Loafer Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 Glasspacks on my 51 Ford Coupe flathead 8 sounded wonderful. My 55 Chevy V8 sounded great. My 57 Chevy 283 sounded awesome. Even my Olds Cutless 6 sounded good with a deep rumble. Now I'm wondering if my 2012 Connect 4 banger could possibly have a rich deep muffler sound? I'm wondering what talented muffler guy has figured that one out yet, or, am I doomed to the rice burner bumble bee sound? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beta Don Posted June 6, 2017 Share Posted June 6, 2017 If you have an engine that makes sweet music, a good set of pipes can really intensify your pleasure. A sweet V8, a Ferrari V12, even Porsche flat 6 would be excellent candidates Never had a '51 Ford, but did have two '57 Chevy's and a '58 Corvette and then an SS 396 Chevelle and they all sounded pretty darned good. I did put a set of six stainless pipes on my CBX and was in heaven! As close to a Ferrari as I'm ever likely to own But a 4 cylinder just doesn't make my kind of 'music' - Don't get me wrong . . . . I really LOVE four cylinder vehicles and my last 4 or 5 cars have all been fours. Mazda Miata and 3 other Mazdas and now the TC - I bought it specifically because it was a four. For me the best thing a four can do is be as near silent as possible on the freeway - Don't need any of that enhanced buzziness I hear from fours with pipes. I'll get my music from the stereo! Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loafer Posted June 6, 2017 Author Share Posted June 6, 2017 Yah, four cylinders don't know how to sing. I was hoping against hope that someone somewhere had solved that problem. My stereo too will knock the fleas off a dog, but there's nothing as sweet as a low rumble. The guy or gal who invents one will be a saint to me. We need to send out a message along the home garage telegraph. Maybe Ford would sponsor a contest with a prize for the best one. I know a water drum makes a deep sound. Maybe a water muffler? Hmmmmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loafer Posted June 7, 2017 Author Share Posted June 7, 2017 (edited) Beta Don, I was thinking during the quiet hours how fortunate I was when I started driving. Many of the younger folks today have no sense of how things were back then. When I was in high school I purchased a 51' Ford Coupe in good shape for $100.00. Gas at that time was 17 cents a gallon. Older model hotrods from the 30's and 40's were everywhere. My friend had a 49 merc coupe painted bright yellow with the sweetest sounding glass packs imaginable. Fords especially the 40 coupe and the mercury coupe were everywhere. 1937 Fords were hot too, some stock, some not. Speed shops were prolific where work could be done reasonably. Every kid had a job and sunk all his or her money into their cars. Well, almost all of it anyway, we had to have stove pipe jeans, tee shirts, and bleached wing tip shoes. Most of us tried to do our own mechanical work before taking it to the speed shop for more advanced stuff. Even me, with the mechanical ability of a frog, did my own work. Cars were simpler then. Life was simpler then. Cruising was affordable and enjoyable then. The music of that time was too. Chuck Berry was a fixture in the area here and would often be seen driving along St. Charles Rock Road on his way to a gig. A great hangout was The Club Imperial where Ike and Tina Turner played and the Imperial was the swing dance we did. Pink and black were the cool colors and the Pink Mr. B. shirt was the thing. Black pants, pink belt, white shoes was dancin' dress. When the cops caught us for speeding, if we were polite, would just take our beer and give us a warning...LOL. It was the sweet sound of mufflers that brings it all back. You having owned two 57' chevs, a vette, and a 396 Chevelle SS would know that. Things were not much different no matter where you lived in the States. It seems almost an obligation to the younger folks of today that we somehow design a muffler for today's 4's that could carry on that sweet deep sounding tradition. When I mentioned the water drum I wasn't kidding. A small drum, filled about 1/3 to 1/2 with water sounds like a much bigger deep sounding drum.. This clearly has application to the muffler industry. Some home garage guy somewhere will figure it out. A sealed container of fluid properly engineered into a muffler likely would do the job. It's just not cool when your muffler sounds like a bee fart. Edited June 7, 2017 by Loafer Beta Don and jrm223 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Stanley Posted June 8, 2017 Share Posted June 8, 2017 I live a block from Borla Performance's R&D facility, and I work them all the time. My 2016 is on their R&D list for a full cat-back :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loafer Posted June 8, 2017 Author Share Posted June 8, 2017 Fantastic James! Might there be a chance to slip them the water drum muffler idea for 4 cyl. engines. Not sure what a full cat-back is, please explain. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beta Don Posted June 8, 2017 Share Posted June 8, 2017 27 minutes ago, Loafer said: Not sure what a full cat-back is, please explain. Thanks! That's a replacement for everything from the catalytic converter to the back end of the car. New muffler and all the pipes before and after it Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loafer Posted June 8, 2017 Author Share Posted June 8, 2017 Beta Don, yah I went to borla.com and watched their videos, very interesting. Now I know what a cat-back is and how they sound. I like the deep touring sound. Now that James Stanley is on their R&D list maybe there's hope on the horizon. Keep us posted James Thanks Beta Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrm223 Posted June 12, 2017 Share Posted June 12, 2017 Check out videos on YouTube for Ford 2.5L exhaust, the Fusion has the same engine as us (not counting the 1.6L EcoBoost guys and certain non-US models, of course). In this video, my favorite is the 3rd one at about 1:17 minutes. Of course, muffler delete is another option, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loafer Posted June 13, 2017 Author Share Posted June 13, 2017 Thanks jrm223! My sound is on the fritz so I bookmarked the response until I fix it. I'm looking forward to it. jrm223 