1st Generation Specific (1979-1985) 1979-1985 Discussion including performance modifications and technical support sections

Tornado !!! Adds Horsepower And Better Gas Eco.?????

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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 08:51 AM
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Tornado !!! Adds Horsepower And Better Gas Eco.?????

can anyone tell me if this thing acualy works? ive been up all nite and i saw this infomercial on this Tornado thing...
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 08:57 AM
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Re: Tornado !!! Adds Horsepower And Better Gas Eco.?????

Originally posted by Fennix_sr
can anyone tell me if this thing acualy works? ive been up all nite and i saw this infomercial on this Tornado thing...
It doesn't do anything. Forcing the intake air through a set of vanes does nothing but add to the flow resistance of the intake system.

The demonstrations that they give with the water in the 2 liter bottles works for a TOTALLY different reason. This commercial is laughable. I love to watch the commercial just because it is so totally not based in physics.
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 09:30 AM
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hummm...it is all a farce??...I almost went for it myself...any other comments on this subject?? Anyone have one??? I would like to know what they think first hand.....cjf
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 09:37 AM
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there was a long thread a few months ago about this. I think we all comonley agreed that it was a piece of ****.
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 10:07 AM
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Oh god, not again! Anyway, ANYONE who wants proof they don't work from a un-biased source, send me $12 and I will send you a TV broadcast that aired here in Minnesota on it. The Local News station, buys products and tests them and explains there opinion on a segment during their broadcasts.

Anyway, they tested one on a Explorer on a eddy current dyno by my former college professor at the University I graduated from that uses the same procedure used by the federal goverment to rate cars performance and emissions.

The results: The ford was given 2 test runs before and after the tornado. And the result: 19.6mpg before, 19.8mpg afterwards. And in the professors own words: "that would be a repeatabilty error. I would expect the same result from any other vehicle using a Tornado".
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 10:33 AM
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lol... damn infomercials.... they realy start to make you want the **** sometimes...
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 10:49 AM
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Haha, I know. Anyone seen the Miracle Blade knife commercials? Damn, those look cool, I dunno if I would ever buy them though, lol.

~T.J.
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 10:55 AM
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The only way a product like this could work would be to have one in each intake runner AFTER wherever the fuel comes in.. there's no way the vortex supposedly created could go through the air cleaner and carb and then perfectly split into the four intake runners... and, if you look at the packaging, the infomrmation they put on it is wrong with it's percentages..

--Danny
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 11:10 AM
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You would get more mpg if you just saved the $19.99 and used that for gas instead!
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 11:44 AM
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Car and Driver did a test on the tornado with thier long term BMW 5series. They said it did nothing in way of more HP (they dyno tested the car) or MPG. By the time the air gets to the combution camber the vortex efect would be gone.

The best way to improve gas milage is to keep your tires PROPERLY inflated.
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 11:48 AM
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BMW just spend a Billion dollars on SMOOTH AIR FLOW for their intake systems - as in no turbulence, etc. As White84SE pointed out there is no benefit to a vortex before the separate intake runners. If anything it just slows down the air at the point where the vortex needs to be ripped asunder to separate the flow for individual cylinders/rotors.

Think about it: manufacturers are now under pressure to reduce fuel consumption by both regulators and their competitors. If a cheap piece of tin can do the job, why do NO manufacturers include them as OEM parts in their intake?

Worse still, what happens to an undersquare or high compression engine in the event a piece of this Vortex thingamajiggy (even a flake of it's cheap 'chroming' on the metal models) breaks free and is drawn into the combustion chamber? Pointy bits of metal don't tend to play nicely with precision tolerance machinery moving at high RPM.

CAVEAT EMPTOR
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 12:02 PM
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Originally posted by WackyRotary
Oh god, not again! Anyway, ANYONE who wants proof they don't work from a un-biased source, send me $12 and I will send you a TV broadcast that aired here in Minnesota on it. The Local News station, buys products and tests them and explains there opinion on a segment during their broadcasts.

Anyway, they tested one on a Explorer on a eddy current dyno by my former college professor at the University I graduated from that uses the same procedure used by the federal goverment to rate cars performance and emissions.

