tornado

hello all, just wondering about a product called the tornado. has anyone heard of it and does it actually make a difference in the cars performance. i currently have a k&n high flow air filter, and i cut a few round holes in the intake box of my lumina. i can feel the difference as oppose to a regular paper filter. thanx

A few other automotive forums have discussed that product, some have even gone as far to do dyno testing... the conclusion has been the same - it does absolutely nothing. Complete waste of money.

You made a much better investment buying the K&N than the Toronado.

Vortex inducing intake blocks, split or multiple electrode plugs, fuel line magnets, electric superchargers, oh man...I wish I was jerk enough to market this kinda stuff.

When you see stuff like this, the best test is to ask yourself, if it can be made that cheaply, and improve performance/economy that drastically, wouldn't it be standard in every car produced?

Thanx Guys

wow, I was considering that electric supercharger, but not anymore. Thankyou yet again jeff for everything. what i would really like to know, is, my air is supplied to the filter box with what I would say is a real small hose. Its not small by any means, but its relatively smaller than the hose going from the filterbox to the intake. I was wondering if maybe there would be any way to fabricate my own larger hose and re-rout it to maybe get so called "ram air"? Anyone ever expariment with this at all? Any ideas I should consider? How should I do this? Thankyou.

wow, I was considering that electric supercharger, but not anymore. Thankyou yet again jeff for everything. what i would really like to know, is, my air is supplied to the filter box with what I would say is a real small hose. Its not small by any means, but its relatively smaller than the hose going from the filterbox to the intake. I was wondering if maybe there would be any way to fabricate my own larger hose and re-rout it to maybe get so called "ram air"? Anyone ever expariment with this at all? Any ideas I should consider? How should I do this? Thankyou.

I thought a little about that too. That inlet is pretty small. Another reason I knocked out those holes in the box. It would be interesting to get a ram air setup going, the only problem I see is that the way air flows around cars anymore, the only place you actually get any good positive air pressure at speed is under the car, like down where the deflector diverts air up into the radiator. And down that low, you get dirty air, and run the risk of sudden water aspiration and hydrolock if you find yourself in fast rain and/or deep water.

Some of the better setups I've seen incorporate a safety feature that pops a "safety valve" if the upper part of the CAI's vacuum level increases to a certain point (indicating a solid mass of water entering) and opens a secondary inlet higher up, so the water can't be inhaled, and shuts a flapper in the lower end so no ,ore water can enter. Ever try to drink through a straw with a hole in it? Same idea :iceslolan . But these are pricey setups.

Even in the grille opening I doubt there is enough airflow to give any meaningful velocity gains to intake air, these are largely for looks and nostalgia anymore, don't do a whole lot for cooling. People hate the look of a fully closed in nose, even though it's better for airflow and very feasable. Notice how NASCAR stockers tape them up as much as they can get away with for better aero's? I think it's more useful for the fans to pull air when the car isn't moving than anything else. The majority of radiator airflow comes in from under the car.

Some will actually overheat moving down the road if the deflector gets knocked off by a parking block or bottom-out. That's how much they depend on that undercar flow these days.

One solution that you'd have to be pretty gung-ho and sure of what you are doing would be to actually cut into the frontmost part of the bumper cover, and create a channel for a duct back to the intake. That would put your inlet out at the very front of the car, where air would be driven in before it began to be directed around the body. The other would be to put a ram air blister on the hood or body somewhere to stick out into the laminar airflow around the car and catch some moving air.

Otherwise, you might end up breathing from a low-pressure zone in the airflow, and find that you have worse performance than without your setup. That'd suck. :eek7: :mad:

Also you'd need to select your ducting carefully, ones with structural features inside the duct are good for reducing velocity and imparting turbulent chaotic airflow. This negates the whole purpose you were trying to accomplish by giving a better inlet. You want a smooth interior and a straight as possible shot to the intake manifold for best performance.


Considering all this, and the way the intake sits on the motor, I bet the best setup would be straight in from the driver's side, eliminating that almost 90 degree bend that the air has to follow in the stock duct. That's hard to accomplish, there's not a lot of room there. So the next best thing would be to follow the factory path, but try to improve flow and velocity.

Increasing the length of the intake path increases terminal velocity, so as you reach out to where you are gonna bring in ram air, it will have this effect if the duct is smooth inside, and the bends are kept to a minimum. You'd have to be able to locate the MAF in an area where the duct was straight, behind a bend the airflow might not be totally linear, and may even have some element of cavitation during WOT operation, which would really produce some weird MAF readings. That's part of why they try to locate them so close to the airbox, generally.

The more I look at the space available under there, and consider the dynamics of the airflow around the car, they did a pretty good job of designing these with what they had to work with. Not that there's not room for improvement, but not bad for factory with mass production and normal driving in mind.

I'm gonna look at mine a little harder once the sun comes up, and see if anything else comes to mind. I'm wondering if a longer duct, sourced from another vehicle at the junkyard, could be run out beyond the core support, eliminating the stock airbox, and use a cone filter on the end up in front of the radiator inside the nose? Wouldn't get ram air, but would increase terminal velocity and allow for cooler air to enter.

wow, thank you jeff. I always seem to learn from you one way or another. What I eventually want to do is find a piece of plastic that is about 8 inches long by about 4 high, and that goes down to about a 4 inch tube. Mount it somehow right behind the grille, and then rout that tube to my the bottom of my stock intake. Does that make sense? Do you think it would work at all? Am I just wasting time? Any ideas where I might find the parts? Thankyou. I've notice all the cone air filters on ebay, but somehow doubt to see any real gains in performance because it does get more air, but the air it gets is warm air. So yeah, any input would be greatly appreciated.

