what the hell is with the turbo sound on these cars???

[fireberd350]

first let me say that the sound of my friends 87 GN is the nicest sound ever...i love that whistle....
well, i just took an 84 GN out for a test drive and under boost there wasn't much of a whistle and after you let off the throttle it sounds like a police siren or sumthin but it wasn't nice soundin at all....the guy said b/c the turbos are soo much closer to the firewall and theres no shield around them....the car had a 3" downpipe and 3" exhaust as well...
is this normal???
can you do anything to make it sound like the intercooled cars?

 

[turbowrenchhead]

Yeah, put a intercooler on it. Sounds much better.

 

[fireberd350]

who offers an intercooler and is it a kit or a do it yourself project and how much would it be costing?

 

[turbowrenchhead]

I do know that are still some kits available. But I cant tell you how much. I belive that they still make a sperco i/c kit. I also think kenny bell has one. I know there are some guys out there that have done this different ways. I myself have the turbomotion kit witch is no longer available and a ford front mount i/c. I just put some pics of the intake that I bought from turbomotion. If you could get one of these made it would be much easier to intercool. Check my sig for a link.

 

[WFO]

does the 84 have an open k&n filter?if it still has the stock air filter housing it'll be really quiet.

did it have a catalytic convertor?

 

[TNX85]

If you are interested in going with a turbomotion V2 intake setup and/or a custom 21row Cas V4 intercooler with custom mandrel bend pipes drop me an email.
Thanks, Dennis

 

[6SENSE]

I was expecting to see that your exhaust was stock, but you said that it has 3". Im with WFO, does it have a cat? What about the filter situation? I know for sure that just by freeing up the exhaust the whistle would be louder.
Both of my brothers have '86-'87 cars, so Im used to hearing how they sound. I often get on the pedal of my hotair just enough to hear the whistle, because it sounds so good. I recall when I had the stock turbo it sounded good too, but the TA33 made it quite a bit louder. How much boost are you running? I think more boost will make it louder because the turbo is spinning faster.
From my experiences I dont really believe its a whether you have an intercooler or not issue. My brothers as well as other intercooled guys have commented on how loud mine sounds.

 

[fireberd350]

all stock intake setup...no K&N...free flowing cat....and stock turbo....the boost went up to about 16lbs...i thought that was a little high for the hot air cars...whats the factory setting and whats "safe"

 

[turbowrenchhead]

Around 13-14 pds. If you get a walbro and a FPR, you should be able to keep it there.

 

[cool 84]

An open K&N will make it much louder. The other thing that made a huge difference was relocating the TB. My turbo is louder than the motor.

 

[fireberd350]

relocating the throttle body....whats TB....i love the loud exhaust but i just want it to sound more like the 86/7...i'm adding a test pipe as well

 

[JayLashua]

Damn right these turbos are loud!

I got a '87 on mine, and it was 2 times as loud as the stock one, easily! .. its even LOUDER now that I went from a stock downpipe to a ATR downpipe.. O.O

now.. I think the sound of the turbo is quite nice.. intimidating

loud turbo, engine kicks up to 4400 rpm and screams ... BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *EEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH* ...OH WAIT THEN THE KNOCK GAUGE LIGHTS UP.. YELLOW.. YELLOW.. YELLOW.. D'OH..

Well maybe I'll get it tuned some day

 

[6SENSE]

I went from a stock downpipe to a ATR downpipe

Jay mentioned another factor. What DP do you have fireberd350? Along with my bigger turbo and 3" exhaust, I do have a 3" DP, so that probably has something to do with it. I had the bigger DP and exhaust with my stock turbo as well which allowed it to sound really good. Then with the 14" K&N cone bringing air in........ its all about flow. You would probably notice a difference just by upgrading your air induction. Throw on a 9" cone.

 

[cool 84]

The majority of the turbo whistle is through the intake side. Getting rid of the stock airbox with an open K&N will make a big difference. If that's not enough, run open exhaust. I'm unclear on how a bigger downpipe will make the turbo louder.

 

[JayLashua]

because the stock pile of trash ****s with the airflow and backpressure reduces the sounds ability to blah ablah blaskjsdf I dont know wtf im talking about, how about this:

my downpipe made it more pronounced, if you will.. not necessarily louder.. i mostly noticed the difference while it was spinning down after boost..

 

[cool 84]

What I mean to say yesterday (I was mostly asleep) was for those who noticed a difference with the bigger DP, are you running open exhaust? If not, is the extra sound coming from the exhaust or intake side?

 

[TType84]

few rules.

if you want to hear the turbo, get a cutout right under the passenger footwell and open it...

bigger dp = louder exh, with the turbo more pronounced

cat = nearly NO TURBO WHISTLE AT ALL THROUGH THE EXHAUST

open 9" or bigger k&n = you can hear it suck, and hear some turbo sound through the intake, it was loudest when i had it mounted in the fender, noise bounced off the ground i guess.

im not guessing, this is what happened on my car.

factory "exhaust" cut off about under the passenger footwell with a gutted cat.. you could hear turbo whistle, not too loud, sounded like a tractor.

put a 2.25" dual exhaust on. quiet but you could hear the turbo when you got on the gas, not really pronouced outside the car but you could hear it when you revved.

put a 2.5" atr DP on and left it like that for over a year, NO EXHAUST AT ALL. all you hear is turbo, up, down, pspshhfsodifhsd weird ass noises.. its great, but i finally had to start driving for my job and i couldnt stand it all the time.

put a 3" single exhaust on with a high flow catco cat, no muffler. WHERE THE HELL DID MY TURBO GO?? yeah you can kind of tell, but when youre used to open exhaust and go to a long pipe and a cat its like the car isnt even on. quiet, and you can afterall kind of barely hear the turbo.. its all back when i open the cutout though

i have never had mufflers on my car.. why waste the money?

if you want it to soudn like a turbo car, get a 2.5" atr DP or see if lee has any 3" DP's left, put it on and run a piece of pipe about to the front of the back tire then turn it out 45* and have it exit, thats all you need for a loud turbo car.. and i bet you wont get in trouble with cops for noise either, its not THAT loud. just get it out from under the car or you'll hate the resonance.

 

[JayLashua]

hehe, i ran my dp straight for a month, no exhaust, my g/f wanted to go to her friends house in some stuffy yuppie subdivision.. HAHA.. "HIS CAR IS LOUD, I DONT LIKE HIM" lol, i bet everyone complained
the turbo sounds SO cool with the downpipe open.

with the hollow cat, and a atr 2.5" exhaust, you can hear the turbo very nicely out the exhaust, it should be better with a straight pipe though, a hollowed out cat can create air trap and increase back pressure because of air swirling aorund inside trying to get out through the middle. (just a edumacated guess)

you can probably get a "cool" muffler shop to weld a straight pipe in for $20-40.