Solstice Jap Sound

[Kappster]

Having gone out with the car club a few times on trips I have heard first hand the Coffee can RA...RA sounds inherent of the In-line 4.
Top notch Headers, cat-backs in place, the sound accept for tone and volume is still that of a "Pissed off weed-whacker" like kids nowadays running around with their older lowered Honda's with the coffee can attached to the rear.
Their cars are like Honda's trying to sound like a Harley's.
Lucky my stock exhaust does a good job of hiding that.
Looking on the net for answers Cuz I would like my car to sound as good as it looks, I found that all 4 bangers don't sound the same.
The WRX is said to have a very cool burble/rumble sound, The old VW also had a non Japan Import sound too.
Both the flat 4 and in-line 4 engines fire every 180 degrees. Yet the flat 4 has a much cooler sound. Much has been wrote on this issue and is believed to be because the flat 4 exhaust has un-even length primary tubes. On one power bank long primary tubes run all the way across the block to the meet short tubes on the other power bank and then to a collector to the turbo or the exhaust depending on what you have. Also the pattern of firing is different than you might expect. It fires on one power bank then the other. so its Bang...Bang ....pause....pause on one side and the other side is pause....pause.... Bang... bang.
Harley's have a uneven cadence . The engine does not fire every 360 degrees it fires at 405 degrees and 315 degrees (amazing that they even run) giving that better than a V-8 sound. A sound just begging for the throttle to be blipped or punched. So all can hear its intoxicating masculine rumble.
Aftermarket company's do make a equal length header for the WRX and the car does lose the rumble. Interesting enough the factory un-equal header still does a better job over all, power wise.
I think it would be very interesting if some aftermarket company would come up with a header that would really change the way the in-line 4 sounds. A sound that taunts you to hit the gas and let everyone know, thats a Pontiac.

[Tony@ASAPGrfx]

Originally Posted by Kappster Having gone out with the car club a few times on trips I have heard first hand the Coffee can RA...RA sounds inherent of the In-line 4. Top notch Headers, cat-backs in place, the sound accept for tone and volume is still that of a "Pissed off weed-whacker" like kids nowadays running around with their older lowered Honda's with the coffee can attached to the rear. Their cars are like Honda's trying to sound like a Harley's. Lucky my stock exhaust does a good job of hiding that. Looking on the net for answers Cuz I would like my car to sound as good as it looks, I found that all 4 bangers don't sound the same. The WRX is said to have a very cool burble/rumble sound, The old VW also had a non Jap sound too. Both the flat 4 and in-line 4 engines fire every 180 degrees. Yet the flat 4 has a much cooler sound. Much has been wrote on this issue and is believed to be because the flat 4 exhaust has un-even length primary tubes. On one power bank long primary tubes run all the way across the block to the meet short tubes on the other power bank and then to a collector to the turbo or the exhaust depending on what you have. Also the pattern of firing is different than you might expect. It fires on one power bank then the other. so its Bang...Bang ....pause....pause on one side and the other side is pause....pause.... Bang... bang. Harley's have a uneven cadence . The engine does not fire every 360 degrees it fires at 405 degrees and 315 degrees (amazing that they even run) giving that better than a V-8 sound. A sound just begging for the throttle to be blipped or punched. So all can hear its intoxicating masculine rumble. Aftermarket company's do make a equal length header for the WRX and the car does lose the rumble. Interesting enough the factory un-equal header still does a better job over all, power wise. I think it would be very interesting if some aftermarket company would come up with a header that would really change the way the in-line 4 sounds. A sound that taunts you to hit the gas and let everyone know, thats a Pontiac.

Interesting. I will note that my center exit system from Solo Performance changed the way my car sounds to a nice beefy note. I think the exhaust system plays a huge part of how the car sounds. With the center exit, the sound is split into two and comes around the differential then back into a small muffler. I think that plays a part in how the sound bounces around and makes for a unique sound. I think it sounds better than dual exhaust setups.

T

[bun1t]

An I-4 is going to sound like an I-4. Yours will be a little deeper than the typical Honda due to having about .8 more liters.

[snaponbob]

It has been mentioned at many Solo events that my RL sounds like nothing people have ever heard from a Japanese 4 cylinder. Makes me really happy because "beer can" exhausts on automatic transmission Asina rim cars sets what left of my hair on fire. Just AWFUL.

[Critterman]

Like Tony I have a solo center exhaust, he has a turbo I have a supercharger. Either way Solo mokes them sound good.

[idkfa]

I've always been a fan of the flat4 sound. We'll see if the RPi ehaust sounds good without a cat here shortly.

