📓 Journals Adding Lightness

[Time2Fly]

The Aerie tips are titanium and look really nice if you want that look on the car. They're about 6 inches long and definitely have that aftermarket tuner look. They're very light weight too.

View attachment 50634

They do look good

 

[Nova]

I went to a local auto parts store, and got a couple of these to put on the ends of the exhaust pipes.
View attachment 50613

Here's how it looked before I put them on:

View attachment 50614


And here's the after picture.

View attachment 50615

Doesn't look too bad, and It works. It completely got rid of the boomy sound when starting the car and just letting it idle. It knocked out about 80% of the boom while out on the road. The only time I hear it is when the rpm is around 2k, and I press the gas pedal while in the same gear I was cruising in. If I downshift to get the rpm up above 2k, it's not too bad. This is in Tour mode too. Holding at a consistent speed it's much better than it was. It has a throaty, deep tone that kind of reminds me of a Borla.

I'm going to live with it for a few days, then get a dyno run to see what the results are. I'm thinking I may just add some sound deadening mat to the firewall and shelf behind the seats. That would take care of the road noise from the tires, and any boominess from the exhaust. This car isn't like the old days, where a sports car was raw with minimal comforts. This one is a more refined model in every way, and at my age, I just don't feel like putting up with excess roar. This would have been cool and desirable when I was younger, but not anymore.

I've thought about going through various areas and trying to sound dampen them, but I'll be 73 in a few months and crawling around under the car, even with it up on the Quickjack just gets to be a bit much. The Quickjack units also weigh 100 lbs each, so moving those around isn't exactly a convenient task either. I'm gettin' old.

I just need to take a look at whoever it was that did all that dampening for their KEF system, and maybe get some tips on how to just do the firewall and shelf. I've got the mat, just need to look at how to remove the carpeting back there.

Very interesting! Glad to hear that a simple mod like this improves a negative characteristic of the exhaust. Now I'm wondering what lengthening my stock exhaust pipes would do... The stock exhaust does not have a droning issue, but I'm curious what the change would be.

 

[virtualmacho]

Very interesting! Glad to hear that a simple mod like this improves a negative characteristic of the exhaust. Now I'm wondering what lengthening my stock exhaust pipes would do... The stock exhaust does not have a droning issue, but I'm curious what the change would be.

You can do all sorts of things with extended exhaust pipes. Goes against @Eagle7 's "adding lightness" concept, so won't recommend this here.

 

[benjh1028]

You can do all sorts of things with extended exhaust pipes. Goes against @Eagle7 's "adding lightness" concept, so won't recommend this here.
View attachment 50644

THIS IS THE WAY

 

[ToonFan]

Thank you!

I designed and created the artwork myself, and had a vehicle graphics shop print them out for me. I wanted the lettering to appear more gold than the Lotus logo yellow, but that's an easy change if someone wanted the lettering to match the logo yellow.

Here's the file with the lettering in Lotus logo yellow. It's a pdf file so it will print at any size if you want it bigger or smaller. You'll have to take it to a vehicle graphics shop and get it printed out on the kind of vinyl that's for vehicles so it's durable.

You are a true scholar and gentleman! Thank you.

 

[ADC]

I went to a local auto parts store, and got a couple of these to put on the ends of the exhaust pipes.
View attachment 50613

Here's how it looked before I put them on:

View attachment 50614


And here's the after picture.

View attachment 50615

Doesn't look too bad, and It works. It completely got rid of the boomy sound when starting the car and just letting it idle. It knocked out about 80% of the boom while out on the road. The only time I hear it is when the rpm is around 2k, and I press the gas pedal while in the same gear I was cruising in. If I downshift to get the rpm up above 2k, it's not too bad. This is in Tour mode too. Holding at a consistent speed it's much better than it was. It has a throaty, deep tone that kind of reminds me of a Borla.

I'm going to live with it for a few days, then get a dyno run to see what the results are. I'm thinking I may just add some sound deadening mat to the firewall and shelf behind the seats. That would take care of the road noise from the tires, and any boominess from the exhaust. This car isn't like the old days, where a sports car was raw with minimal comforts. This one is a more refined model in every way, and at my age, I just don't feel like putting up with excess roar. This would have been cool and desirable when I was younger, but not anymore.

I've thought about going through various areas and trying to sound dampen them, but I'll be 73 in a few months and crawling around under the car, even with it up on the Quickjack just gets to be a bit much. The Quickjack units also weigh 100 lbs each, so moving those around isn't exactly a convenient task either. I'm gettin' old.

