Drone?????

[cleanmerc01]

what is this drone you speak of in exhaust. my exhaust has seen better days and has rust holes in the flowmasters. i called the shop today and they said it be about $425 for whole new exhaust. guy said the mufflers are some knock off flowmaster 40 series but better they stainless. i didnt ask about the drone sound cause i have no idea what it is. i was also thinkin about having the exhaust to stop at the rear end with turn downs what is the pros and cons of having it stop at the rear end???

[slymer]

drone is the rumble inside the cabin area when running down the road in cruise. it basically is undesired noise... unless you like drone (which some of the guys here do).

[cleanmerc01]

i guess if i have the exhaust stopped at the rear en with turn downs i would have quite a bit of drone then. i just wondering cause it would be about alot cheaper to stop there. also where could i get maurader tips at??

[zoomie]

drone isnt a rumble its more like a solid whaaaaaaaa sound alot like a 60 hrtz freezer hum only a shit load louder and deeper, and its very annoying

[marquisman]

yea, its the constant humming sound you get at a steady RPM while driving. it affects everyone differently

[SVT98t]

Marauder tips
www.innovativeinterceptors.com

You can have them add a u-pipe out of the mufflers and have them come out the sides right in the front of the rear tires.

-ryan s.

[v8only]

it only happens at certain rpms...for 5.0 mustangs it's right at 2100 rpms....I find it the most beautiful sound on the planet....dual flowmasters reverberating.....it's the exhaust singing to you it's melody. I never quite understood why someone wouldn't like it, that's the very reason why you get an aftermarket exhaust. When I was younger I literally burnt out an entire clutch going up a 10 story parking structure just so I could hear the drone bouncing off all the parking structure walls....lol I was new to driving stick. man, you should have seen and smealt the smoke coming from that clutch when I got to the top. Don't go with "knock off" flowmasters...the only muffler that sounds like flowmasters are flowmasters.

[P72Ford]

Drone is great in something that you don't drive every day, in my opinion.

On the truck in my signature (which is my driver) I have a Cherry Bomb Extreme (aptly named) and an electric dump tube. The exhaust is dumped under the bed, right before the rear wheel.

My truck resonates (drones) so bad that is buzzes the interior trim at any engine speed below 3000. When you romp it, the sound cleans right up and it sounds like a hot rod.

I used to have tailpipes on it, and it wasn't nearly as bad. I will probably go back to at least a single tailpipe this summer.

BTW, the Cherry Bomb Extreme is a single chamber 'muffler' which is about 12" long, total. The case is 6" long. Like a Flowmaster 10 series.

I will also let you know that Flowmaster mufflers are not the end all of performance mufflers. There are alot better performance options out there, but for your car which has a basically stock engine, they would be fine.

[v8only]

I buy flowmasters specifically for the sound. I've been through about every type of aftermarket muffler and keep coming back to flowmasters.....flow is good enough for me....give or take a couple of hp doesn't matter to me.

[1987cp]

My (limited) experience is that drone has absolutely NOTHING to do with the mufflers. I tried Flowmasters (loud, turned heads on the street), Super Turbos (quiet), and generic economy turbo-style mufflers (also quiet), and each droned about as badly as any other when I had 2.5" exhaust all the way back. For now, I've crutched the situation by using smaller tailpipes (2.25" someone else had custom-bent), which somehow switched the drone around so it doesn't bother me as much (saves my hearing, plus my non-car-enthusiast passengers don't complain about it). I also rode with a member who's not around much anymore who had (at the time) a 2" system with NO mufflers, and for me it was very quiet inside the car (little to no drone). Nearly the same thing with my P72 when it came into my possession with original Flowmasters and 2.25" tubing - the actual exhaust note was pretty obnoxious, but relatively little drone/resonace inside the car.

My opinion (which some guys will refute) is that anyone not bothered by exhaust drone simply has low hearing sensitivity in that part of the sound spectrum. Either that, or mine is abnormally high among car enthusiasts.

Solutions I've heard of for exhaust drone basically involve some sort of resonator. Some guys at SBFtech were talking about actually installing a separate resonating tube off the side of the tailpipe, cut to such a length that it tends to cancel the soundwaves that bother you the most. It's along the lines of a Corsa muffler, which has nothing in the actual path of exhaust flow but effectively has sound-cancellation tubes of various lengths to produce what they call "broadband sound cancellation". The idea is that even if the actual exhaust tone is quite loud, there is very little in the way of the resonance that drives passengers crazy and causes low-frequency hearing loss for the driver.