I was looking at mine earlier, and I can't really come up with any way to go through or over the core support in any useable way without cutting a hole in it.

yeah, I myself was considering just enlarging the hole that was already there for the oem intake. I dont know, I will probably ping around the net and see if i can find some cheap materials, and spend an afternoon just dinking with my car. Just to see what I can do. Any ideas where I might find some smooth flexable large tubing?

just a note on the tornado. The mesh screen in the throttle body near the Mass air flow sensor is designed to straighten out airflow, and will negate any "super swirly power" created by the tornado. T

hey jeff, ok, I was playing with my lumina today, and I think i want to punch some holes in the bottom of my stock air box. the biggest drill bit I have is i believe 3/4 of an inch. Do you think I should use this and put mayby 5 holes in the bottom? I was a bad boy today and just unhooked my intake hose from the filter box, and started it up and revved it a few time with nothing on. I was impressed revved good, sounded great and powerfull. So now I want to harness that power safely. I have a k&n filter for the stock filter box. I just want a few tips on drilling into my plastic. is there any thing in the way undernieth i should be worried about hitting? How about, could there ever be too many holes? what would you recommend? 2001 Lumina sedan 3.1L V6. Also on a side note, the car has 55,000 miles on it, and leaving my g/f's house tonight, it missed really really bad. I was acellerating to 55, and not really hard, it was about 3500 to 4000 rpm's (yes I have a tach), and it like hit a brick wall for a second it seemed like it missed so bad, and then I stopped, and accellerated a little faster to try to get it to do it again, and low and behold, yet again. (not as bad though). plugs and wires were never changed, but look very good, I was looking for my fuel filter today too when I was messing with the air filter, and call me stupid, I couldnt find it. I thought it was under the driverside door. where is it on the numer luminas? Also, what do you think I should do with the miss? The check engine light didnt come on, so obviously it wasnt that bad, but i want it running smooth because as you probably dont know, I'm an 18yr old going to be driving 45 miles a day to my college here starting in august, and want this car to make it every day. Also, it idles down to 800 rpm's, but lately its kinda been idleing rough, my g/f even noticed one day. She said, why is your car shaking so much. I guess I havn't given it much thought till she brought it to my attention. I know I should do plugs and wires, but would it need it at 55,000 miles? they look good, and not cracked. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. sorry for the long post. Thankyou. Happy 4th of July Everyone.

YES! There is A/C lines/receiver under it! Don't try to drill it with the box in place. It's easy to remove.

You could go to the hardware store or WalMart and get a cheapo hole saw set. Like $5. I blew out three one and a half inch holes in mine.

Your filter will be underneath back by the tank. Your wires and plugs should be fine, but that filter needs to be changed. If I remember right, it's toward the passenger's side.

o really? autozone.com told me that my filter is on the driverside right under the driver seat. I know I looked, and didnt find anything there. Thankyou. How do i remove this filter box without breaking everything in site? Nice LTZ by the way, is it yours? Or is it an ls with the taillights of an ltz?

did the 3 holes in yours actually improve performans, or am i wasting time, and ruining a perfactly good filter box? Thanks again

I have some improvement, especially stomping it off the line. It seemed to take a little time for the computer to recognize it, actully seemed a little dead at first, but maybe that's just me. Sounds great! :evillol: Really barks now from the front.

Mine's a '97, but I'd think your filter should be in the same general area.

It's actually an LS, I put the LTZ wing on it and blacked the rear panel, I like that look better. :iceslolan

The box isn't hard to remove, if it's like mine. I think there was just 2 small screws or bolts holding it down. I thought about just boring through it with it in place, but was glad I didn't. :uhoh:

http://images5.theimagehosting.com/airbox.JPG (http://www.theimagehosting.com)

Here's a pic of mine. You can see how close that receiver is to the bottom. If you drilled down, you'd go right through it. I was looking at it, and I think there was just one holdown bolt, then a push fit through a bushing, and it pops off.

I did the hole you see, in the side, another one facing the battery, and one through the bottom, that you can barely see part of in the pic.

If you try to drill it with a drill bit, it may crack the plastic. You really need something that cuts. A drill bit's face widens as it goes through, plastic doesn't like that. The stress splits it.

thank you so much for all the advice. I try to do as much as i can to my car to improver performance, but i always seem to mess soemthing else up. lol. But yeah, that ls sure looks nice. i want to get my windows tinted. and put some ltz rims on if you remeber, but they hit calipers. damn. o well. thanks again.

great thread...i am gonna try it first thing in the morning....i do have a cutter set for the drill machine which is from 1 inch to 3 inch...
i will keep you all posted on what happened afterwords.

Thanks again you all.
Great Forum!
Great All!.

Hey Jeff, have you actually seen an improvement in performance, ie 1/4 mile time, 0-60, or is it a seat of the pants feeling? I am just curious, as doubting the Great Jeffcoslacker can be hazardous to your health, ;).

Hey Jeff, have you actually seen an improvement in performance, ie 1/4 mile time, 0-60, or is it a seat of the pants feeling? I am just curious, as doubting the Great Jeffcoslacker can be hazardous to your health, ;).

Just gut feeling. The difference is not earthshattering, but noticeable. Have not actually timed it, but the most noticeable part is when I pounce on it at high speed, like a 70 mph punch to pass a few cars.

Besides, just the extra noise is worth it :iceslolan

just to keep you all posted...
after my modification, even with the original filter, i am getting a lot more torq....its definitly worth to do it.

my next step will be installing K&N filter...lets see the results after that.

Best Regards