higher than before I started with the K&N and no snorkle (see first post).