Has anyone tried this or herd of it? http://www.turbonator.com/index.html...WordsMagCamaro

it's a rip-off of the tornado... and it doesn't work

yea.. it might spin the air right afterwards, but after all the turns and angles it has to go through to get to the cyl's the turning has completely stopped and it does nothing at all for you.. there are tons of those things out there. All from different places, all the same basic design, and all are pretty worthless

(not to mention about 3 months ago the turbonator was only 29.99. Looks like someone is trying to take advantage of the gas prices)

Whats really sad is that there was a plug for it on two guys garage or whatever the show is called. I know they have enough automotive knowledge to know its crap but the new angle is increased gas mileage. Snake oil anyone...

yea.. i am sure them things have sold pretty well too since many just take what they see on tv and instantly believe.. It would be like having one of those things for a carb.... there is no way it will work.. but i have seen people buy them *shakes head*

junk. just plain junk

I'm going to send this thread to mythbusters! lol They will get all scientific on it and tell the world the truth about these lies.

Man... for that cheap I would test it on my car. I would take all the install pics, before and after stat readings/dyno tests/ mpg caculations ext... All of that info would be posted here then if it didnt make the results that they advertise I would send the oem and their customers all the stats and info about how it does not do what it is said to do.

ok i had one myself on my '91 Z28...cost me $69.99, and was a complete rip-off. not only did i NOT notice any HP OR gas mileage changes...but 4 weeks after i put it on, i popped the hood, and randomly decided i was going to check at my Torndao, and saw that it had come unlodged from its location and was sitting freely against the intake manifold...hmmm metal to metal clashing, sounds like it might do some damage...yea i put it back in the box and took it right back to AutoZone saying i never put it on the car and got my money back...

All you need to know:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/auto...tml?page=1&c=y

Thank You, now we never have to see a thread like this again!

That last one in that article is pretty funny.. 400$ for a piece of junk that cost you more money in gas, instead of saving fuel... The claim it makes is pretty stupid, although you can actually create such a reaction as to have a very small Sun like anomoly within water if it is bombarded with the right sound waves (I remember reading about the experiments in papers published when i was in college in 1999). However, You can effectively break water down into O2 and Hydrogen By applying an electrical current through i thing zinc.... i think,.. I remember doing it in a physics class we had.. It was interesting because we got the the labels wrong on the glass beakers where the two gases were going and darn near blew the work area up whn we ignited the Hydrogen gas by mistake (O2 burns in it's pure gas state, but does not have as violent reaction as it does with hydrogen when it burns)

Anyhow.. to break water apart i think with all the supplies it would cost you 30$ The biggest problem is actually getting the made gas into a container and then pressurize it.

Awesome article

I can't believe that some people would actually think some of those gadgets would actually work. PT Barnum was right.

The BEST device I ever found for saving gas is a lighter foot.

I'm surprised that someone hasnt' invented a a shoe with hooks to tie helium balloons on to it so your foot stay as light as possible (and save gas).

Someone was selling something on Ebay that helped save gas on SUV's.. It was a wood block and two zip ties to attach it under the gas pedal.

Kevin D.

Now that is inventive

I remember hearing once that people will believe anything, either because they have to or they wish to.... That is one of those prime reasons sales for such things are so good... because people see high gas prices and those all supposedly increase performance and gas performance.. therefore.. it only stands to reason since everyone wants these two things.. that they will believe it will do it, because they truely wish to believe it will do it.

In all honesty, the ONLY modification I have found truly effective in increasing gas mileage is modifying your eprom to run Highway/Lean Mode (with a functioning EGR). When I was experimenting with the eprom and Highway/Lean Mode, I was able to get my L98 to get 30 US MPGs.

However, there is a risk with running too lean. It's NOT grenading your enigne (as most would suspect) because the EGR greatly reduces the volatility of the mixture. The big risk of running too lean for long periods is you might burn out your cats (though I never experienced this).

But certain eprom mods can increase gas mileage. The best thing, when you boot it, it returns to normal WOT and pollutes good like an engine should.

