View Single Post
      02-01-2014, 02:34 PM   #298
Boss330
Major General
Boss330's Avatar
No_Country
1712
Rep
5,108
Posts

Drives: BMW
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Earth

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce.augenstein@comcast. View Post
I agree with you 100% on this - but swamp isn't really "wrong" in the sense that exhaust tuning can radically change the sound an engine makes. No, you can't eradicate the "two four cylinders, each on a caffeine jag, mating ) sound of a flat-crank V8 without doing something insanely stupid with the exhaust system, but of course you can still modify the exhaust sound a bunch. I am reminded of what Honda said way back when the CB1000, six-in-a-line motorcycle came out in 1978 or so.

That engine made what I consider to be the most wonderful exhaust sound ever on a street vehicle, and at the time, Honda said that they could make the exhaust sound like pretty much anything they wanted it to.

I believe them.

So guys, chill a bit. Boss, I agree completely with your analysis, but each of you has a point, and you're not that far apart.

Bruce
Thanks!

While both swamp and I agree that the exhaust system plays a major role in the exhaust noise a engine makes, there is a reason that a 4 cyl engine doesn't sound like a V8, no matter what kind of exhaust system you put on it...

Where we differ in our views, is the importance to sound of the flat plane vs cross plane crank layout. Where swamp believes that the "state of tune" and exhaust system alone is the key differences in sound, I (and the rest of the world ) acknowledge that a flat plane V8 basically is two I4 engines joined by a common crank and with an even distribution of combustions per cylinder bank. And that a cross plane crank V8 has a compromised, two cylinders firing consecutively, on the same bank. So, unless you go for a 180 degree header, NO amount of exhaust system tuning eradicates the cross plane V8 burble, that you won't hear in a Ferrari V8.

BTW, even though adding a 180 degree header combines the second order balance of the cross plane V8 and the superior exhaust scavenging of the flat plane V8 firing order, it still has to cope with the heavier counterweighted crankshaft of the cross plane V8. Meaning more inertia and a less responsive engine than a similarly tuned flat plane V8.
Appreciate 0