VZ sports exhaust drone...need help

[MRSHL]

hey guys, just got my vz wagon fitted with a sports exhaust. now the bloke at the exhaust place fitted a 2 1/2 single cat back system to dual outlet with a pex hot dog. i love the sound it has when putting along down the street, love the rumble it has at idle, but when driving the car out on the highway it sits on about 1800 rpm and seems to drone like a bitch at 100km. is there any way i can fix this problem as the mrs hates the drone. i have told that the drone does seem to lesson with time (around a month or so), is this fact or fiction? i am also wondering if a tune will alter the rpm when cruising at 100kph or stop it from droning as much? could someone please help me with this problem.

edit. now before you all go off tap and tell me to look at previous threads to find my answer, i have, and as far as i could see there were none on VZ's.

[WAGONBEAST57]

If anything mate the drone will get worse over time as the exhaust will get slightly louder and deeper as it beds in. Tune will do **** all at cruising speed. The engine will still turn at the same RPM. Changing the diff gears is something that will move the RPM at crusing speed.

How is the system made up? I see you mentioned it had a hot dog? where abouts is the hot dog? at the rear of the car or closer to the centre? If its in the centre adding a rear resonator will remove some of the drone but still leave the note sounding good. On my wagon I have the hotdogs where the centre mufflers used to be and a rear resonator, pretty good compromise between drone and note really.

In saying that though it is an auto wagon and they are prone to drone no matter what you do. If the missus isnt happy it might ultimately mean you have to go back to the stock system . Also does it drone on flat 100kmh roads or just up hills at 100kmh?? You could always flick it back to 3rd going uphills to take strain off engine and move it to a higher RPM where it will be less likely to drone

[MRSHL]

hey lad, thanks for the reply. the hotdog from what i could see when it was fitted was towards the centre. i only got it fitted on monday so yeah hasnt had time to burn into the exhaust yet. did adding a rear resonator remove much of the drone. yeah my wagon is an auto too and the mrs hates the drone, so you say its only going to get worse...damn. it drones at a flat 100km/h tends to not drone as much when needing to rev higher, guess in a way releaves the drone a bit, so i guess flicking it back to 3rd may not do much but will give it a shot.

[MRSHL]

i have also heard that in the wagons that a think blanket or something might help keep the drone down a bit as the spare wheel well acts as an area for echo to occur and by putting a blanket in there might reduce the space resulting in less drone. have you tried that? i really dont want to have to remove the zorst as i love the note it gives at every other speed other than 100km/h or basically when its sitting constantly at around 1800rpm

[Surfwagon]

Having owned wagons for a good part of the last 20years I can say that unfortunately wagons do tend to drone with most sports exhausts and using a thick blanket doesn't really get rid of the drone , just tends to tone it down a little but it will still be there.
On some cars fitting free flowing cats can sometimes remove the drone (it did on my Senator which drone with the factory HSV catback in a sedan) and on others fitting a couple of small hotdog style mufflers between the cats and the centre mufflers some times helps.
Go and have a good talk to your exhaust man.
Try and get him to guarrantee that what he does will work so if it doen't you can go back and try something else without paying a fortune each time.

[MRSHL]

yeh cheers for that surfwagon. i think ill try the blanket idea for over the weekend as i have to go to melb (4 hours at 100km/h) and want to dull the nise down a bit. spoke to the zorst bloke and he is going to be away for a bit but when he gets back on monday he will have a look and possibly take the hotdog off and put a off centre resi on. not sure if this will help and will it more than likely result in less noise coming from the exhaust aswell as take away the drone. i like the note the zorst gves just not the drone. but i will let you know how we go with mods to get it to a acceptable drone as yeah i know im always going to have a drone with a wagon over a sedan.

[WAGONBEAST57]

hey lad, thanks for the reply. the hotdog from what i could see when it was fitted was towards the centre. i only got it fitted on monday so yeah hasnt had time to burn into the exhaust yet. did adding a rear resonator remove much of the drone. yeah my wagon is an auto too and the mrs hates the drone, so you say its only going to get worse...damn. it drones at a flat 100km/h tends to not drone as much when needing to rev higher, guess in a way releaves the drone a bit, so i guess flicking it back to 3rd may not do much but will give it a shot.

Mate if you havent got a rear resonator (like if it's just straight pipe at the back?) and just a hotdog in the middle im guessing its a fairly loud and droney system?? I would start by adding a resonator at the rear, if it's still too loud take the centre hotdog out and replace with a straight through muffler. Hotdogs are a very good flowing muffler but dont really do much to deaden the sound lol. IMO the blanket/sound deadening idea is just time and money wasted.

Only other alternative I can think of is remove the missus. They give off a much worse drone than any exhaust I have ever heard, IMO .

[MRSHL]

yeah will tell the zorst bloke to chuck a rear resonator on when he looks at it. spoke to him and he is thinking of taking the hotdog off and replacing it with a off centre resonator or sometihng like that.wont be till next week and have to travel to melb so that will be the test 8 hours of droney exhaust.see i want to keep the nice note the exhaust gives but dont like the drone so hopefully your idea of a rear resonator wont take away the note it gives out the back but the drone it gives in the cabin. nah dont think ill be removing the mrs any time soon...but great idea. lol. will keep you posted lad. cheers.

[ARATIC]

+1

Hotdog resonators are a waste of time. Either replace the hotdog with or add in an oval shaped straight through muffler (the larger body the better)

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

The joys of a 2 1/2" single on an alloytec. It will drone no matter what you do. The only way for it not to drone is to go a twin into single with a large rear resonator, but unfortunately this type of system is only available for sedans.

The other option is to get hold of a genuine V8 twin system off a ute and bolt that on.

Fitting extractors will reduce the drone, but it won't eliminate it.

[MRSHL]

so with a twin system will it still give it a descent note. by descent, i mean for a v6?

[MRSHL]

i have a single straight through to dual oulet muffler at the very end of the zorst. is that what you mean?

+1

Hotdog resonators are a waste of time. Either replace the hotdog with or add in an oval shaped straight through muffler (the larger body the better)

[impulsesv6]

The joys of a 2 1/2" single on an alloytec. It will drone no matter what you do. The only way for it not to drone is to go a twin into single with a large rear resonator, but unfortunately this type of system is only available for sedans.

The other option is to get hold of a genuine V8 twin system off a ute and bolt that on.

Fitting extractors will reduce the drone, but it won't eliminate it.

whats your preferance of muffler?

[MRSHL]

im open to any muffler that will gie a good note and make the drone go away a tad, i dont expect it to go away all together but if something can be put on that will keep a good sound and remove a bit of the rone id be happy as larry

[VZ-Rob]

........... The only way for it not to drone is to go a twin into single with a large rear resonator......
The other option is to get hold of a genuine V8 twin system off a ute and bolt that on....

The drone is still there with the v8 twin system, it kicks in around 1700 -1850 rpm then fades off again outside that range
nice note though
I'm going to change the diff to shift the rpm range up to around 2000 when cruising at 100k

[VzVzVz]

thats what wagons do. not much you can do about it. The ute has no problem

[MRSHL]

think ive just gotten used to it so yeah....but yeah kno thats what happenes with the wagons NOW...lol

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

whats your preferance of muffler?

My preference is twin glass packed straight through mufflers on the front going to single then a single in twin out rear resonator. No drone, but fairly quiet.