V8 resonator (back box) in stainless?

Tor

Tor

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

My exhaust is a stainless 2.5" set I purchased ten years ago, I believe through Ian Wilson. I've been happy with it but it is quite restrained sound-wise, as the rear box also looks to be a traditional muffler. It has a pleasant enough note, but little of the bass-filled music I would like to hear when I push the car. Has anyone found a solution to this that also looks relatively stock?
 
Hi Tor - I had and still do have the same interest in a more fruity sound from my P6. I too have a good quality stainless system (and 3.9 block), but in comparison with a std mild streel exhaust system, I have found mine to sound more sedate !

These is much discussion in earlier posts about members' experience in removing, and changing box options to improve things. My understanding is that the standard rear box (resonator) is largely straight through, and so any gains in sound (arguable performance) may be gained from upgrading the centre box (muffler).
I stand corrected if other;'s here have better ideas, but I will follow this post with interest,
 
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From a quick trawl of posts, some interesting points are raised in the following posts:

What could be done for the sound
v8 exhaust tone ???
 
There's a fair few videos around but given the limits of smartphone cameras a lot of them don't sound right, so you may not get what you want easily. They are louder but a bit hollow and raspy which might be a function of the small overall size. Only a few seem to get the fruity low-end rumble.

This one is pretty good.
 
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I have always been surprised that the 2 small (to me anyway) mufflers fitted to the V8s work as well as they do. You would need to do some experiments to arrive at a system with a particular desired note. I once heard a Ferrari warming up in a car yard - sounded really nice....it was doing 1500rpm! I think a V8 IIRC. My Porsche 928 (4.7L SOHC V8) had a big central muffler 2 in, 2 out pipes, and a pumpkin at the rear, also 2in 2 out, dead stock, and it would set off alarms in underground car parks, lots of rumble, but in traffic, with rpm going from 1000-2000 repeatedly it produces some headaches. Not a lot of room under a P6 for fancy pong boxes.
 
jp928 said:
I have always been surprised that the 2 small (to me anyway) mufflers fitted to the V8s work as well as they do. You would need to do some experiments to arrive at a system with a particular desired note. I once heard a Ferrari warming up in a car yard - sounded really nice....it was doing 1500rpm! I think a V8 IIRC. My Porsche 928 (4.7L SOHC V8) had a big central muffler 2 in, 2 out pipes, and a pumpkin at the rear, also 2in 2 out, dead stock, and it would set off alarms in underground car parks, lots of rumble, but in traffic, with rpm going from 1000-2000 repeatedly it produces some headaches. Not a lot of room under a P6 for fancy pong boxes.
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I've often wondered about the entire V8 exhaust system given the rear two sections of it are the same as the 2 litre 4-pot. It cannot possibly be remotely optimal for both applications.
 
They do look the same, but I think at least the pipes on the V8 are larger.... my parts book has v8 mufflers in the GEX sequence, so I cant compare them with 4 cyl part nos. There are, I believe some subtle differences between the manual and auto pipes. My car came with non genuine mufflers on it - the rear near side body work under the seat had been beaten somewhat to try to stop the muffler hitting it. I was lucky enough to pickup a pair of genuine mufflers and set about fitting them, only to find that the front pipe of the first muffler was too long to mate with the manual box front pipe, by over 3" (80mm). The simplest solution was to cut the flared end of the front pipe off by 5", flare a short length of pipe to fit inside and it all worked. Noting that the parts book does not specify the first muffler differs between auto and manual, it does differ between chassis suffixes C and D - mine is a D.
 
jp928 said:
They do look the same, but I think at least the pipes on the V8 are larger.... my parts book has v8 mufflers in the GEX sequence, so I cant compare them with 4 cyl part nos. There are, I believe some subtle differences between the manual and auto pipes. My car came with non genuine mufflers on it - the rear near side body work under the seat had been beaten somewhat to try to stop the muffler hitting it. I was lucky enough to pickup a pair of genuine mufflers and set about fitting them, only to find that the front pipe of the first muffler was too long to mate with the manual box front pipe, by over 3" (80mm). The simplest solution was to cut the flared end of the front pipe off by 5", flare a short length of pipe to fit inside and it all worked. Noting that the parts book does not specify the first muffler differs between auto and manual, it does differ between chassis suffixes C and D - mine is a D.
Click to expand...

They are the same. The 3500S has a slightly larger bore. The 3500 is the same bore The front pipes of course are completely different the 3500S being largely symmetrical meeting behind the gearbox and the auto meeting on one side.
 
jp928 said:
They do look the same, but I think at least the pipes on the V8 are larger.... my parts book has v8 mufflers in the GEX sequence, so I cant compare them with 4 cyl part nos. There are, I believe some subtle differences between the manual and auto pipes. .
Click to expand...
GEX are Unipart Spares generated numbers, there might be a cross reference to the Rover generated ones somewhere. All part of the BL rationalisation
 
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