Gettin' too old for the drone....

Yep, bringing this back up AGAIN!

Would an X-pipe reduce the drone?

H-pipe just moved the drone to different rpm.

I LOVE the flowmaster super44 sound, just not the drone. I was wondering if an X would cancel some of it out. My inspection guy said it would make the lope go away, and make it sound like a nice smooth idle. I could live with that if some of the drone would go away at cruising speed.

I am not completely against exiting the pipes out the side in front of the rear tires, if I could figure out how to get them through the subframe connectors and/or caltracs.

Not all that fond of going over the rear axle.

 

Ive always heard more drone in cars with x or h pipes then cars without them. My Maverick has old 40 series. they had a little drone when they were cut off at the axle. but none now that they are out the back again. my mustangs always have drone, i blame it on the x h pipe.

 

Mine had unbearable drone. Fixed it with 12" glasspacks on each side of the fuel tank. I like it now and get lots of compliments on the exhaust sound.

 

You will need to run over the axle pipes.....get rid of the Flowmasters........or do both. I wouldn't live with the drone.

 

^^ What Craig said

 

A few years ago I had a 89 mustang with flowmasters and the drone at cruising speed was bad. I ended up selling the car so when I put the 302 in the mav I went with magnaflow mufflers and there is no drone and I like the sound.

 

I have never been a proponent of exhaust pipe outlet termination on top of the axle, or in frt of the rear tires on a street driven car. IMO, exhaust fumes are more prone to enter the car, which creates a safety issue w/ over the axle being unacceptable on any car I drive. I do believe OEM bean counters wud cut pipes short, "under car", if it were not for some of the same issues under discussion, "carbon monox". Think of the steel, "money" they cud save .
A droning system might be tolerable for those who only go a few miles at a time; but for those who make a several hour trips it can/will become old pretty quick. In most cases the older u get the less tolerable the drone becomes.
I agree w/ Craig, u most likley will have to make some compromises to achive happy motoring.
No X/H pipe, long tube headers, 17" Maremont "Made in USA" mufflers, tailpipes under the bumper w/ 1ft. SS extensions --- No Drone =all day long.

 

Getting older--Yep. Sounds about right.

I turned 40 this summer, and this last 50 mile trip was just shy of unbearable. The wife was really complaining, as well.

Well, I guess it is time to just fess up, and take the car in for a new setup.

I hate to just toss what I have, but if it makes me want to drive the car less, then it is doing me NO GOOD!

 

Im right there with you. I even have tail pipes going all the way out the rear. The sound is awesome but the cruising drone is gong to drive me nuts. I have the Super 40's. I knew they were going to be loud when I got them but thought I could kill the in-car noise with sound deadening. It has worked to an extent but still... that cruising drone. I do not have a X/H yet and that may be the next step. But Im seriously considering going to a setup like Jsarnold mentions. I have plenty of space for a good muffler since the leafs are gone.

Jsarnold... Is it moving the mufflers out from under the cabin area to under the trunk that helped or the style of muffler you think?

Thanks

 

I had a pair of glasspacks two setups ago, and they sounded nice, exiting in front of the rear wheels. There was just a touch of drone, sounded like an airplane engine at cruise, but easily bearable.

The Flowmaster super44s really woke THAT up, and dumping at the axle has made it worse. It feels like the car is going to vibrate itself apart while I am cruising, and the H just moved it a couple hundred rpm up the scale.

 

Scott...You could try what the OEMs' do on some cars and, add a rubber isolated weight to the exhaust system, before or after the muffler.(Mount the weight on the pipe) It breakes up the resonant vibration that causes the drone. This may solve your problem...Or not, the flowtoasters are notorious for that drone...40??? Yeah, your old...LOL...

 

Ok i was hoping some one would ask this question be for me, whats droning? I have hooker headers with 2 1/2 exhaust and 40 series mufflers that dump at the front of the axle, I,m hoping its that low Verr...Verr...Verr.. vibration and noise i get while driving down the highway

 

I have been wanting to try the collector cones that summit or jegs sell, they slip inside the collectors and are perforated similar to a glasspack without the glass. I think we went over this the last time this was brought up. I have also reduced the drone of flowmasters by using glasspacks ahead of them in the flow tube between the x or h and the muffler, but the aft muffler location sounds good too. The Lincoln Navigators and some Expeditions had glass packs on the tailpipes, I'm fairly certain for this reason.

Flowmasters drone though, no 2 ways about it. I still just up or downshift to reduce it.

 

My exhaust only drones at very low RPMs, like when stalking through a parking lot at 15 mph setting off car alarms in the middle of the night... I like to imagine its the other little cars pissing themselves in fear. It's awesome... Anyway... I have no X-pipe, just 2.5" pipes to Summit 2-chamber race mufflers dumped at the axle. It's actually downright quiet on the highway, I swear. I have "Dynamat" (Peel-n-Seal) in my trunk and maybe that helps.

As for an X-pipe taking away the lope in your idle... I really doubt that. I had a plain 268H cam in my old 302, much smaller than yours, and it still had a noticeably cammy idle through manifolds, 2" pipe with an X and glasspacks.

 

Yup, that is drone. It sounds/feels like a drivetrain vibration that is about to tear out your u-joints.

In fact, before I verified that it was exhaust drone, I swapped out many set of u-joints, balanced my driveshaft, put in a rebuilt transmission, swapped out the transmission mount, tailhouse bushing, and adjusted the pinion angle on my rearend. Drone still there.

Mine tends to drone at 1200-1500 rpms (idling cruise), then again around 3000 rpms (highway cruise) so it is annoying all the time when I drive.

I really like the sound of the exhaust at idle, and again when I get up in the 4500-7000 rpm range. It really screams and sound aggressive up there!

For those of you who have not seen this yet, load up and skip to about 45 seconds into it. AWESOME sound! Funny, you don't hear the drone outside the car, only from the inside.