[jeepster]

Originally Posted by COUGAR

this will involve cutting into the bonnet. I want to minimize any overt cutting or conspicious mods. Dont want anything flashy.

in that case the stock air filter is more than enough, because with fully loaded mpfi gypsy RV you will not want to go in water deeper than 1 1/2 ft.
the space you showed has only 4~5 inches of height difference than stock filter, so no need for air filter mod.

even army gypsys dose not have snorkels.

[COUGAR]

Originally Posted by jeepster

in that case the stock air filter is more than enough, because with fully loaded mpfi gypsy RV you will not be able to go in water deeper than 1 1/2 ft.
even army gypsys dose not have snorkels.

Let me clarify: I dont intend to do deep water plugging bro. At most some small streams or the snow-melt waterflow in the Himalayas, the kind we cross with our Bullets.

This scoop is more for performance angle: With my air-filter due for a replacement, i was thinking of swapping this with either a conical type or stock replacement type KN Filter and a cold-air intake seems to be a nice thing to have.

[jeepster]

Originally Posted by COUGAR

This scoop is more for performance angle: With my air-filter due for a replacement, i was thinking of swapping this with either a conical type or stock replacement type KN Filter and a cold-air intake seems to be a nice thing to have.

then i would vote for stock replacement type KN Filter.
as it will be more reliable & you dont want to change the reliability mantra of Maruti Suzuki.
but at the last its your choice.

edit: keep mechanical's & electrical's stock as far as possible. after some camping mod them as your needs will be.

[COUGAR]

Originally Posted by jeepster

edit: keep mechanical's & electrical's stock as far as possible. after some camping mod them as your needs will be.

No electrical mods in the pipeline. Only plan to put in a fusebox to cleanup the spaghetti of wires that is around my battery. This should make it reliable and easier to diagnose faults.

Whether stock replacement filter or the conical type, without a snorkel or intake nozzle noted earlier it would be breathing the hot-air inside the engine compartment? There would be advantages to be gained from feeding it with colder air?

Originally Posted by COUGAR

This scoop is more for performance angle

Check under the bonnet of a Xylo, how it feeds air to the intercooler.

[Desmosedici]

Generally the cold air is below the vehicle but no air scoop can be put over there as it will pick up water. Snorkel in my opinion is not actually required.

K&N conical is good is what my pals who have used it tell me.

Your concern though should be regarding the AC Setup as thats one area that can give you overheating headaches.

[khan_sultan]

Originally Posted by COUGAR

....
I have bought a Safari snorkel head and was planning on doing something like what ibrahim has done for his gypsy. However, apart from the looks factor (and that is so subjective), is a snorkel really effective?

For me, it serves the purpose of a Cold Air Intake -- AT BEST. (it also looks good :-))

... considering that the air-box is above the level of the alternator, wouldnt the alternator be slam-dunked before the water even reaches the air-box level? And, maybe not an issue with the carb gypsies, but our MPFI gypsies have a lot of electronic sensors placed all around, and many of them are way below the level of the airbox itself. So before the the water reaches the airbox, it is gonna take out a lot of other stuff first is it not? If this is true, is a snorkel really effective for a gypsy for water-fording?

True. Just having a snorkel doesn't make the Gypsy ready for water fording. There is a lot more to it as you have mentioned..

I have a K&N Stock replacement filter + snorkel and it does make it sound nice & the engine 'feels' more smooth/easy. That's about it.

[COUGAR]

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

For me, it serves the purpose of a Cold Air Intake -- AT BEST. (it also looks good)

For purposes of Cold-Air intake, Would it be better to have a direct conenction avoiding the many twists and turns that we will have with a snorkel setup. Yeah it does look cool!

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

True. Just having a snorkel doesn't make the Gypsy ready for water fording. There is a lot more to it as you have mentioned..

What all steps would we have to take to make atleast wheel-well level water fordings safely achievable? MPFI complicates things here doesnt it?

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

I have a K&N Stock replacement filter + snorkel and it does make it sound nice & the engine 'feels' more smooth/easy. That's about it.

I am a little confused between stock replacement and the conical types, and leaning towards the former. Which model of the KN filter did you purchase?

[COUGAR]

Have been talking to various installers, getting options and quotes and have now narrowed down to 3. Plan to do the install on the coming Wed/Thu (9th).

Using guru's install as the baseline, here is the plan:
- Compressor: Subros is ruled out. 2 of the 3 installers list the Sanden 507 as their choice. The third installer, the one i am leaning towards, suggests the 508 (apparently thats a production series) and also talked of some "7 series" as an option. Also asked about Sanden 6V10. He is to get back to me today with options.

- Blower: going with Superking routed through standard vents with one small change. The 2 central vents will be replaced by a External Vent Unit fitted in place of the Single-Din stereo unit. This frees up space on the dash to fit a 2-Din slot. As of now just plan to shift the existing stereo here.

I am told i will have to chop off upto 1.5 inches off my glovebox to fit this thing in. There are people here who have fitted it in without the chop and others who have had to. Whats the verdict?

- Heater: I would like to have the heater option, especially for trips up north. I do very early morning drives (3AM to 7AM) and a heater option is certainly required. I am told a heater option is NOT possible on the Gypsy though I dont know why this is so!

I see 2 inlets in the firewall: one of which i presume is for the AC pipes to go into the cabin. Whats the other one for? (See pic). I told my installer about my need for a heater option and he has suggested a weird method of routing a metallic pipe from the radiator to the blower unit and he plans to use parts of the Wagon R (!!!) for this. Is the dude correct or has he gone off his rockers? From what i understand talking to guru, a heater was electric coil based?

- The Windshield and foot side vents of the Gypsy are non-functional. Anyone has had any luck activating these?

