Has anybody tried the Tornado Fuel Saver they claim better performance
and fuel economy.It is some kind of device that supposed to make the
air flow more turbulent going into the engine. On newer trucks it goes into the air tubes after the air filter box. They have a web site tornadofuelsaver.com

 

i've heard their a rip off, and it only makes sense..anything that blocks airflow ain't good. Do a search cause i know there was a post in one of the forums about them.

Ryan

 

Why do people grind and polish intake and exhaust ports? To smooth out the flow of air and gasses. The Toronado Fuel Saver does just the opposite, it causes the flow to be turbulent, and to me that's the opposite of a good smooth flow.

Pat Goss on PBS's Motor Week did a somewhat scientific test on this, and said to save your money!

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'94 E-150 Conversion Van 4.9 / C-6 -- '89 Mustang LX 5.0

 

Myself, I'm a sceptic. Like any HP craving person (or redneck-haha) will tell ya, you want to reduce the turbulance into the engine. That is K&N's claim and it's right on. The K&N supposedly "straightens" the air out going into the engine to reduce the turbulance. This makes all comes together when you think of your engine as an air pump and you want to stuff in as much air as possible on each stroke. Turbulance is really shorting the engine of air. Just my .02- regards.

 

Otto,
Send me your $70 and I will send you a personally signed letter of thanks, which is more than you'll get from the Tornado guys. In addition, for sending *me* the money, your truck will breathe easier and run better.
Grins,
Shilly

 

Ok, I have been listening to these sort of discusions for a while, and I have a few ideas. Now I have nothing to support this, it is just a theory. The tornado(as well as the poweraid spacer) is a device put into the flow path of the air to begin a rotation of the air into the intake port. If the rotation was in the right direction, the air would flow more evenly past the intake valve and into the cylinder. Maybe a big enough improvement in filling the cylinder to make up for the definate turbulance created at the device itself. What made me think of this was the chevrolet Vortec heads. They have a funny little divet cast into them that does the same sort of thing in front of each intake valve. And they do work real good. Don't get me wrong I am a ford guy. But if somthing deserves credit, it deserves it. Ok I'm finished. Ya'll let me know what you think. And remember this was just me thinkin. Me thinkin may be a little scary. LOL! Later, Hippie.

 

Hippie don't forget the GT40 aluminum heads also known as the "turbo-swirl" and the Trickflow Twisted Wedge heads kinda work on the same theory which was orginally known as the canted valve that the Cleveland series engines incorporated. Just a little ford info. Could be a jeorpady question one day. "what are canted valves"- haha Anyway I had to throw my .02 in. Regards.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 09-Apr-02 AT 01:13 AM (EST)]There's no denying that swirl can improve flow (air or fluid) where flow is compressed, but the Tornado is quite upstream of where the parts that you guys list really make power when swirled - the heads & combustion chambers.

I can see if there was some way to swirl the air well (I think tornado makes a set-up for this) right as it entered a carburator - to nicely mix the air with the fuel - that it would help.

But in FI vehicles that semi-swirling air isn't as pressurized at the point the Tornado hits it, then the air gets through the throttle body (compressed), expands a little in the air plenum, seperates, speeds up and compresses for the runners... no where along this ever-swirl-slowing path does it mix with the fuel. Thus I don't think the Tornado should be held in the same regard, or class, as the heads, valves, and combustion chambers that utilize swirl under more compressed, faster flowing, and more flow-restrictive circumstances.

But I'm in agreement that such a turbulance inducer as the Tornado is probably restricting air.

What I'd like to see: How about a Tornado-like system that would put a small, very unrestrictive, yet swirl-inducing one at the beginning of each runner? Guess it depends on the design of the engine / FI system at the end of the runner though.
Perhaps a better idea would be to have the walls of the runners scalloped in a swirl pattern to induce air twist instead of placing the small theoroetical Tornados in each runner?

But I am probably talking out my wazoo here.