I get a kick out of theese gadgets. I guess you have to ask your self do I want horse power or do I want lots of gas mileage???? If you want great mileage then go buy a metro lsi!!!!!

And for good *** do not let a teenage sibling drive the thing

took 2.0 seconds of my 1/4 time. snickers with a smile



oh wait maybe this did.
slp cold air, bbk twin 52tb, ported and siamesed plenum, as&m semi siamesed runners, tpis bigmouth manifold,
afpr@52psi, walbro in tank pump, stock injectors, heddman long tubes, true duals with h-pipe, electric waterpump, a/c smog delete, p/s delete, accell 300+ ignition, msd billit dizzy
& wires. ssm weld in sfc and liftbars.
stock heads, cam and bottem end


__________________

Did you post details about this (possibly on the prom board)? I’ve played with it on and off and have never been able to document an mpg increase no matter what I tried. Of course, most of my driving is mixed, not really highway or city.

http://forums.carreview.com/printthread.php?t=507

here is another forum on the turbonator...this is about 1 hour worth of reading and it is pretty interesting....i read this after i ordered a spiralmax just for kicks and giggles...i paid about 25 w/ s and h......although now i am kicking myself in the nuts cuz i did this...but i will tell you guys how this works on my vehicles...everything from a 02 Yukon w/ a 4.8 to a 97 Chevy 1500 w/ a 350 5.7....so you guys will hear from me next week....

Oh my ***, are these guys braindead? There is so much misinformation I don't........I'm......I just don't know what to say.

The turbunator.....fits best in a small trash can rather than an intake tube...

Along with the electric supercharger, the TPS modifier, the IAT modifier, the list goes on

Agreed! Horsepower ain't cheap...well, maybe if it's given to you. Presents are niiiice...Now I need some.

yes i agree....HP aint cheap.....for me this is one of those moments that you just wonder "What the Hell was i Thinking!?" I had an intellectual misfunction. Yeah there is quite some bit of misinformation and then there is also some good info if you keep reading into it...about 15 min or so....but yeah you read it and your like "WHAT.....???!!!!" but just goes to show that there are some people (me too) that just act before they think.....

I spent $480 on a pair of L7's that sound like ***...I made the rookie mistake of buying based upon brand instead of a listening test.

Sucks, man...

it happens alot....people buy because of the brand instead of the quality....happens with clothing and auto parts....(dont mean to offend anyone) but this happens with mufflers as well...everyone usually buys flowmaster if its the first time just cuz it is better known than other brands....i for one did that but never again.... just one of the many lessons in life....

it happens alot....people buy because of the brand instead of the quality....happens with clothing and auto parts....(dont mean to offend anyone) but this happens with mufflers as well...everyone usually buys flowmaster if its the first time just cuz it is better known than other brands....i for one did that but never again.... just one of the many lessons in life.... in short do research first then buy....and to get back on track....DO NOT BUY THE DAMN TURBONATOR, SPIRALMAX, TORNADO...OR WHATEVER ELSE IS OUT THERE THATS SIMIRAL........a waste of money....repeat a waste of money....

here's how to save gas

quit slamming the gas pedal coming out of every red light ( not everyone is trying to race your rust bucket)
quit doing burnouts in front of your ex-girlfriends house just to piss her off (although I personally don't find that a waste)
lose some damn weight!!! (and I'm not talkin bout the car chunky)
quit doing 100mph on the highway
use your damn overdrive
if you have a stick get your *** out of the bottom gears and coast a little

but here's a serious tip
only fill to half a tank at a time. This will reduce the cars driven weight . A gallon of gas weighs about 6 pounds. Given a 15 gallon tank, if you only fill to 7 gallons thats a weight savings of 48 pounds. yes it's a pain in the *** but it also gives you better 0-60 times. Doesn't seem like much but it does make a difference, but I tried it filling up completely driving from Cincinnati to Atlanta, and then filling up only to half full on the way back. I averaged 15mpg on the way down and 17 on the way back. Sure was scary in the boondocks hoping I didn't run out of gas though.

