Has anyone tried the Tornado air intake insert? It claims 10 to 20% fuel improvement and more power. I bought one from my NAPA dealer here in Canada and he said that NAPA were installing them on all of their delivery trucks. They expect to save several million dollars annually across Canada.
I put one in my Nissan Murano only last week so I don't have any results yet.

 

Crap crap and more crap. In a recent popular mechanics article they found gas mileage went down when using these devices. Some designs could even prove harmful to the engine if a peice breaks off.
As for personal experience, I have none. Then again, gas mileage really isn't my concern at all.

 

I wouldn't bother. If theres any mpg improvement at all, I would bet its from people who are easier on the throttle then they normally would be hoping they didn't just waste their money. Of course, i'm always skeptical until I have real life proof.

 

I have used them in a couple of my Cars and checked them several times. I got a slight increase in gas mileage maybe 1 mile to the gallon but not 10 or 20% . I believe they will pay for themselves over time. They claim that the mileage will vary depending on Car some are probaly better than others. Someone else is making a similar product I can not remember who. At the price of gas these days anything that works is a blessing.

 

Due to the dimensional complexity of your Corvette's air intake system, I believe the Tornado will only create resistance in your airflow. The Tornado accessory works by "swirling" the incoming air to your engine, much like a flushing toilet's water. You either have a crossfire, TPI, LT1, LT4 ,or LT5 engine, either way the intake has way too many bends, turndowns, and obstructions to benefit from the air swirling effect. According to an aquaintance of mine who is a teacher at Arizona UTI, most modern fuel injection systems actually lose efficiency with the Tornado installed! In my opinion, the only engines to benefit from this product would be a carbureted engine with an aircleaner and Tornado directly over the carburetor.

 

Since you bought one of those...can I interest you in some beach front property in North dakota? Or maybe a bridge in NY?

 

Junk
Also makes me question if I will use NAPA

 

Let us know how your results turn out and good Luck. AS I stated Before I have Tryed one. These are My REsults. I tried it in a 1997 F150 Ford Pickup V6 For 6 months with about the same results 1 mile to the gallon improvement. I have not tryed it in a older Car with Carburetor so I have no Idea about that. I have one in my 1996 LT4 Corvette! 1 have checked it 10 different times it does make a slight difference not much but a difference. I would buy anoyher one for any car I intend to Keep. I have no idea about the HP Claim just the gas mileage difference. Do the math if you get a 1/2 mile or 1 mile plus gain over time you will come out ahead. Just my O2 Why are so many experts that have never tried it even interested in giving a opinion. My buddies momas girlfreinds sister told me it works real well. And I will buy Ocean front properity if the price is right and if you can prove that you own it..

 

This is worse than the airfoil.

 

I know what you mean. So many people are afraid of anything new and sceptical that I'm surprised that we are not still driving horse and buggies.
I can tell you from an engineering perspective the better mixing that this provides is a key to any fuel burning process, industrial and commercial.
Figure the math. If you get 1 mile per gallon more on a car that gets 20 mpg tat is 5 %. With the price of gasoline, for me that is about $15 per month so in 6 months it pays for itself.

 

Don't let anyone's opinion supercede your actual results. If you improve your mileage, that's great. Yes, people, including me, love to give opinions. I just relayed what I heard and hope you get a good idea of this product and how it works. I would document 4 tank fulls in your Murano then make a decision based on that info. If the results are favorable, I would purchase the unit at a local Checker, Schucks, Kragen, Autozone to take advantage of their lenient return policy (as opposed to NAPA's hassle policy), if the unit does not improve your Corvette's mileage. Good luck!

 

I dont see how its going to help anything in our cars, our intake tract is relatively straight, no acute bends like on an F-body.

 

That's even more of a reason to use it. With straight intakes there is not enough mixing of fuel and gas and all of the other polution junk that is recycled to the air intake.

 

I can see how it might work in a carb or tbi motor to keep the fuel and air from seperating while traveling through the intake, put not on port injection with a dry manifold.

 

Due to fluid dynamics air that is travelling at a velocity less than turbulent will not be distributed evenly when it has to be separated into the 8 different cylinders. The only way to do this is with more pressure drop, which is counter to what most people want since pressure drop means less air to the engine. It is a trade off on air volume and air distribution. That's why turbos work. They pack more air in and do the mixing at the same time.

 

There are people who are afraid to try something new and then there are people who are knowledgeable enough to know when certain claims are full of crap.

Think about how your automobile engine works. It mixes fuel and air and runs that mixture through a combustion process to produce power. The results is power. The most chemically efficient ratio is 14.7:1 air to fuel, the point where all the fuel is consumed by the combustion process. Your car is designed to perform as close to this ratio as possible, constantly adjusting the fuel delivery to obtain it. If all of the fuel is burned in the process, IE 14.7:1 ratio, it doesn't matter if it was swirling or not. With some given fuel and air input you can only obtain a certain output.

In order to improve gas mileage this means that the device would somehow have to make the combustion process extract more power out of the same amount of fuel. If the engine is already running at a 14.7:1 ratio ALL of the fuel is being burned. Without adding more fuel, you cannot extract more power. If this really worked you would be violating the laws of thermodynamics, you would literally be creating energy from nothing which is not possible.

 

But if you don't add the corresponding amount of extra fuel you will not make more power. There is only so much energy per unit volume available in gasoline. The only way to make more power is to burn MORE fuel.

 

What you say is true, but the fuel burning efficiency is poor. Only about 40% of the available energy is used. Some energy that is wasted is the by-product CO instead of CO2 and water vapor instead of liquid water. The improvement in burning efficiency, burning some of that CO to CO2 will add more energy to the engine. If we could, like the high efficiency home furnaces, condense that water produced by combustion we would get even more energy out of the car engines.
I'm sorry I started this discussion. I was just responding to some that without any thought or information poo-poo any idea that they didn't think of or are afraid to try. I don't buy property in Arizona or bridges in NYC but I do keep an open mind when something like the Tornado makes technical sense. Whether it works is another story and I won't be afraid to admit it.

 

I agree that an automobile engine is far from 100% efficient, but the lack of efficiency isn't in the intake side of the system, it is in the process itself. As you say most of the energy from gasoline is simply converted to wasted heat. Unfortunately swirling the air isn't going to recover any of this into a better quality of engery.

 

We could get into an areodynamic discussion, but I'll just insert that this tornado device seems to change the direction of the intake air which would produce drag and this would slow the air down. At least the air foils try to streamline the airflow reducing drag. Still, the air foils don't do much.