 

They didn't work on my 460 . Had to buy two @ $68 each and lost mileage and throttle response . Took them back and got back my money .Sorry for all the smilies, novelty hasen't worn off yet. ...oops.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/displaythumbnail.php?&photoid=3476&.jpg
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/centurionconversions/

 

Thanks for all the input,I suspected they were phony junk.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 11-Apr-02 AT 01:47 AM (EST)]A few months ago we had a good discussion and disagreement about the Tornado. Since that time I've been visiting a webboard designed for engineers and engineering questions. One of the fellows posting owns a Dyno and does race head porting and engine building for a living. He also has a flowbench and is able to test swirl. Several of us chipped in and bought a Tornado for him to test out. I tried to post the flow bench and dyno results, but I guess I went over the limit and the message board didn't accept it. Here is the summary of the flowbench testing. His writing is between the Notice his last section, the P.ost S.criptus.
PS- about the only good thing i can say so far
is the Tornado did not cause a flow restriction
in all my tests . Flow CFM remained unchanged


I was pretty amazed when i 1st flowtested the
Tornado by itself on just the flowfixture
the amount of swirl torque was amazing !!!
it maxed-out my Swirl-Meter at only 2.000 inches of
H2O test pressure !

However when the entire induction system path was
flowtested with the Tornado as a "UNIT"
the extreme swirl-effect of the Tornado vanished,
completely unmeasurable on my flowbench !!
I increased flow test pressure to as much as
36.0 inches water..still no increase in any measureable
swirl induced by the TORNADO ...very disappointing !

i then had the idea to flowtest the Tornado just
on the carb by itself....i thought surely i would
see very large swirl readings with the Tornado .
Again, very disappointing, the swirl increases
were barely measureable , bouncing between
0.000 inch/ounces -to- 0.20 inch/ounces of swirl-torque
even if test pressure was increased all the way to
6.000 inches of water !

the carb bores, venturis, throttle-plates/butterflys
overwhelmingly canceled out Tornado's swirl !
even with carb butterfly all the way opened,
no changes in Tornado swirl effects.

if the carb itself is just about totally
"negating" the Tornado's swirl effects,
i can easily see why when the entire induction
path was tested , no recordable Tornado swirl effects
were seen .

Very disappointing 1st flow tests .
Will still try out Tornado on 3 dyno test engines
this coming weekend and 1/4 mile drag tests
and mileage test to follow in next weeks .
Will post results as they happen .

PS- about the only good thing i can say so far
is the Tornado did not cause a flow restriction
in all my tests . Flow CFM remained unchanged


The message board won't let me post more, but in summary the 3 Dyno runs showed an average 2-4.5 HP/Torque loss when he used Methanol as fuel. But so far to his and others surprise, his dyno tests with race fuel showed an average 2-6 hp/torque gain in the engines rpm range.

One aeronatics engineer maybe had it right. Getting the swirl to hit the mixing point of the carb is a hit and miss affair depending on where you have the device.

But for me, the guy with the 460 who had it and sent them back is some good information. I just thought I'd let out the info that the tornado doesn't restrict airflow as showed by the flowbench testing.

Tony

 

>What I'd like to see: How about a Tornado-like system that
>would put a small, very unrestrictive, yet swirl-inducing
>one at the beginning of each runner? Guess it depends on
>the design of the engine / FI system at the end of the
>runner though.
>Perhaps a better idea would be to have the walls of the
>runners scalloped in a swirl pattern to induce air twist
>instead of placing the small theoroetical Tornados in each
>runner?
>
>But I am probably talking out my wazoo here.
>

Hey, Gamma,
Not talking out your wazoo at all. In fact that is what Mercedez-Benz is doing in one of their turbo diesel engines. They in fact have two intake runners per cylinder. One for each intake valve. Both are swirled as you mention. Under low throttle conditions a valve closes off the oneintake runner to maintain air speed and air swirl in the other intake runner and as it hits the valve and cylinder. Under increased throttle conditions both intake runners are open supplying swirling air to the cylinder. It seems that this would work better in a gasoline engine rather than diesel, but their using it in a turbo diesel application.
Spiralmax has a link to the webpage on Mercedez website that discusses this.

Tony

 

Very cool, TOnyG. Thanks for that tidbit!

After I wrote the idea it hit me how hard it would be to cast the inside of such a runner, but I realize casting technology, plus outright metal boring/shaving, has come a long way.

Who knows... Some day they may make matched heads and intake manifolds for typical V-8 engines that take the idea further for old cars/trucks.

Best,

 

Here's my $.002 worth. It is junk. If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. Why would Ford do all the research and design to build an equal length intake runner to control intake air flow to improve engine performance when they could just intalled these things? Ford has a far better intake than the competition has even if it does have it's down falls. Besides, the air going in is only as good as what is going out and there is that dogone cat blocking the exhaust, kinda like drinking fizzy beer and not being able to fart....