How is it that two cars with similar engines, let’s say turbocharged 2.0l straight 4cyl engines, sound so different?
Not including exhaust systems. Let’s hold that constant at a straight pipe.
In: 0
because of different loads placed on the engine and the exhaust system is different.
All things being equal (the engine, tune, and exhaust system) the sound coming from the exhaust is going to be affected by how much exhaust gas and how fast the gasses get pushed through the system. A truck with no load on it is going to sound different than one that’s maxed out its payload capacity. An engine with a light load will be able to go from a low RPM to a high RPM much quicker.
The other factor is the exhaust systems are different even if they’re both straight pipes because pipe length and diameter has an effect. A larger pipe diameter will mean the gases are moving at a slower speed and the length if the pipes has an effect on the resonant frequency. If those tings are the same, then they will sound the same given the engines are tuned the same.
>How is it that two cars with similar engines, let’s say turbocharged 2.0l straight 4cyl engines, sound so different?
A huge amount of of this is due to the exhaust systems. Car makers tune exhausts to produce particular noise types appropriate to the car.
Engine design has an effect to. The firing order of the cylinders has an effect. This is more applicable to engines with more cylinders though such as a V8. How fast the engine spins affects the noise. If you have a turbocharger the different mechanisms for releasing excess pressure sound different. Petrol and diesel engines sound different due to the different ways they work.
If I may add, that exhaust manifold design can also change a lot. For instance, on the Nissan SR20DET , they came from the factory with a “short ram” cast iron manifold, which is just to say that two of the cylinder runners have a shorter path to the outlet flange than the other two. Often guys will replace them for equal length manifolds. It’s the general consensus that the short ram style produces a more aggressive, less farty exhaust sound.
Latest Answers