[Jon]

I have the exhaust on my LTD exiting right under my butt. Just the factory system with the muffler cut off. Had to do that to replace the gas tank.

There is a bit of a done at highway speeds...but I love it...also, once you roll up the windows, its quiet enough you can have a decent conversation.

I know of that sound the 289 mustangs sound at 2100rpm and personally i cant stand it. It just buzzes the hell out of my ears and makes my head want to explode. However, driving it is different than riding in it. And when driving it, it doesnt hurt as much as when im riding in the backseat.

Ill let you know a tercel wagon has that death drone too. Had to cut the muffler off cause I bent the hell out of the pipe when offroading. Unbolted the pipe from the cat...and now at 2800 rpm...aka 57mph Theres a drone...and its worse when you roll up the windows. Really ricey sounding and just plain OW to my ears. getting a 90* bend to fix it by making the exit smaller.

[1987cp]

I have the exhaust on my LTD exiting right under my butt. Just the factory system with the muffler cut off. Had to do that to replace the gas tank.

There is a bit of a done at highway speeds...but I love it...also, once you roll up the windows, its quiet enough you can have a decent conversation.

Again, depends on your sensitivities. I drove a stock SEFI lowpo with open exhaust after the cats for about a week, and for me it was way beyond horrible. Even tried wiring some steel wool across the openings just to tone it down a little while I figured out what to do about replacing the Y pipe that had just rotted off.

I've been in a Civic with a nasty drone, so I agree that it's hardly a V8-specific phenomenon.

[1980c10]

In the marq with 1 5/8" headers, 2 1/2" h pipe, and slp loud mouth 1's dumped at the axle. Between 50-60 mph it is absolutly mind numbing, it's like there is a pressure on your head, kinda like you're underwater. It's terrible.

But... 100% worth it because it sounds so nasty when you unleash it. It really sounds awesome at WOT.

[SVT98t]

On my Marauder, I replaced the stock 3.5" res tips with 4" resonator-deletes.
It does make a difference in drone.
It has a sweet spot around 2k and then again at 4k. It wonderful. And that's all with stock exhaust!

-ryan s.

[torquelover]

1987cp's car with 2.73s had hideous drone/boom in OD at low revs. Actually eye watering for some in the back seat. I used to have passengers start pleading with me to either speed up or downshift.

[1987cp]

Interesting. Guess with the 3.27s it was hardly ever spinning that slow. And that's with the 2.25" exhaust I said was fairly low on drone despite being wheelie loud out back, correct?

Speaking of which, keeping a 2.5"-equipped car up in the revs via deeper gears (say, 4.10s) and a looser converter (maybe 2500 or higher) might help the occupants experience less drone despite it being pretty horrible when it happens?


Incidentally, when I had my side-exit setups (exiting in front of the rear wheels), it was loud but no drone. And you can get away with that in Indiana (or so my experience dictates).

[cleanmerc01]

i have single exhaust and i havin my buddy weld new exhaust on. i was wondering how i am i going to do this dual set up? am i going to need to get another cat and o2 sensor? or should i just run the way now with a 1 in 2 out muffler? i want to have it exit right in front of back tires. any help will do. we have mandel bender and welder so we can make all bends.

[Leafsrule16]

Your exhaust is dual all the way back to the muffler where the two pipes meet into one muffler and go back as single. Just buy two mufflers of ur choice (remove the second set of cats too or it wont sound good at all), buy an h-pipe, tail pipes and a few feet of piping and your set. Weld your tips on too if you want some.

[gadget73]

Yup, just buy the stock replacement dual exhaust parts. It just bolts in, easy as you please.

[v8only]

The problem with the stock dual exhaust is that it's WAY too restrictive. The dual exhaust connects right after the cats up front, which is dual 2.5"...then the pipes get restricted down to 2" or perhaps smaller.....You'd probably be best sourcing some dual exhaust stuff from a junkyard cruiser, then using it as a template and cut out the smaller diameter piping and have dual 2.5" stuff welded in.