I have an interesting side bar to the IMCO 924.
1. it is lil quieter now that i have had it a week. Mike at Socal said it would gradually get quieter.

2. I had one of the Tornado gadgets that i bought on ebay a while back and tried it before and it didnt seem like it did anything in mileage and gave it a lil pick up. I was going to give it to Txsman2930 and then got to thinking, wonder if it would work better w the new muffler. and Txsman had asked me the same thing so i put it in yesterday before going to teach and this time instead of putting it by the housing i put it at the end in the fender well. easier to put in there as well.
open hood, reach in, pull hose out, insert tornado, push hose in hole, close hood. like 90 seconds. by the body you have to take a screwdriver and loosen it and then pull it off. still not hard just takes longer. plus i figured if it had more length to create the vortex it might work better. seems it does.

well initial findings-
the pick up from start was quicker and got rid of some lag that was there on taking off

rain and high humidity usually make it lack pep and today it was flying in high humidity and rain

yesterday it was dry and cool and it be smokin. i was having a blast. nothing worse than a crazy texan in a car that hauls around idiots that cant drive from out of state. LMBO

i have a lesson at 11 this morning so i am going to take it out and see if it is different or my imagination.

i am going to leave it in a couple of fill ups. I can tell you that before i left it in 2 fuel ups and no considerable or even a small difference in MPG. that part sucked. seemed to have a lil more pep but nothing like i would want to tell anyone about.

more to come
i got the one for the Equinox
this is the one i got
i paid less shipping for it back then, i 20.99 total according to pay pal so they have gone up on their shipping. there are lots of others higher and lower. there were not as many choices when i first got mine cause i looked.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Vorte...rdZ1QQtcZphoto



from what i know about flying there is one called a Turbnado,,,LOL,,, that is more rounded and more curved and according to bernoullis principal of fluids, this one may work better

Txsman is getting one for his HHR and imco 924 so we will see
all the rest he sells are 11.95 and the HHR one is 13.95. pooch gets screwed for being the new guy on the block.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Caval...temZ8046686482


on a side note this is just plain funny
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Caval...temZ8046686482

 

CJ-
Keep us posted with your findings. I actaully e-mailed the 'main stream' manuf/marketer (forgot the name of the company) of the tornado gizmo and they replied that they have NO intentions (at this time) of producing one for the HHR. Why, exactly- I'm not sure.
But- I'm interested in any results you may notice.
Thx.
-SCOOT

 

I've seen these vortex generators around for quite a while. They work well on some cars and don't on others. I don't see the logic in how one could produce improvements on the HHR though. Here's the airflow path I'm seeing:

Outside Air Intake Hose > Airbox > Panel Filter > Truncated Side of Airbox > MAFS > 90-degree Intake Elbow > Throttle Body > Intake Runners

If the "Tornado" or whatever is located at the end of the outside air hose, any increased flow benefit would be diffused once it hits the panel filter. There are still several airflow changes that take place after the filter where the airbox changes dimensions.

I'm interested to hear your report after driving it a second time and comparing.
It would be good to get back-to-back mileage figures for the same road trip too.

You know you could always hookup one of those air blowers and build a fully pressurized intake system!

 

I was always under the impression that those vortex things are a scam. But then again I have never tried one because of what I thought.

 

At least you still have all your money CH! (wait, better check!)

 

Go for the cold air induction system...

 

I have not used one of these *Tornado* type gadgets before, but I did install a Throttle Body Block on my Silverado 5.3L. This was simply a block of aluminum about an inch thick and it doesn't have fins, but the inside edges are grooved which causes a similiar effect. It works great on the V8. I noticed an increase in power and about 2 mpg better mileage, plus it makes this whistling noise when I romp on it. I'm definitely interested to see what you come up with CJ.... keep us posted!

CBL

 

ok, first i really thought this thing was a flaming piece of dog doo when i first tried it on our NOX and daughters cobalt and then my HHR the first time i used it. Had it in the wifes nox and it maybe did like 1 mpg better and it has nice pic up and she said she didnt notice any difference. did 2 tanks on daughters cobalt and in town just a tad over 1 to 1.5 mpg better. still nothing like what they tell you. i drove the nox and cobalt and the cobalt seemed better than the Nox on pick up but my daughters cobalt gets around pretty good. its a fun car and i love driving it. when i put it in the HHR i barely got 1 mpg increase and at first it seemed better but that was for like a day so i took it out and put it on the shelf.

so here is what i think now after driving it today and yesterday.

i drove Shaggy with it in yesterday all day and really ripped it all day and loved the way it felt. the drove it to first lesson again this morning in the rain and humidity to see if it was still quick,,,, it was great. came home and ate some breakfast and then drove w/o it in to my lesson at 10:30 which gives me 3 miles of city and around 7 miles on Bush Toll road and then a mile to the school and then all around town till i got done w my last lesson at 3 30. it wasnt as good and not as much pick up and seemed like i had to really put my foot in it to get it to go.

took in all of how it drove this morning with it out again, taught my last lessons and then put it back in coming home which gives me around 5 miles city and 5 North Dallas toll road and then 3 miles city again and here is what i found.

Findings for last 2 days:
i have to really put my foot in it to get it to move around town with it out. i use less pedal and have quicker starts with it in.

now it is not flaming by no means but there is a nice difference. one thing i noticed is on the freeway it is slightly quieter running 65 to 75 with it in and pick up from faster speeds is better. we arent talking like 10 DB but it is quieter and on city driving it is a nice low hum till you put your foot in it.
when you put ur foot in it and hit it hard which i did several times,,, it takes off quicker and you can feel the difference. i was shooting aound corners and really hammering it and the DIC is still showing around 21 which is not normal but i really go by miles and gallons used at fill ups and not the DIC.

so with the T924 muffler it seems to work better to me and so now i am going to fill it up tonight and really just drive normal and see what the difference in mileage is. i am self employed so i have to keep all my receipts and i have all my records in a small book for mileage and expense records for taxes. so i have solid records to compare to.

will keep you posted as i get info

 

Well, that settles it - now I'm going to have to buy one and see what happens!

*Note: every time you alter the exhaust on a vehicle, the intake is affected and vice versa (i.e. If you changed your stock intake to an aftermarket, you would need to open up the exhaust a bit). Increasing the intake velocity (IF this thing works!), could have a good effect on the HHR > we'll see!

 

Mike, did you get to try it yet? Years ago I put one in my Saturn. I got incredible milage (like 35 at 70 mph) driving to Albany with it and a new set of Splitfires. Don't know which did it, though.

So, we all need to know if it actually helps the HHR. (Not that I don't believe CJ-I just want another success story),