Personally, If you are driving one of these cars and worrying about gas mileage you probably need a different car

If i got 5$ for anytime one of these stupid things was posted, i'd be rich. Piece of crap, dont buy it, the end.

I used to think I was a true A**hole, but these guys take the cake. I could go into my garage and bang out about 30 of these in a few hours, and then go screw everyone over on ebay by charging the cost for the materials and just setting a flat shipping rate of $20. It would be maybe $5 in materials, $5 to ship USPS and $15 profit per TORNADO without even marking up material cost. If you could make and sell just 5 a day thats $50 per day, $350 PER WEEK! On second thought I'm still an A**hole, I'm just not a CROOK!

There’s plenty of things out there but people refuse to think critically before they speak and do. Just because kicker, sphon, intel… (any other decent company) sells it doesn’t mean that it is appropriate for your use. L7’s were designed to get maximum cone area in a minimum space for SPL competition, where in “SPL” is there anything about sound quality?

BSFC is lower with the throttle wide open. If you harness all the force that you produce when you go WOT and don’t apply extra for what you need you’ll actually get better gas mileage that way, or even better, if you build the engine so it does what you want to be doing on the road at WOT.

At least you got her fat *** out of the car… she’s saving you gas already, why be pissed at her?


hey man, I’m sexy at 300#.

Aerodynamics, drag, friction, gearing and powerband all have a lot to say where your car is going to get the best mileage, but I guess it is fairly safe to say that nothing resembling a production car will get best mileage at 100mph. Some combinations in aerodynamic bodies (say, for example, f-bodies) do surprisingly well at high speeds assuming that the drivetrain is well matched and you’re not running stupid tires (in most cases if you’re running bigger wheels you’re waiting gas).

My K1500 gets worse mileage in OD then it does in D, with stock gears my WS6 didn’t do any better in 6th then 5th… again, look at the above answer.

“lugging” hurt gas mileage…

huh, never thought about it, but that’s a very good point. Hell my truck has a 36 gallon tank I could put 10 or 15gal in it at a time and save well over 100lbs. for that matter the tank has recently developed a leak if you fill it all the way up… not spilling gas will save my some gas also, huh?


not necessarily… back in the day there were adds touting V6 f-bodies as economy cars, and many of even the 305 (especially TBI) cars are capable of >30mpg on the highway with the right combination of parts.

For a while when I still had my ’83 TA we usually used that for road trips because it got better mileage on the highway then her sunfire.

I would agree that with the right combination on a tpi car you could easily achieve 30 mpg, but at what cost. Most guys I know who own Camaro's are more concerned about performance. That's all I meant. If you have a thirdgen and your worried about gas mileage please sell your car to someone in need of a good start for a musclecar.

I would be careful with only "half filling" your gas tank on running on the last half. With "in tank" fuel pumps, the gas is also used to cool the fuel pump. People who tend to drive with low levels of gas in their tank also tend to have more fuel pump failures.

I prefer to keep my tank as full as possible to prolong my fuel pumps life as long as possible. Fuel pumps are not cheap or easy to replace.

Lastly, the amount of difference 50 lbs makes is insignificant. I have never really noticed any difference in mileage when I've had a passenger in my car or not. However, gently pushing on the throttle and not stomping on it made a great difference.

Yeah, there is an article I described years ago on the DIY Prom Board outlining what I did to lean out the engine. The quickest way to see if it's working (besides driving a long distance) is to hook up a scan tool and watch the injector PW when you start running Highway Mode (with a LOT of spark advance).

I saw my Injector PW drop from 2.0-2.1 ms at a steady cruise on level ground at 60 mph to 1.7-1.8 ms. That equates to about a 10-20% decrease in the PW. On a highway test, I noticed a definite 20% increase.

As I use to use my F-body for business and deducted the car and gas off my income taxes, I maintained a lot of records, including gas. In normal driving, I use to get a little over 10 km/litre (23.5 US mpg). With Highway Mode (and a lot of spark advance), I got just over 12.5 km/litre (29.5 US mpg).