Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Zetec Maintenance Tornado intake...debate..

Ok my fried said he saw a commercial about this tornado thing you put in your intake, and it gives you like an extra 20 hp. I told him that i saw an article on here(ceg boards) before(i used search, but couldnt find it) and it said that the Tornado is a piece of junk, it breaks easily, and yadda yadda....he totally disagreed with me and is strongly persuaded to buy this item.

So my question is, i wanna end this debate me and my friend have, has anyone have any info on this, or personal experiences with it?

I am curious too...

I was trying to find something on the web.. no luck...

All I ve found was:

Tornado

See this thread.
Read the 7th post down by "Steve Bassen".

Here's how you settle that argument:

Get you friend to go to a dyno or track and lay down a base run.

Let him get the tornado installed.

Go back to the track and watch what a POS product and two trips to the track/ dyno cost him to find out he was just duped by one of the most widely-known snake oil products of all time.

You win the argument and you get to laugh in his face.

I tried one from tornadoair.com and just sent it back. No noticeable increase in power and definitely no increase in gas mileage. Dumb question- when you modify something on the intake system- do you have to do anything with the computer that controls fuel/air mixture?

Yeah, tell it that you just clogged the the intake with snake oil.

....'as much use as an ashtray on a motorcycle!!!!!!!!!!!

With any product like this, what you have to ask yourself is, where is the extra power or mileage supposed to come from? If you're going to increase engine power, then for the most part, somehow or other you have to make the engine take in a greater total amount of both air and fuel. How is this tornado thingy going to pack more total air into the cylinder? If you can't answer that question, it's safe to assume it will add no power.

The full set of ways that it is physically possible to add power, or get more power out of a given amount of fuel, are (I think):
- increase total fuel and air consumption (intake, valves, bore/stroke, cold air, faster revving, blower, nitrous, bigger engine)
- increase compression ratio (pistons, head, water in intake)
- increase working duty cycle of expansion in cylinder (spark advance, cams)
- reduce losses (exhaust, drivetrain, aerodynamics, tires)

All but the first leave you with pretty narrow limits for the amount of gain you can achieve. With anything that really improves power, or mileage at a given power level, you should be able to clearly see how it does one of the above things.

thank you guys, i showed my friend the thread so far and hes gettin furious. see i would not have argued with him and just let him waste his money on this product IF it was being put on another car than his FRICKIN 68 MUSTANG!!! man as soon i heard what car he was puttin it on i snapped(me and my dad have a 69 mustang gt, and i hate when people frick up classics like that).

so ya, he'll prob. be stubborn and buy it anyways, but im gonna take ur advice and take him to a dyno, see what happens then...maybe he'll believe me when there is solid proof in front of his eyes, but he is very stubborn so who knows...

thanks for all the info guys..

What will you do if it turns out that it actually works?