This post is out of sheer curiosity. I doubt I’d ever take the time to ship my ECU to the UK.

But, I’m curious to know if anyone here has sent their ECU to Tornado Systems? Their description of the gains from the reprogramming makes sense. Marginal peak power improvement, but a steady torque improvement and economy improvement in the mid range.

So, what say you? Have you or someone you know shipped off your ecu? If so, any noticeable improvement in driveability or economy?

https://www.tornadosystems.com/produ...8-thor-engine/

 

wonder if they can improve the mpg with the economy program

 

Dammm I just looked at the price ouch

I emailed them to find out if any mpg gains are gained by economy reflash

 

Im curious too. lol I dont believe there's ANYTHING that can improve our mileage. I love the way my Disco runs and performs, but sheesh she's thirsty!

 

@Bignacio I don’t understand tuning intimately, but I do know that there’s almost always something to be gained by programming the fueling parameters. How much, is the question. I also doubt it’s meaningful/ worth the price, but I’m certainly curious.

 

Yes, I just browsed their site. It s pricey. If it really did make some kind of significant improvement I would spend the money. Maybe some folks from the UK who have done this could chime in and enlighten us...

 

Looked at this a long while back. Tornado seems to be the most prominent. There is another place I found in Maryland that could tune it as well, SpeedTuning USA. I haven’t used either. It just never seemed to be worth the price. Small gains for pretty steep prices. I went a different path with the LS.

Tuning alone has limited gains with naturally aspirated engines. Turbo engines are different on the other hand. I do wonder about getting some more MPG from moving to an electric fan though.

 

I have an electric fan and there is no notable change in mpg, or horsepower for that matter. I don't recommend it really and will be changing back to a mechanically driven fan at the next opportunity. The biggest drawback is what happens when your alternator fails. Which is you have about 20 minutes of time left before shut down of all systems, and that's if it is daylight and dry. Might not be an issue if you just drive around town but somewhere off the grid it's a concern and I'm not comfortable with it.

As for the tune, of course we all know everything on these engines was tuned with emissions as the primary concern, not performance. So I would guess there could be a tuning that would emphasize performance, but at what cost. More power equals more heat and lower mpg.

 

@Dave03S interesting on the electric fan. Good to know.

With the tune, I do think it’s likely it helps economy incrementally. Every vehicle I’ve done an aftermarket performance tune on (along with bolt ons like a free flowing exhaust) gained performance and economy. You usually just enjoy the performance more so that negates the economy benefits.

The tornado description claims 3-4hp increase and 10-15lb feet of torque, while greatly improving driveability and increasing economy by 10-15%.

I certainly won’t dispute these claims, but I think if you want a real power increase Cylinder Heads are where to look. Turner, RPI engineering, and all the Rover V8 specialist offer higher flow cylinder heads. I’m willing to bet that those heads + the tornado tune would make the motor a lot more lively.

But to Dave’s point, these trucks are thirsty as is. Ultimately an LS swap is the best option for improved performance. Idk about y’all but I actually like the Rover V8….

Just wanted to see if anyone here has done the Tornado upgrade. If it does what they claim then it’s certainly worth considering!

 

I'm on my second 4.6. This one is from AB. I have about 1K miles on it. There is warranty with it, thank God. If something goes wrong down the road, Im definitely going with the LS swap. I'll rant about my bad experience on the first rebuild in a new thread. What a horrible nightmare. With all the mods Im only getting 10-11 MPG.