Vortex?
 

Anyone familiar with the AIR VORTEX part that supposedly increases hp by swirling the air. It is a non-moving part that is placed into the air intake. Is this a poor man's turbo or a scam?
THANKS

scam. ANYTHING inside your intake flow is a restriction and counterproductive. A "swirl effect would be beneficial ONLY on carburated vehicles with a long runner length where atomization of fuel is more important.

On EFI cars the fuel is injected directly in front of the intake valve...air tumble is worthless. What you are looking for is smoothness of air flow....hence why people polish their intake plenums.

Thanks.

no prob....does that answer your question?

yes. Thanks again.
 

Great resource.

if what roddimus says is true then why did Mercedes just develop and release an engine with built in tumblers that create turbulence in the airflow as it enters the cylinders? Even for fuel injected vehicles air tumble inside the combustion chambers helps mix the fuel and create a more uniform combustion. With that said, it may or may not be a scam, the thing with the mercedes engine is that it varies with engine speed and it doesnt sound like this vortex peice would. Sorry if this doesnt help.

you answered your own question....INSIDE the combustion chamber....the only reason that is even an issue is because you are trying to get 100% atomization of air fuel prior to combustion. Air tumble is an obstruction in the air tract as it is already smoothed out at the intake valve. If you could see a head operate underwater you'd see that the air entering the intake valves(s) is basically conformed to the opening made by the valve seat. Tumbling stops at this point....unless someone tries to make it re-tumble...which is pointless. Remember that tumbling air is not smooth flowing air. I'd rather have the entire intake tract filled with smooth flowing cold air, sprayed with gas a split second before becoming compressed and ignitied.

The maf sensor has to have laminar air flow for consistent readings. If you put a vortex in the intake, the maf screen would just flatten it back out, or try to anyway.

yeah, although some people remove the MAF screen with no adverse affects. I have heard that a lot of GM owners (3.2L 3.4L, 3.8L ) remove the wire baffle before their TB to a performance gain.....theres however looks a lot more restrictive than the black grating in ours.

Maybe we should ask some of the people that complain about poor gas mileage if they've pulled it out.