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

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.