Tech Articles

Installing the ARB snorkel in a first gen Nissan Xterra.

Follow up:

Author: Sorry cant remember his name.
Article disappeared from www.XterraWolf.com, extracted from a PDF I had.

Snorkel Install

This past weekend, we had a MOD day. I decided it would be a good idea to buy a snorkel, as it might be something fun to install. This turned out to be far from the truth, as the install turned in to a bloody nightmare. I told myself I would document everything with photographs and make a write-up to help any poor souls that might run in to this problem during their install.

Ok here we go.

1) First step is disassembly. Remove the rubber splash guard from inside the fender well (this was barely hanging on for me, since apparently when I bottomed out the truck it ripped the thing damn near completely off).

You should now see this:

Now remove the air box. Unclamp the thing, pull the top half out and place it to the side for now. Unbolt the bottom half, and disconnect the black plastic tube and rubber tube with the 02 sensor in it (BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THE 02 SENSOR). Pull the bottom half out and set it aside.

NOTE: Notice the red circle, this ground had to be moved to the ground directly to the left of it. I will explain more on this later. Don’t forget to keep the rubber gasket shown in the picture.

Now remove the air resonator box from inside the fender well. You can unbolt it, but it will practically fall off (at least it did for me).

At this point you should have a clear view of the intake holes in the sub-frame, and from inside the fender (remove your tire for easier access).

NOTE: You will discard the plastic tube shown in this picture. Also, take note of the bracket in the red circle. This will need to be slightly modified (flattened) and remounted in the same hole used to mount the black plastic tube you just removed.

Here is the modified bracket:

2) Open your drivers side door and pull the door trim off of the A-Pillar (some guides say window trim, but it is actually the door trim). Find the second screw down from the top of the pillar (this will be your guide screw). Use the clamp provided and screw it down (as shown in the diagram) with that guide screw in the middle hole.

Now make a mark on the two empty holes (this is where you will drill). Remove the clamp and drill two holes (be careful not to punch too far through).

Paint over the bare metal, squirt some silicone in the hole and screw the bracket down.

You will use this bracket as your guide for many things to come.

3) Now comes the fun part: Cutting the crap out of your fender. BEFORE YOU BEGIN: Please take a moment to think about the connection between your air box, and the snorkel. This is crucial. Be creative, and do what YOU think is right. I will walk through what I did, but I am in no way saying that this is the correct or perfect way to do it. Some people have better luck with these installs than others, and every one seems to be completely different.

First off, fit your snorkel up to the A-Pillar bracket, and secure it loosely with one or two screws. Move it around and find out where you think it works best. Generally this is just above the fender hump, and just below or even with the fender line. Use a marker to draw the hole you are going to cut.

IMPORTANT! Be sure to start small, cut only what you have to, then cut a little more, then a little more and so on until it fits well.

We came at this thing with an arsenal of power tools:

Drill

Grinder

Sawzall

In the end, the most effective tool was a Dremel with a cut-off wheel. It cut through the fender like butter, and allowed for a more precise cut. This worked well for all the metal cutting we needed to do on this project.

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