[Kappster]

I appreciate you folks that have replied to my original post. I can especially appreciate the money that has been spent to achieve a more entertaining sound. As I said in my first post, you can change the tone and volume of the inline 4. But it is the cadence of the engine that gives the basic sound. The inline 4 has a even spaced firing pattern. Like a 2 cylinder Honda trying to sound like a Harley, It cant. Because the Harley does not have an even spaced crank, it has a great uneven cadence that creates the sound. For years these Jap bikes that were made to look like V-twins but sounding like the parallel twin (the look without the cool..sound) The cranks in the Honda's were even spaced. So even with straight pipes they still sounded like a 1960s Honda twin that some kid took the mufflers off, yuck.
Likewise the Europe V-8 exotic cars have a crank that essentially just ties two inline 4s together. The American V-8 has a completely differently spaced crank. A sound (cadence)that sounds fantastic when the exhaust is opened up....(440 mopar with glasspacks).
My whole point is that when primary tubes are set up with a certain amount of differences in lengths with the correct 2 cylinders tied together that the exhaust then becomes more like the uneven cadence of a Harley or an American V-8. Then you can choose the volume and tone of a cool sounding ,lope, burble, rumble or cadence. Or what ever you want to call it. I am just pointing this out because of the WRX exhaust manifold and the much different sound that it produces.

[LazyEye]

I'd like to note that the Dodge srt4 sounds mighty nice as well :P

[Kappster]

Well if GM was thinking like Harley Davidson, They would make sure that the motor sounded as hot as the vehicle looks. I bet they would be selling 3 times as many cars, Just for the sounds sake. Start its own sub culture. Solstice Davidson.... Thats the ticket... Just buy two 130hp Harley motors and put them together under the hood.

[LazyEye]

Originally Posted by Kappster Well if GM was thinking like Harley Davidson, They would make sure that the motor sounded as hot as the vehicle looks. I bet they would be selling 3 times as many cars, Just for the sounds sake. Start its own sub culture. Solstice Davidson.... Thats the ticket... Just buy two 130hp Harley motors and put them together under the hood.

i think we have a winnar!!

[Kappster]

Yea and we could all dress up like pirates and wear leather driving caps.
By the way lazy, I did look up the srt4.... Looks like a hot set up!!
They use two resonators back to back in the exhaust pipe.

[Lithium Lotus]

Personally, I think most H-D's sound like crap. braaaahhh braaaaahhhh. Or it seems that 90% of H-D owners have to install the most obnoxious sounding straight pipes they can find.

RPi's GT and Solo's RCD are two great sounding exhausts.

[bun1t]

Harley's: The most efficient way to convert gasoline into noise without the adverse side effect of horsepower

[jbust3]

A piston goes through the intake, compression, combustion and exhaust strokes every Two (2) revolutions of the crankshaft. When a single cylinder (Four-Stroke) like a lawn mower is idling you can hear the pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop sound at regular (steady) intervals. It's the sound of the individual strokes. What you are actually hearing is the sound of the compressed gases in the cylinder escaping when the exhaust valve opens. Each "pop" is the sound of the exhaust valve opening one time. That happens on every other (2nd) revolution of the crankshaft.

Normally if it's an engine with two cylinders, the pistons are timed so that one fires on one revolution of the crankshaft and the other fires on the next revolution. (One of the two pistons fires on every revolution of the crankshaft) This gives the engine a smooth balanced feeling. To get this type of engine, the crankshaft has two separate crank pins for the connecting rods from the pistons to connect to. The pins are 180 degrees (exactly half way around a circle, since there are 360 degrees in a full circle) apart from each other.

A Harley engine has two pistons. The difference in the Harley engine is that the crankshaft has only one pin, and both pistons are connected to it (the single pin) through their connecting rods. This combined with Harley's (unique Degree of the "V") arrangement of the cylinders means that the pistons can't fire at even intervals. Instead of one piston firing every 360 degrees, a Harley engine does this:

a piston fires
the next piston fires at 315 degrees
there is a 405 degree gap
a piston fires
the next piston fires at 315 degrees
there is a 405 degree gap
and so on...
So at idle you can hear the pop-pop sound followed by a pause. So its sound is: pop-pop-----pop-pop-----pop-pop-----pop-pop-----pop-pop. That is what makes the Harley, the only bike that can sound like it does. There is a patent, on the design of their V-Twin so others can't duplicate it. That design is also the unique sound you hear! Plus, it being found to be the Optimal degree for the duration of the cylinder timing (the 45 degree V) to get maximum power, with much less (Rated) Horsepower, than the (actual) power to the rear wheel, actually is.

"Even with a very quiet exhaust system, the uniqueness in sound is still there." I prefer to say it as: Potato, Potato, Potato, spoken relatively fast, does quite a good job of defining how they sound. I don't think ya can get much closer. Say it out loud, and you'll see what I mean. The Po in Potato being the power.

Now, for you to figure, since many will say: Yes, but my Honda has a single pin crank too. Why isn't there a way for me to get that same sound with the right pipes?

Yes, some of Honda's and others use a single pin in their V-twin's But read the above again. And then look in your manual. The degree of the engine, and therefore, the piston timing, Cam and Valve timing and much, much more is quite different. As well as the stroke, head design, exhaust design and much more.

That's the reason why the sound will always be different, regardless of the pipes installed.

[ChrisBlair]

Firstly, "Jap" is a little racist to throw around as a word to describe something "bad". Secondly, no I4 will sound like a V8. If the engine sounds like a wound out 4 cylinder...maybe it's becasue that's what it is