The results: The ford was given 2 test runs before and after the tornado. And the result: 19.6mpg before, 19.8mpg afterwards. And in the professors own words: "that would be a repeatabilty error. I would expect the same result from any other vehicle using a Tornado".
Send me $12 too!
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 12:37 PM
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Originally posted by RotorMotorDriver
Haha, I know. Anyone seen the Miracle Blade knife commercials? Damn, those look cool, I dunno if I would ever buy them though, lol.

~T.J.
HaHaHaHaHa, "Ginsu 2000".

"It'll cut through a log and still slice a tomato like this!"
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 12:39 PM
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Send me $12 too!
Hey now , that 12bucks is for a VHS tape and my effort of copying the TV segment and shipping cost so the testimonial I wrote confirms to a unconvienced person can see it for themselves.
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 12:59 PM
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Originally posted by Wankelguy


HaHaHaHaHa, "Ginsu 2000".

"It'll cut through a log and still slice a tomato like this!"
Nah man, the logs are gone. Now they cut into marble tiles then cut tomatos . Although, it is fairly impressive...I dont ahve a knife that could do damage like that to marble and then even cut a damn carrot or apple, let alone a tomato.

~T.J.
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 01:52 PM
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well the most recent ones i have seen are cutting up a sledge hammer's head, then slicing a tomato

look, i can even filet the filet!


stupid f**k
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 01:56 PM
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When will they have one that will cut through diamond and then the tomato.
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 03:34 PM
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Ya that commercial kills me!!!

Sport Compact Car Magazine actually did testing and an article a year or two ago when this thing first came out.

They tested a honda civic 1.6L and it increased .7hp
The best part is they also tested a FB and it decreased 3hp.

Wonder how many Civic guys went out and spent the cash for the .7hp!!!......probably all of themhahaha
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 03:46 PM
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wow ,,,,got some of your dander up , didn't it!!!..Those guys on TV formerly known as "shade tree mechanics" said it was good??...lots they know....great feed back...sorry some of ya had to go through it again...thanks...cjf
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 03:49 PM
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yea those late nite infomercials are ****** hillarious... the convection oven.... HES COOKIN WITH AIR !!.. miracle blade... barely starts cuttin the brass then is like LOOK IT STILL CAN FILLAY THE FILLAY !!!!>...
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 04:07 PM
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don't even get me started on knives....
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 04:18 PM
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I wish I still had the plots saved to my hard drive, but there are dyno charts out there showing a loss of power with the use of these. It basically is just an obstruction in the airflow.
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 05:22 PM
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but there are dyno charts out there showing a loss of power with the use of these. It basically is just an obstruction in the airflow.

Yeah, its SOO stupid. I don't see how it works? I went to college for Automotive engineering and I would like to see one of these infomercial yuppies use a superFlow flowbench and see what the "ACTUAL" increase in CFM is? I mean, unless there is a positive pressure produced down stream from a obstruction of the harlarious tornado device, I don't see how it could make more power then without it.
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 06:36 PM
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On cars where the injector system isn't up to par, and the gas dosen't atomize well, some turbulence might help, but as far as that POS goes, like it has been said above..... it 'spins' the air too early to help in this regard. It makes a great inside joke aimed at brainless rice boys who will buy anything that they think will give them power, as long as it doesn't venture past intake or exhaust... try it sometime its hilarious.

I remember some kid who was trying to talk trash, saying he had a "supercharger". When my buddy questioned him on the lack of sound, the gentle whine, that a supercharger makes, pretty much calling his bluff, he broke down and popped his hood, and tried desperately to convince us that the 5 Tornadoes he had somehow stuffed between his filter and the TB, constituted a SC. Man, I couldn't stop laughing for an hour, I swear!!

The first time I saw the ad, I was skeptical, but they are pretty convincing.... just research anything before you buy it, you'll save yourself the disappointment, and embarrasement.

Last edited by fatboy7; Jan 6, 2003 at 06:39 PM.
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Old Jan 6, 2003 | 10:30 PM
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I think I've heard that testimonal of the before and after results they post are without the tornado and then with the tornado and a high flow air filter. When they display the MPG before and after, it can be simply a different habbit of driving, and fudging numbers.

High flow air filters is where they get the gains of 10% or some figure. It makes sense to me, if these stupid imfomercials actually were truthful, they would just be selling air filters and be adding "real" hp in the first place.
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