What Makes a Powerful "Sounding" Motor?

Probably asked a million times, but what do you think? Is it cubic inches, compression, cam, headers, exhaust, etc.? What combination gives you that ground pounding, nut grabbing experience that you can never forget?

Your answer here......

 

Money

 

Thats it!!!

 

Compression gives it the big bang, and a lumpy cam gives it the rhythm.

 

And money holds it together.

 

Charlie Buck, Sonny Leonard, Jon Kaase, etc all have the noise factor down pretty good........in upwards of 864 CID and 15:1+ compression definitely rattles the ears.

-Lee
Atomic Radio
www.atomicpinup.com

 

Compression and cylinder pressure. The effective amount of time that the valves are shut and the piston is traveling upwards. A .550 dome and a 64-cc cylinder head with a cam that has a ton of cylinder press ground into it will blow holes in the asphalt>>>>.Oh yeah that money thing don't hurt either>>>>.

 

Compression, cam, headers, and the money to build it.

 

Probably asked a million times, but what do you think? Is it cubic inches, compression, cam, headers, exhaust, etc.? What combination gives you that ground pounding, nut grabbing experience that you can never forget?

Your answer here......

And that is probably the closest thing to the truth that I ever heard.

 

Compression and cam valve overlap

 

Firing order, plane of the crankshaft (ie, flat) and exhaust configuration matter, too. Nothing sounds like a flathead Ford. John

 

Big compression, the baddest sounding idle is from a roller cam !

 

big foot wide open throttle... big cam compression and money!! jeffrey

 

actall power is the best way to get a powerful sounding motor

 

compression, cam, high stall converter (or 4 speed) and a helluva set of pipes

 

In a manual transmission car, I'd add "light flywheel" to the list of factors. Throttle response is sharper when you whack it.

 

a clothes pin and a deck of cards!

 

Nitro!!!!!

 

Shit I missed the easiest!!!The Whine of a 6-71 Blower!!! I had a guy ask me if it was real LOL>>>>.

 

For sound alone? As was mentioned, a cam with a lot of overlap will give it the burger stand rumble we all like...add some compression in and it will also have a bit of 'snap' to it as well, otherwise it's going to sound like a stock motor with too much cam.
Header's and good exhaust certainly have something to do with the sound too..

Wanna make power AND sound good??
Do the homework on combination's and put one together that will not just sound good, it'll run like it sound's because everything will "work" together..

Ahhh...I love motor's...haha


Tony

 

you guys forgot the most important thing.....that $4.00 + gal gold stuff ......we soon forget that when we build these bad ass monsters that we3 still have to feed em.......

 

Alot of compression, and a nasty ass solid cam.

 

Naa, didn't forget..have the pain in my ass to remind me everytime i dig in to pay ...
But i'll gladly pay 4.00 a gallon to escape from reality for a while ..

 

bingo

 

When the exhaust falls off they all sound like a race car. Okay, not a high powered race car, but still.

 

Re: "Is it cubic inches, compression, cam, headers, exhaust"

Cubic inches matters.
Exhaust pipe diameter determines the frequency (larger pipe = deeper pitch).
More overlap causes a rough idle.
A light flywheel, or small diameter or high stall converter causes instant response that's unrelated the power (a 700 hp engine with a 100 lb. flywheel sounds like a truck with a bad muffler, a tired 305 with a 10 lb. flywheel sounds like a dragster.

However: compression doesn't make any noise at all. What makes the crackle is the exhaust valve opening when the cylinder pressure is still very high. This is affected by 2 different things:
1. how much cylinder pressure there is (based on static CR and VE) - higher CR is louder.
2. how much of the working cycle is done - earlier opening is louder; if the valve didn't open until ABDC (very poor design - they don't actually do this) it would be very quiet.
High compression with very late exhaust valve opening doesn't sound much different than stock.
Even a stock cam crackles if the valve opens very early (cam very advanced).

 

Ground pounding is for Camaros.

Some of the wildest sounding engines I've heard were relatively small CI flatheads. I remember walking around Charlotte and asking my buddy what's making all that noise? All I could see moving was a 38 Ford coupe that was obviously a circle tracker. Damn it was mean sounding! When I got down to it...sure enough no rocker arms. Probably not streetable but it did give me goosebumps.

 

Are we talking good sounding or just plain "loud"? I agree, they may not be the most radical but it's hard to beat a flathead.

The best sounding non "fuel" motor I've heard was a 14-71 huffed 528 Hemi. A local guy runs one in a pro-mod and it's dead on with respect to sound.

-Lee
Atomic Radio
www.atomicpinup.com

 

Cubic dollars.

dka

 

The 3 nastiest sounding engines I have ever heard:

At the HAMB drags last year there was a powder blue gasser stude (I think) that was ear shatteringly loud and had the cackle down pat. I think it had a 327 in it.

A 392 hemi on 90% at the nostalga drags with weedburners on it and a ton of overdrive in the blower. Sounds like lightning striking a few feet from you...constantly.

An old 426 Hemi in a 68' Dart. Running 13.5:1 compression, some wild roller cam. with a rat roaster on it and big tube open headers. It just sounded mean. It was the old S&K speed car I believe.