I had quite a ‘bum squeezin’ moment during a recent Green Road run when going through a reasonably deep, fast flowing river crossing. Going through the river with the water flow against the driver side of my FL2 was fine but coming back was a nightmare as I knew that even with my extra 5cm ground clearance between my suspension spacers and larger AT tyres the rising level of the water hitting the passenger side of the car was going to be close as dammit the air intake – Luckily I got through ok but I’d rather a safer air intake in these situations…… I don’t go looking for deep water to test (potentially damage) my FL2 but equally I hate not being able to take part in any of the sections if I can help it. I was at an MSA licensed Land Rover off road training day in the hills in Scotland yesterday and my FL2 managed to do almost all of the trials really well and I had a fantastic time, especially in the afternoon going back through the trials and just going up and down some pretty steep slopes and wilder terrain with a few Defenders – With the positive comments I know my FL2 surprised a few folk there as my Freelander was the only one there – Bottom line is I just don’t like not doing challenges if I can make a mod that will let me do it…..

Like a number of others researching a possible snorkel for the Freelander2 I could not find anything available yet and even if you could mod a Disco snorkel to seal to the FL2 wing air intake the plastic pipes that then runs to the airbox are anything but watertight connections.

For the time being I have made myself a removable, flexible air intake hose where I can place the air intake beside the engine management ECU in the bulkhead compartment if I leave the battery cover off or I have chosen to place it at the same height as the ECU at the highest point in the engine compartment on the other side of the bulkhead wall. (In the unlikely event of a bowave of water I would rather the battery cover was in place.)

This is the hose fitted – It looks pretty crap in white but it works and I had this spare bit of hose already in the garage so I wanted to prove the concept before flinging cash at a fancy looking black hose and I also plan to fit proper attachments and a conical K&N type filter with maybe a cone to protect from splashes on the end of the air intake rather than the very fine mesh I have currently;



I know it’s not ideal grabbing hot air from the top of the engine for an air intake but I only ever plan to use it for short periods and it’s got to be better than sooking water into the engine!


In order to keep the Mass Airflow Meter operational I bought a FL2 standard airbox lid from a scrappy and carefully dremelled the plastic air feed cylindrical part off it keeping as much of the cylinder intact as I could to seal my flexible air intake hose onto. This is a pic of that part which for info is 70mm in diameter ;



What I am doing now is running 99.9% of the time with the air intake system as Land Rover designed and I keep this flexible air intake hose along with my towrope etc in a plastic basket in the boot;



When required at any deeper water challenges I just park to the side before entering the water and spend about 5 mins removing the top of the standard airbox and fitting my raised flexible one before going through the water and then change back to the standard system at some later point that suits.

Very ingenious

Yeah a good solution there for the sake of a few minutes tampering when you need it. seems to me that on here at least there's some demand for gopd kit to enhance capabilities. I read your bit about the spacers before and might follow suit. 5cm of extra travel and a bit less catastrophic result of a deep wade would be perfect.

Do you still have the drawings for the spacers, and if so can you fire them across please?

https://www.freel2.com/forum/post242269.html#242269




Hope this helps 👍

Coh you're all over it

thank you, must have missed the actual drawings last time - one set is stainless and the other is polyurethane? Why was that?

Big ideas small pockets

me too... and the wife controls those

Opp's did not read all the post
From memory the rear shock top is not flat so you need something that will give/mould slightly

Those wife's they d'not understand the neeeeeed

It's the front strut top mounts which are not level - These are the blue ones in CQR's posting - Making these out of a polyprop or similar type hard plastic should allow a bit of flexibility & sandwich better together properly.

All 4 of my spacers which I fitted to my FL2 about 6 months ago now are made out of the same hard plastic.

Uncleron
Thanks for correcting me/putting the right info out there 👍
Can I ask how high did you go

No probs - I did a wad of research before doing these so I should remember really and good to share........

In the end I went for 20mm spacers on the front and 25mm on the rears.

Good to see you are going the same route - Have you fitted them yet and what widths have you gone for?

Still mucking about lol
I would like to go the same as you 20mm front. 25mm rear
Did you make them your self ?

Thinking the same, just need to get some made really, see if i can source the material getting it in shape isn't a problem as I have some friends with access to big bits of kit, but would be awesome if some company would take up on them and sell for 40 quid a pop lol

£40 a corner sounds about right with high tensile bolts
I can get a set for about £120 inc post but 20mm all round