Exhaust Lesson: Resonators?

[bajajoaquin]

So I'm a little bit away from new exhaust, but I would like some more information about factory (or factory-like) stuff, specifically resonators.

My understanding is that a resonator is in line behind the main muffler, usually right before the exhaust tip. While a muffler will be a multi-chamber affair, with baffles and such, a resonator is a straight-through design with holes or louvers that give access to the packing material around the pipe.

I'm guessing that the original "glass-pack" exhausts were actually resonators used as mufflers.

Resonators thus add some additional quiet for not much back pressure, and only a little extra weight.

Is this right?

 

[commando1]

Let's understand the difference between mufflers and resonators.
Sound travels down the exhaust system. These are sound waves.
Sound waves vary in frequency and pitch.

When the sound wave goes through the muffler, the sound wave is "muffled"

The reduces some of the noise.

Now, at certain RPMs the muffled sound wave may still produce an undesirable sound. In other words, a sound resonates at a certain frequency that the muffled sound was not designed to handle.

Resonance

A "resonator" is used to tune out a specific resonance that still exists and is unacceptable.

The muffler are ear muffs to reduce overall sound and the resonators cancel out any specific sounds left over.

Buy Flowmasters unless you have a degree in Acoustical Engineering.

 

[70NPORT]

I'm fedexing a nice, shiny red apple your way.:yourock:

 

[70bigblockdodge]

They get rid of bad hummmmmmmmm.

 

[bajajoaquin]

Let's understand the difference between mufflers and resonators.

Yes! Exactly what I was trying to ask! Thanks.

 

[rexus31]

FWIW, I added resonators as the new exhaust was too loud to my liking. The resonators made it pretty much stock sounding.

 

[bajajoaquin]

That's a really good point. Although I was able to largely "fix" my noisy exhaust by replacing a blown up muffler, I did agonize over which dual exhaust to buy because I was worried about how loud it would be. Nice to hear that you can adjust it after the fact by adding resonators.

 

[commando1]

That's why new Corvettes and the like suck. The mufflers are at the end of the car and exit right out the back.
The fanbois clog up the forums with infinite posts that start "What is the best sounding exhaust system for my new C7??? HELP!! (cries like a little girl).".
There's like 10 different systems available. Get a hundred guys to respond and you'll find that all ten systems each have 10 guys insisting that theirs is the best sounding and the other nine have a resonance that drives them to the mad house. They are all friggan idiots. There's no best. Every one of them will make the interior vibrate like a tuning fork at some RPM. Since you can't install resonators, you CAN'T tune that one specific resonance out. They are all idiots yet they wear gold chains and belong to country clubs.

 

[bajajoaquin]

You shouldn't mince words. Try telling us how you really feel. Let it out.

 

[patrick66]

Late '90s Chrysler minivans have a resonator that would work great on any "C"-body you might want to add one (or two) to. There used to be a '72 New Yorker 440 coupe that ran around OKC for several years, that had a wonderful exhaust note. Turned out, he installed a pair of the Walker HEMI mufflers (as in OEM replacement Hemi mufflers) and a pair of early '90s minivan resonators, along with downward-pointing exhaust tips (not chrome) at about 30*. What a great sound! Perfect for a big car, where you can have the rumble without all that droning you might encounter at various RPMs.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Late '90s Chrysler minivans have a resonator that would work great on any "C"-body you might want to add one (or two) to. There used to be a '72 New Yorker 440 coupe that ran around OKC for several years, that had a wonderful exhaust note. Turned out, he installed a pair of the Walker HEMI mufflers (as in OEM replacement Hemi mufflers) and a pair of early '90s minivan resonators, along with downward-pointing exhaust tips (not chrome) at about 30*. What a great sound! Perfect for a big car, where you can have the rumble without all that droning you might encounter at various RPMs.

There you go, easiest way to point b is follow someone else and avoid the "kit"

 

[detmatt]

Nice thread gents!

 

[livininharrow]

You shouldn't mince words. Try telling us how you really feel. Let it out.

lmfao

 

[commando1]

In the sixties, factory dual exhausts almost universally all had resonators downstream from the mufflers. The first thing we did was chitcan the mufflers and just run resonators.

Posted via Topify on Android

 

[commando1]

Oh, and one last thing. A metric car cannot ever be made to sound like an old muscle car no matter how much money you throw at it. Between cats, FI, and puters, you're fighting the laws of physics. So stop spending a kings ransom trying to capture that old time rumble in your juiced 6.2. It's impossible.

Posted via Topify on Android

 

[bajajoaquin]

Not really the same thing, but I remember reading about the first Callaway turbo Corvette, and that it had no mufflers. Two turbos and three cats were apparently enough to dampen the sound adequately to pass EPA regs.

 

[polara71]

oh, and one last thing. A metric car cannot ever be made to sound like an old muscle car no matter how much money you throw at it. Between cats, fi, and puters, you're fighting the laws of physics. So stop spending a kings ransom trying to capture that old time rumble in your juiced 6.2. It's impossible.

posted via topify on android

wrong.....!

 

[commando1]

wrong.....!

Blindfold me, line me up in front of 1,000 cars.
500 of them are classic muscle cars (your choice) and 500 of them are Metric cars where the owners put on the exhaust system of their choice. Start them up one at a time, let idle, and then rev to redline.
I will pick out the classics from the Metrics every time.
No new Challenger can ever be made to sound like a 440-6 Challenger.
Unless you install a 440-6 into a new Challenger.
One more time, Dave. You weren't there. I came of age and the Asperger part of my brain literally saw the sound wave graph when I heard one of them.

 

[polara71]

Yammer, yammer,yammer.....

Still wrong but i enjoy reading your stories

 

[commando1]

I do them purely for your amusement only, ya know...
I know when you're having a slow day at work.