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLB Posted June 18, 2017 Share Posted June 18, 2017 (edited) On 6/6/2017 at 2:12 PM, Loafer said: Yah, four cylinders don't know how to sing. I was hoping against hope that someone somewhere had solved that problem. My stereo too will knock the fleas off a dog, but there's nothing as sweet as a low rumble. The guy or gal who invents one will be a saint to me. We need to send out a message along the home garage telegraph. Maybe Ford would sponsor a contest with a prize for the best one. I know a water drum makes a deep sound. Maybe a water muffler? Hmmmmm. The problem is the 4 cyl all in a row. The motors you love the sound of are all V motors (best) or inline muliti cyl. the cylinders firing in the order they do creates the great sound in the same way a motorcycle V twin engine (Harley and others) give that great "thump thump" to the sound and feel. You can't replicate that with a muffler choice unfortunately, as so many of us have learned over the years. You can get a fairly nice "thrummmming" sound from a normal compression 4 cyl, but not that meaty blare of a V8. Edited June 18, 2017 by MLB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beta Don Posted June 19, 2017 Share Posted June 19, 2017 11 hours ago, MLB said: The motors you love the sound of are all V motors (best) or inline muliti cyl. the cylinders firing in the order they do creates the great sound in the same way a motorcycle V twin engine (Harley and others) give that great "thump thump" to the sound and feel. The 'noise' a Harley makes isn't because it's a V twin - It's because the firing order is so screwed up. It's a 45 degree Vee, but because both cylinders use a common crankshaft connection the firing order is a bit . . . . irregular. The cylinders fire 405 degrees apart (360 + 45) and then the next time it's 315 degrees apart, (360 - 45) and the result is the 'potato, potato' sound, which to me sounds like it's broken . . . . makes me want to take it apart and FIX IT!! In the beginning, it kinda, sorta made a little bit sense. They first put a 1 cylinder motor on a bicycle and eventually needed more power, so they went to 2 cylinders. To keep the engine as narrow as possible so your knees didn't hit the motor, they aligned the cylinders one directly in front of the other, which made them share a single crankpin Fast forward 20 or 30 years and Harleys had that famous transmission and clutch, which was easily twice as wide as the engine, so there was really no need to continue with the antiquated motor - They could have offset the cylinders a couple inches and gave each cylinder it's own throw on the crankshaft, which would have 1.) Evened out the firing order, 2.) Allowed the motor to spin faster without blowing up, 3.) Made much more power, 4.) Given it better fuel economy, 5.) Made it last much longer - That irregular firing order also plays havoc with the carburetor But, I think by that point, about all they had going for them was the potato, potato sound - Henderson was making an inline four which blew the wheels off the Harleys and by 1930 just about everybody else was making a much more modern, better engineered engine, but Harley soldiered on, sticking with 1913 technology Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loafer Posted June 19, 2017 Author Share Posted June 19, 2017 jrm223, I like the third video sound better too. Someone somewhere will have a brainstorm and ultimately improve the exhaust sound of the four cylinder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLB Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 (edited) On 6/18/2017 at 9:00 PM, Beta Don said: The 'noise' a Harley makes isn't because it's a V twin - It's because the firing order is so screwed up. It's a 45 degree Vee, but because both cylinders use a common crankshaft connection the firing order is a bit . . . . irregular. The cylinders fire 405 degrees apart (360 + 45) and then the next time it's 315 degrees apart, (360 - 45) and the result is the 'potato, potato' sound, which to me sounds like it's broken . . . . makes me want to take it apart and FIX IT!! In the beginning, it kinda, sorta made a little bit sense. They first put a 1 cylinder motor on a bicycle and eventually needed more power, so they went to 2 cylinders. To keep the engine as narrow as possible so your knees didn't hit the motor, they aligned the cylinders one directly in front of the other, which made them share a single crankpin Fast forward 20 or 30 years and Harleys had that famous transmission and clutch, which was easily twice as wide as the engine, so there was really no need to continue with the antiquated motor - They could have offset the cylinders a couple inches and gave each cylinder it's own throw on the crankshaft, which would have 1.) Evened out the firing order, 2.) Allowed the motor to spin faster without blowing up, 3.) Made much more power, 4.) Given it better fuel economy, 5.) Made it last much longer - That irregular firing order also plays havoc with the carburetor But, I think by that point, about all they had going for them was the potato, potato sound - Henderson was making an inline four which blew the wheels off the Harleys and by 1930 just about everybody else was making a much more modern, better engineered engine, but Harley soldiered on, sticking with 1913 technology Don Edited June 22, 2017 by MLB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nonminivan Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 On 6/8/2017 at 0:30 AM, James Stanley said: I live a block from Borla Performance's R&D facility, and I work them all the time. My 2016 is on their R&D list for a full cat-back :-) James, what ever happened with the cat-back exhaust? I'm itchin' to know. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Stanley Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 It's been on the list for months. Keeps getting pushed for other higher priority vehicles :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyl524 Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Best sound muffler for a transit will be magnaflow 16684 I've been doing my research on the engine type and which was the smoothest and richest and they were great, also is that your transit in the profile pic? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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