Tornado or Helix?

[wxman1]

Anyone using either of these products?

I did a search on tornado but nothing but
comments on severe weather. There was one mention
of a product called the helix. When I went to
their website...there was no part number for
our trucks. Just trying to save a little
fuel.

Jim
Mt Juliet

[benwantland]

The general consensus on these products is that they are junk.

[adamls]

I used one on my 99 from PowerDyne and took it off after a couple months. The truck would miss under heavy load and idle real bad. Took it off, no more problems.

[Project1970]

If they actually worked, manufacturers would use 'em. They're underenough pressure from the gov't to reduce fuel consumption that any cheap improvements with benefits like that would be installed on everything now...

[68 Suburban]

With the price of gas going up, beware of "snake oil" cures to improve mileage.

[ChevLoRay]

I had a '96 Silverado, 5.7L Vortec. Great engine. I thought that since I was driving about 45K per year (job related) that I could tell if the device had any merit. They have a 30-day moneyback guarantee. I took it back after 2 weeks.

For one thing, the installation in my Silverado called for it to be installed ahead of the MAF sensor in the intake tube. It wouldn't go where they said to put it. I sent an email to the mfr., stating where I had put it, and they said "that is where it is supposed to be". Okay, so already it wasn't going to be where it should be for the best results.

Another thing: Consider that the device is designed to "increase turblence" in the intake, and that turbulence is supposed to increase horsepower. How? My experience has shown that smoothing out the air flow (K&N stub stack) is supposed to be more beneficial for performance. That means that eliminating turbulence is the goal. There is a place for it, in the combustion chamber. A fancy twirly device in the intake ain't gonna make the fuel mixture more turbulent in the combustion chamber. And, the twirly device ain't no supercharger, or turbocharger, or related in any way to one.

Bottom line: the Tornado is just another gimmick!

I don't have any experience with the other "helix" devices. They're designed to work with throttle bodies. A simple spacer will create a longer intake runner and do just as much, for less money, on a carbureted engine.

[yellowgmc]

i used one in my dakota. didn't fit right, made no difference at all. looked pretty tho.

[67Fleetsidedream]

Another infocommercial scam.


Ben

[Oborny71]

I guess the swirl-torque spacers by TD performance actually add a few lbs of torque. I remeber reading a couple year old popular hotrodding mag and they tested it and it added like 3-5 ft lbs. not that much, but we take all we can get right?

[rin68]

The Tornado is a piece of crap, simply put.

On the other hand, the Helix Power Tower does what the torando tries to do. It works very well too. Its a spacer with some thick, rifling like grooves around the I.D. of the air inlets. The Chevy truck units (TBI and Vortec) have got nothing but great reviews at work (Performance Auto in Fargo, ND) if you're interested in one call them at 701-237-4641. The only complaint we've heard is a whistle at wide open throttle and even that is and intermittent problem

Here's the Helix...

[spinning wheels]

bottom line, they restrict air flow. What they claim is they help atomize fuel better, so this is supposed to help the fuel burn more complete. I thought a tuned carb was supposed to do that! They claim it increases fuel milage, this is true, cause the damn car/truck is being choked up. You might as well install a 1 barrel carb. It would slower than hell, but it would get better gas milage, that is until you burn up your valves or pistons. Well, that's just MHO

[Eddie H.]

I tried one of the helix spacers on a fuel injected vortec 350 once. I couldn't tell any difference except for the whistle noise it made at part throttle???

[adamls]

My powerdyne, see above, was the same as the Helix Power Tower and I took it off just a couple months after I put it on, but if you want one for a Vortec 4.8 or 5.3 the let me know I will drop it for little $.