The Tornado...?
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Joined: Jun 1999
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From: Northern California
The Tornado...?
Saturday afternoon, while browsing through our local independant auto enthuiasists' store here in Sacramento, CA, I was looking at a device called "The Tornado". I'm sure many of you here have seen it before. While looking in their application book, I see it is available for my '87 Aerostar XLT, with the 3.0 V6 "Engine code "U". It fits inside the duct that connects to the throttle body. Since there is a 3.0 v6 application, that tells me it will fit a variety of our Aerostars up to 1997. My question is, has anyone purchased The Tornado? Does it work? Comments, good or bad? The price was $64.95, which makes it affordable, but on the other hand, a waste of money if it produces no benefits. At $10, I might try it. That is why I'm asking other Aerostar owners here for their thoughts. With the high price of gasoline here in CA, I am thinking about any way to stretch MPG. On the other hand, I think to myself, "if The Tornado actually worked, wouldn't Ford, GM and Chrysler Corp. all be using them in the cars and light trucks, vans, to lower their overall CAFE numbers?" Comments? Thank You... 
Ed
Ed
Junior User
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 61
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From: Pittsburgh, PA
Don't bother with it. I tried it on my Focus, which has more of a straight pipe leading to the throttle body then the Aerostar, which should increase the Tornados effectiveness. I noticed about a 1 mpg improvement, although Consumer Reports said that the Tornado and any other fuel saving device similiar to it doesn't really do anything to improve mileage.
In theory, the Tornado could work, but in practice on most vehicles, it wouldn't work very well. But thats my experience, someone else could have had a better experience.
I bought it direct from the company on TV, which offered a 90 day money back guarantee. Which I took advantage of...
In theory, the Tornado could work, but in practice on most vehicles, it wouldn't work very well. But thats my experience, someone else could have had a better experience.
I bought it direct from the company on TV, which offered a 90 day money back guarantee. Which I took advantage of...
5th Wheeling
Joined: Apr 2002
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A local news program did an article of several fuel saving devices. They used them on the city vehicles (or maybe it was the county vehicles)? Whatever, but the mileage either remained the same or actually decreased on some.
Former ******
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 4,901
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From: Salt Lake City, Utah
Ok, here is the truth. The Tornado, in theory does work. But the design of the Tornado is flawed, in that it is to flexible, and too thin, so it does not create enough turbulence. It also crosses in the middle, which creates airflow restriction. SpiralMax is the original product, and the real deal. I tested a Spiralmax on my '92 3.0 Aerostar extended. The results where very significant. I have had it for several months now. The improvement in horsepower is very significant, and the improvement in fuel economy is too. I get about 18-20 MPG city. Don't do too much all highway driveing, so I don't know about that. A lot of the devices funtion has to do with the shape of the intake manifold, and the design of the engine. But consider this. Despite the alleged atomization of a fuel injected vehicles, some of them still have problems. And Chevy's Vertec engine uses a similar, though less effective method of atomiztion.
