[mattvs]

Prefacing this with the obvious:

I know nothing about cars, car mods, or anything else car related.

I'm interested in learning, however, which brings me here. February got me a nice indigo ink tC, and I'm looking to tinker with it. However, I'm wondering if I could make it run as quiet as possible and still improve performance. Like no noise. Yea, it seems to me an odd question, but in a town where most of the people modding their cars are sporting civics and acuras with those coffee can mufflers, I feel it's my duty to be the guy with the ninja-quiet car.

 

[Obike]

Nice goal... it's hard to do any power mods without making it any louder... but it is possible. The obvious is to not install an exhaust mods, TRD supercharger shouldn't add too much noise (there will be more). Obviously no intake or headers since those DEFINATELY add noise.

A turbo is also louder, but you can make it so it isn't as obvious. It'd be very tricky to make it very powerful and as loud as a stock tC.

 

[OliverThomas]

I've always felt the same way. I wanted to make my tC this dark, silent beast...

Really the only way to do it is to not touch any of the stock intake/exhaust system, and buy a nice big turbo kit for it. You'll lose a few horsepower to the slightly more restrictive stock intake and exhaust, but not enough with a good turbo system to matter.... And instead of a obnoxious blow off valve on the turbo, have a closed system dump, (not sure what their called technically). Instead of venting the pressure to the atmosphere, it blows it back down the intake, jump-starting the turbo for the next round of spooling up, and is quieter than a atmospheric BOV.

 

[hamster]

i want my car to be like K.I.T.T. on silent mode

 

[Plissken]

Originally posted by hamster@Aug 9 2005, 02:28 PM
i want my car to be like K.I.T.T. on silent mode

Ironically, K.I.T.T. ran on a gas turbine and those things are freakin' loud. How the ever came up with the idea for a silent mode is beyond me.

 

[hamster]

and talking cars with turbo boost, and ski mode isn't out of left field?

 

[Plissken]

Originally posted by hamster@Aug 9 2005, 03:30 PM
and talking cars with turbo boost, and ski mode isn't out of left field?

Don't ruim my favorite show!!!!!

 

[hamster]

SANTA DOES EXIST!

 

[Plissken]

Originally posted by hamster@Aug 9 2005, 03:33 PM
SANTA DOES EXIST!

I'm Jewish, try again.

 

[bluesciontc]

There are gas turbines out there that are quite. i know i work on the F-16. but they are quite compared to the GE-120 motor that the F-16 has.

so a silent gas turbone yea as long as it is turned off and you are pushing it.

(done it once to many times)

 

[eddiemoney]

Maybe it has a flux capacitor with 1.21 jiggawatts

 

[phungy]

Ever met an asian Jew?

 

[Plissken]

Originally posted by phungy@Aug 9 2005, 04:26 PM
Ever met an asian Jew?

Nope.

 

[redreaper19]

haha an asian jew? of course! one of my friends is a jap-a-jew! but wow... this thread went off topic.

 

[Tecrun19]

One way to make it performe better but not add any sound is to make the car lighter.

 

[lo bux racer]

The biggest enemy of stealth mode is the need to have something either absorb the sound or generate an equal and opposite phase sound. There are some mufflers out there that do this, but they are still louder than stock. Of course, if there was no sound to begin with, we'd be there, but that's the most elusive goal of all - a purely adiabatic engine. No heat loss, no sound (sound takes energy), cold exhaust. Nothing but power. Not likely to happen anytime soon unless someone stumbles on the holy grail of heat rejecting materials. There are some pretty good materials out there (the Space Shuttle tiles are a good example), but nothing anyone has been able to keep running in an engine for any length of time.

So we're back to the original problem. How do I silently smoke the fart can guys just to piss them off even more? It will take a very highly tuned exhaust system, and it won't be effective at all rpm since the amplitudes and frequencies of the engine are not fixed. So, most quiet mufflers are big and very heavy.

You don't necessarily have to keep the OEM intake and exhaust, but you can't depart much from the design concepts they employed to make the car meet noise standards in the first place. Especially the intake. Many have reported the increased intake sound by replacing the OEM system with a CAI. It's hard to do a straight pipe style intake and reduce noise.

So what's the real answer? You have to suffer a weight penalty to reduce noise. Even raamaudio has told us there is a small weight penalty to make the interior quiet. Weight penalty means you need to make more power to keep your power/weight ratio. Just another compromise in action...

 

[greddytc05]

well i have a couple of ideas that you might like for being able to sneak past people. although it might make the exhaust note change a little bit you could always replace the mid section with a shorter and more free flowing resonator but with the stock axle back still on it you will still have them scratching there heads.

not much of a power gain but still better then nothing you could drop in a k&n replacement filter also you could take out the cover to what would be a fog light hole and run dryer ducting from behind it to the stock intake pipe so that it can get some cooler air to it.( yes i know that sounds really rice but it still helps a little bit). you could install a ground wire kit in the engine bay so that there will be less resistance allowing the car to produce more spark for the plugs. i recomend makeing your own bc its alot cheaper.ofcoarse there is always the prementioned idea of putting your car on a diet. if you are looking to do nothing but make your car faster you could always put smaller lighter wheels on it so that there is less rotateing mass for the engine to turn. also with that in mind you could install a lightened flywheel. put in a short shifter to help you get threw the gears faster. and then the one that not everyone agrees with but is most affective nitrous kit. a 50 shot would be plenty for you to be able to put the fart cans in there rightfull place but not too much to hurt the motor aslong as you dont abuse it. i recomend a dry kit. well that is about all i can think about seeing how its 4 in the morning.

well i hope this helps you a little and good luck with the sneaky car effect.

 

[eddiemoney]

Greddy, do you seriously believe those ground straps work......

 

[greddytc05]

they have been dyno proven. plus i made a set and put them on my truck and it didnt give it a bunch of horsepower or anything but i could tell that it idled smoother and my headlights and things like that were brighter. but it affects different vehicles in different ways.

 

[lo bux racer]

I bet you could get the same effect by just putting some anti-seize on the connections. The biggest problem with any electrical connection is the oxides on the surface of the metals in contact. Anti-seize creates a "clean" path because it is highly conductive.

Dyno proven doesn't mean a lot to me for the numbers I've seen. I've seen more variation across three runs than I've seen improvements with the grounding wires. Ignition current is just not that high.