- Electric fan ahead of the radiator. Chinese make. Wired to be running when the AC is switched on.

- Most installs use a single rotary type switch to control both the Superking blower and the AC and deactivate the controls provided with the car. I found the switch to be quite tacky. So i am going to be wiring the blower controls to the existing controls with a toggle switch for switching the AC (if you look carefully, there is a notch provided for the switch here in the standard blower control unit). In addition, some installers (not all) provide a rotary thermostat control with pre-set temp levels to provide greater control over the cooling. This switch will go on the right hand side switch unit. I believe guru has done it this way. Could you post the pic of the controller please?

Finally I called up a friend last night who works with Maruti and is generally an expert at all things Gypsy and he suggested checking out the HVAC unit of the Zen Estillo which according to him is a STRAIGHT fit but would also be the most expensive. Wacko suggestion out of the blue, but generally he has been right so far on all things gypsy! He has given me a number to call up on and check. Will be doing that today.

Lets say If i can source the components direct from the Maruti company: would it be a hard task to do the install locally?

[gsferrari]

You misunderstood me reg. the heater coil. Heater coil is always radiator water based. The coil is connected to the radiator water and the circuit is completed. A blower simply blows air over this coil and into the cabin. If you use electric coils they will overload the alternator and lower engine performance significantly. Free heat is available!

If you do the radiator water method make sure you install a tap at both ends so in case you are not using AC or if there is some failure of the tubing, you can quickly revert to stock setup.

My install used top quality equipment. The Condensor fan is Tokico Denso, Compressor is Sanden 6V10, Blower is an imported Superking with high RPM motors. The locally made ones will have 800rpm motors and will simply wheeze...mine will blow your hairstyle into smithereens on the first setting.

I use the OE controls and added a thermostat control on the rhs of the steering wheel. I also added a fan switch so I can turn on the condensor fan even if ac is off. This is useful in OTRs where at slow speeds, the condensor does impede airflow and the engine gets warm, switch on the fan for a few minutes and everything cools back down.

[COUGAR]

Ok guru: understand now about the radiator.

Talked to Shripad though he seems somewhat busy.

[ladak.imran]

Hi Cougar,
If you're in bombay, give me a call and check out the AC in my gypsy - it cost me about 25k, and I'm using a subros 80cc compressor, with a superking blower, routed through the oem gypsy air vents. Only front blower is active - none of the other settings (footwell, windscreen, etc) work.

If you use the AC only for the front 2 seats, then it is quite effective. I've rarely gone above the 1st level on the blower. Its quite powerful like that.

I got my install done from Israr Bhai in Bandra.

Let me know if you need any more details.

Edit: When my ac is switched on, there is very little extra-load on the engine (thats what people who've driven my car with ac on, have told me).

[gsferrari]

My setup cost me 45k including the additional cost of the compressor, fabricating the bracket, heatlon all over the car. I also got it done under dealer warranty since my gypsy is brand new.

[Desmosedici]

Guru's AC is very good. In the Chennai Heat during TPC, it was a life saver for us.

Even i have met up with sripadh. His quote was 35K for just the AC Install, all brand new parts but with the sanden 507 / 508 not the variable one guru has installed.

Called up Israr bhai yest, he quoted around 25k for half used and half new parts.
Condensor will be new, compressor will be a used subros 80cc and used superking blower.

My suggestion, go for new parts.

and Guru, did you check what noise that was coming from the AC unit while we were driving back to mumbai.

[COUGAR]

with the last of my deliveries closed yesterday, I am officially lukkha for the next month with just the odd "0900 Pacific" call to distract me. So the long delayed build can BEGIN in earnest!! yaaaaay! But on the downside, EVERYTHING has to fall into place by the 28th 'cos work has to take over after that.

Update on the AC install: awaiting a call from a mumbai based installer so i can take a final call on this install. Either ways, i hope to freeze the configuration by Monday(6th) and begin the install on Thu (8th). Hopefully we should have the AC setup (including the insulation/heatlon) by next Monday(13th) or max Wednesday(15).

Meanwhile tomorrow and day-after I will be rewiring the electrical-system in the Gypsy, routing the wiring through 2 fuse-boxes (borrowed from a Sumo), one (Box-A) installed under the bonnet next to the air-filter and the other (Box-B) installed above the b-pillar. 2 thick gauge wires will be drawn to the fuse-boxes from the battery. All power to In Cabin components will be routed from Box-B and under-bonnet equipment like lights and horns from Box-A. Plan to do this myself as i just haven't found an installer who is willing to do this.

Box-A Connections :
1. Headlights 90/100.
2. Horns : Bosch
3. Hella 1000 (2 nos)

Box-B connections:
1. Cigarette lighter sockets: 2 nos. 1 dashboard mounted for gen use, and the other at the rear of the cabin: useful for car-fridge as well as charging the batteries of my RC planes.

2. Carputer

3. Amp (if Required at all)

4. LED lights : 1 under B-pillar and 1 in the very rear of the cabin. Mebbe a couple of those cool blue LED's under the dashboard.

Some questions:
1. I will need thick gauge wire to connect the battery to the Fuse-boxes. What gauge and brand of wire do i ask for?
2. Similarly i need thinner gauge wire for the connect between the fuse-box to the individual accessory points. What gauge and brand?

Anything else to look out for?

P.S: Under the bonnet, there are 2 types of relays being used: one the crappy 125 buck metallic variety and for my Hella's I have much better quality relays(installed by Arush in Delhi). Though these are also local amke, they are much better than the other kind. Unfortunately i am having trouble sourcing these in Pune. I want to replace all those crappy relays with better quality ones. Any substitutes recommended?