cold air intake, tornado fuel saver, k&n air filter

[chrismcdonald12 0]

You mean hydro locking? Plain and simple, unless their is years of engineering behind the companies belt the products going to be chit. Theirs a reason cars these days are making more power and less emissions.... Good engineers with lots of experience under manufacturers belts.

[sick6ness 1]

Yes hydro locking is the term

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

A few of you guys already know, but when I was doing performance mods on a regular basis (before house/wife/baby), my sickness spread over onto my mothers truck. After doing all available bolt on mods to my explorer and not having enough money to move more on the Mercedes performance, I did a few little add on's to my mothers '97 Mountaineer 5.0.

K&N cold air intake + Jet Chip + Borla Exhaust. The performance adjustments, did wake up the motor a little and really open up the top end, along with some more mid range umph, and a wonderful improvement in sound. Throttle response is better and it seems a little freer revving. So, a 62 year old PhD, drives an SUV that sounds pretty rip roaring. Fun picture of said truck:

[djjdnap 78]

switched my normal air filter out and put in the cone K&N, gained about 1-2mpg....makes me wanna drive a lil faster though, cuz it drives sooo smooth

93tc btw

[Ferendon 0]

The octane you use depends on the manufacturers recommendation, if the car states use 93, 93 will give you optimal results in horsepower and gas mileage. Using lower octane in a car which doesn't call for it would actually decrease the mpg based on the law of diminishing returns.

As for the cold air intakes, you car IS taking in more air than the factory intake allowed it too. Which increases horsepower slightly, also increasing your mpg taking in to consideration that you drive normally (slow acceleration)

Edit: Bigjon the K&N air filter is just a better quality filter which goes on the end of the Cold air pipe. If you were to get a CAI I would say use a K&N filter for it.

Just a little physics for you.

As a piston moves down in a cylinder it is creating a vacuum. The amount of volume the piston displaces on its down stroke determines how much air is drawn into the cylinder. Air density, which is derived from pressure/temperature, is what changes. What the factory intake is guilty of is not being designed for keeping the air as cool as possible, rather it's designed for acoustic properties, ease of tube routing etc. The air filter when replaced with a K&N drop in will almost completely make up the difference from the paper filter, which restricts airflow, lowering the intakes ability to flow air. Air turbulence is also a common flaw in factory intake systems.

Cars are a dynamic equilibrium, add more air until the computer senses knock from a lean ratio, than said car ups fuel consumption. A rich car will produce less power than a properly tuned and/or lean car. A lean car is just at risk of detonation. It's just like saying that free'er flowing exhaust will increase gas mileage. Which is also not true once you get to a certain level of flow. A car with just an exhaust manifold will preform worse because of the lack of back pressure, which is bad for the valvetrain.

On another note, if your car is tuned conservitavely for 93 octane and you were to use 89 octane, you won't get worse gas mileage until the computer pulls timing from knocking (which you could realistically never hit that point. In theory if your car is factory tuned (ie, tuned rich) adding a cold air intake and increasing the air density will increase gas mileage. If it adds enough density for the knock sensor/computer to cause a timing retard you will not see gas mileage increases, and could see a decrease in fuel efficiency.

For example, a buddy of mines 2005 Ford Mustang roush stage 1 got worse fuel economy, knock, rough idle etc... from a steeda cold air intake until he had the computer tuned.

I must say, as a whole, the car performance and repair advice on the board is far and above most the car audio forums I've seen. A lot of what was said was right, but just as much was wrong. A majority of what is being discussed is completely circumstantial. As a whole, the Tornado is trash. On carb'd engines, some gains can be seen, but only 3 kinds of people still have carb'd engines. Those who do nothing but maintain their car because they love it, those who drive them into the ground because they can't afford better, and those who modify them to the gills, all cases, don't make room for crap like a Tornado.

I've personally used CAIs, Tornados, K&Ns, and a whole array of other intake modifications. There's is only so much you can do to increase fuel economy, but if you go too far, you're going to decrease fuel economy much more than improve it. Current car is a 92 Taurus SHO (Yamaha 3.0 V6, Mazda 5-speed trans), with a K&N drop in, removed silencer cone, 73mm MAF (stock is 55mm), and lots and lots of maintenance. The car is ugly as sin, and pretty rough to the eyes (purchased for $1300, 2 years ago, and has given me over 60k problem-free miles), but it is mechanically, tip-top. I pull about 30mpg, when I can keep my foot out of it. I put a CAI on it, and dropped to ~25mpg, and noticed some serious bogging when I romped on it, mid-powerband. I also dyno'd about 8 less whp with the intake. That's the reason it's on a shelf in my garage, boxed up. My stock heads flow 254cfm, which is far and above most cars, so I'm amazed that a few slight modifications, on the stock air box, yields 30 mpg, on a car rated for 24. Also, K&N filters have been dyno-proven, to add no power to most cars. For some, it's a convenience, since they don't have to buy a new filter every couple of months. On the same token, it has to be 'recharged'. Meaning, cleaned, dried, oiled, dried, check for 'bald' spots, and re-oiled if needed. Not enough oil, and it self-destructs. Too much oil, and it gunks up the MAF, throttle body, IAC valve, intake manifold, and even some in the heads. All for the low, low price of $40, compared to a paper filter, at $3.

Review of the Tornado : about.com