Before we get going on this one, the subject of raised air intakes is a detersive one in the LR community. You either need one, or you don’t.

Their primary function is to keep dust out of the air filter system… the idea being; cleaner air is being drawn into the engine from higher above the ground where it’s less dusty.

Unless you invest a lot of time and money (which some do) in fully waterproofing the engine (particularly on a petrol model) and transmission the fact you have a raised intake does not allow you to wade any deeper than the recommended depth. This is roughly the centre line of the road wheels. The older diesel engines up to the 300TDi were easier to water proof as there was no engine management system and only a stop solenoid to worry about. In-fact my old 2.25 diesel didn’t even need a batter to run once it was started.

So why am I fitting one to LGL? Primarily because they are extremely rare. They were offered as a Genuine accessory on the Series 2a and Series 3, so when a New Old Stock (NOS) complete kit of parts advertised as “never been fitted to a vehicle” came up on eBay, I snapped it up. I won’t go into what happened next but what I actually got was not NOS or unused or a complete kit. I’m not giving the company any air time here and won’t be darkening their door again.

First job was to source the missing parts and it was highly unlikely I would find Genuine Land Rover items. I tried the usual suspects including LRTS on Cyprus and the Dunsfold Collection in the UK. If they didn’t have the parts I needed, I could stop looking and get on with sourcing suitable alternatives. In the end, I had to source the parts and do some remodelling. I’ll highlight these as I go through the installation.

Completed assembly (with my additions)

Centrifugal filter (Part Number: 509483)

The design of these mushroom tops causes a vortex in the induced air, forcing heavier dust particles to be thrown out centrifugally and not be draw into the air filter.

Interestingly, this appears to have been galvanised and powder coated when manufactured making it fairly indestructible.

Whilst the finish is OK, it still needs a bit of a re-vamp.

Needs a bit of TLC…
After a decent rub down with wet and dry, it’s ready for some hammerite
Looking good the next day in gloss black
I thought the fins underneath could do with a splash of colour.
The parts I wanted to remain gloss black were masked off…
… and the remainder sprayed red.

This is written some weeks after the work has been done and I’m not sure about the splash of red. Looks good on toe nails (err… not mine) so it may well get resprayed black.