Why do V8s have that awesome 'burble' at idle?

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CVSiN

Diamond Member
Jul 19, 2004
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nothing beats the sound of a Ford 302 with a nasty cam good heads and a flowmaster exhaust...
add a blower and that whine and you have instant EARGASM!
 

DivideBYZero

Lifer
May 18, 2001
24,117
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Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
It's all in perception. I love the sound of a turbocharged 2.5l boxer 4. :D

Dammit, you beat me to it. But do you know why the Scooby has that burble...?
 

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
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Originally posted by: DivideBYZero
There is a four that 'burbles'...
I've heard some pretty nice burblage from WRX's....
 
Jun 14, 2003
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Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
It's all in perception. I love the sound of a turbocharged 2.5l boxer 4. :D


yes they have a very gruff sound to them too

its easily a fight between this engine and a V8 for the best sounding engine...and i think it would be a very close fight


the best raspy hi-revving engine has to be the V10 in the porsche carrera GT
the best growling engines belong to TVR's
the best V8 sound has to be the AMG (mercedes) 5.5 litre supercharged V8 found in the SL55 and the SLR
Alfa Romeo have the best sounding V6 ever....no competition
 

CVSiN

Diamond Member
Jul 19, 2004
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Originally posted by: Eli
Originally posted by: DivideBYZero
There is a four that 'burbles'...
I've heard some pretty nice burblage from WRX's....

my cat purrs louder than those POS!

when a car cams so hard that it sets car alarms off 3 doors down at idle.... thats bluurbage...
 

DivideBYZero

Lifer
May 18, 2001
24,117
2
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Originally posted by: Eli
Originally posted by: DivideBYZero
There is a four that 'burbles'...
I've heard some pretty nice burblage from WRX's....

Yeppers. Mine burbles like a goodun.

It's all in the headers. They are of unequal length and so the exhaust pulses arrive out of order and actually interfere with each other. Equal length headers improve performance, but are very detrimental to the signature sound. :D
 

DivideBYZero

Lifer
May 18, 2001
24,117
2
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Originally posted by: CVSiN
Originally posted by: Eli
Originally posted by: DivideBYZero
There is a four that 'burbles'...
I've heard some pretty nice burblage from WRX's....

my cat purrs louder than those POS!

when a car cams so hard that it sets car alarms off 3 doors down at idle.... thats bluurbage...

This can be done with a 3" Blitz full decat on any scoob.
 

iamwiz82

Lifer
Jan 10, 2001
30,772
13
81
My MINI burbles as well, very obvious on deceleration.

Worst sounding engine has to be the Jeep I6. Such a terrible racket :(
 

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
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I tend to call major cammage a "lopey" idle.

Not the same as general burble.

:p
 

SilentRavens

Senior member
Aug 20, 2003
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www.mhughes.info
You can get some nice sound out of inline and v6's; its all about the right design of exhaust. I do have admit though, nothing sounds like a big v8 at idle.

Now if you were to ask me about the most manly sounding engine, I would have to say one of the large inline diesel engines used in semi-trucks takes that category easily.
 

iamwiz82

Lifer
Jan 10, 2001
30,772
13
81
Originally posted by: Eli
I tend to call major cammage a "lopey" idle.

Not the same as general burble.

:p

You know you over did the cam when the headlights dim and brighten at idle. :p
 

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
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Originally posted by: iamwiz82
Originally posted by: Eli
I tend to call major cammage a "lopey" idle.

Not the same as general burble.

:p

You know you over did the cam when the headlights dim and brighten at idle. :p
:D

 

dmw16

Diamond Member
Nov 12, 2000
7,608
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The term you are looking for is lope...a "loppy" idle.

The main reason is cam exhaust duration and intake/exhaust overlap.
 

GalvanizedYankee

Diamond Member
Oct 27, 2003
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Originally posted by: NutBucket
Originally posted by: Howard
Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
Originally posted by: Howard
Number of cylinders, firing order, exhaust configuration...


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Howard is real close. Firing order on most, 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2, it can be seen that one side is allways out of synk with the other. That is that the firing order will fire two cyls on oneside than the other side will do like wise. All V8 cranksshafts have rod journal placement at 90 degrees. Back in the olden days 1960 something, flat cranks were tried inorder to increase HP. The rod throw journals were at 180 degrees to eachother this made the motor run as if it were two 4 bangers. One bank would fire than the otherside. This made exhust pipe tuning much easyer and intake manifold runner tuning easyer. But no real power gains were realized. They just sounded extra bitchen. Like two Offenhousers racing side by side.
Flat cranks are a thing of the distant past. But with these motors no cross or balance pipe was needed as is used in all NASCAR engines today. The X-pipe is a must to balance out the uneven firing side to side.

I hope someone understands that cause I don't.........;)
Ferrari still uses flat crankshafts.

That's what I was going to say. I believe the V8 used by Lotus in the final Esprit was a flat-crank as well. Those suckers just SCREAM:D

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I stand, er, sit corrected. For some reason I was thinking of American Iron and not exotica. The old Lavarda triple motorcycles also used a flat crank and had a distinctive
sound. You could allways hear one roaring by at track-side and never doubt what it was.

In Power Secrets, Smokey Yunick relates his experiance with flatcrank American V8's.

GalvanizedYankee
 

Pabster

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
16,986
1
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This thread makes me feel like firing up that old 455 engine I have sitting in the garage... :D