I just need to take a look at whoever it was that did all that dampening for their KEF system, and maybe get some tips on how to just do the firewall and shelf. I've got the mat, just need to look at how to remove the carpeting back there.

Inquiring minds must know... what do the two exhaust extension bits weigh?

 

[Eagle7]

Inquiring minds must know... what do the two exhaust extension bits weigh?

LOL yeah I know, but right now I'm experimenting. I wanted to see if this would work, and it has.... to a point. I've asked @Aerie if they can make a couple of these in titanium for me. They're literally about 3 1/2 inches of 2 1/2 inch diameter pipe, expanded on one end to fit over another 2 1/2 inch pipe. No welding necessary.

The ones I got didn't weigh much, maybe 6 ounces or so, but it would be nice to have everything matching in titanium.

After giving it some thought, I realize what's happening is the thinner walls of the titanium muffler are allowing more of the boom out from the muffler itself. What I'm now looking at is thermal/sound heat shield material that I can put on the factory aluminized heat shield material that's currently all around the muffler area.

You can see the area here above and behind the muffler.

This also affects how hot the trunk gets. Secondskinaudio has a couple of options that look good. Depends on how much room I have above the muffler. Option one is an 1/8" thick shield material that's rated up to 800° F, and option two is a 1/2 thick material that's rated up to 1000° F. Both reflect 98% of the heat, so either one should have a dramatic effect on the heat in the trunk. The thicker one would absorb more sound, so if I can put that above the muffler and behind, as well as behind the 3rd cat, that should do double duty for reducing heat in the trunk and engine compartment, as well as absorbing a fair amount of the boom.

I was wanting to do something about the heat in the trunk anyways, so this may be my first effort instead of putting sound absorb mat inside the cabin behind the seats. If the heat shield doesn't do enough, I can still add the mat inside the cabin.

 

[Shahaf2911]

Thank you!

I designed and created the artwork myself, and had a vehicle graphics shop print them out for me. I wanted the lettering to appear more gold than the Lotus logo yellow, but that's an easy change if someone wanted the lettering to match the logo yellow.

Here's the file with the lettering in Lotus logo yellow. It's a pdf file so it will print at any size if you want it bigger or smaller. You'll have to take it to a vehicle graphics shop and get it printed out on the kind of vinyl that's for vehicles so it's durable.

Thank you! I’ll definitely adopt it haha I’ll ask my PPF guy he might be able to do it as well.

 

[EspritGuy]

LOL yeah I know, but right now I'm experimenting. I wanted to see if this would work, and it has.... to a point. I've asked @Aerie if they can make a couple of these in titanium for me. They're literally about 3 1/2 inches of 2 1/2 inch diameter pipe, expanded on one end to fit over another 2 1/2 inch pipe. No welding necessary.

The ones I got didn't weigh much, maybe 6 ounces or so, but it would be nice to have everything matching in titanium.

After giving it some thought, I realize what's happening is the thinner walls of the titanium muffler are allowing more of the boom out from the muffler itself. What I'm now looking at is thermal/sound heat shield material that I can put on the factory aluminized heat shield material that's currently all around the muffler area.

You can see the area here above and behind the muffler.

View attachment 50659

This also affects how hot the trunk gets. Secondskinaudio has a couple of options that look good. Depends on how much room I have above the muffler. Option one is an 1/8" thick shield material that's rated up to 800° F, and option two is a 1/2 thick material that's rated up to 1000° F. Both reflect 98% of the heat, so either one should have a dramatic effect on the heat in the trunk. The thicker one would absorb more sound, so if I can put that above the muffler and behind, as well as behind the 3rd cat, that should do double duty for reducing heat in the trunk and engine compartment, as well as absorbing a fair amount of the boom.

I was wanting to do something about the heat in the trunk anyways, so this may be my first effort instead of putting sound absorb mat inside the cabin behind the seats. If the heat shield doesn't do enough, I can still add the mat inside the cabin.

Could the 1/8 inch material be placed inside underneath the trunk liner to resolve the 'warming tray' effect?
And wouldn't the muffler heat incidence prove detrimental to battery life?

 

[Eagle7]

Could the 1/8 inch material be placed inside underneath the trunk liner to resolve the 'warming tray' effect?
And wouldn't the muffler heat incidence prove detrimental to battery life?

They specifically say the material needs to go inside the area where the heat's coming from, not inside the interior areas. I've wondered about the effect the heat would have on the battery too. The 3rd cat is over there on that side, so I think I'll put some heat reflect mat above and behind the 3rd cat too.

 

[Time2Fly]

I'll look to see how this goes. The boot does get really warm.

 

[Eagle7]

I've been in communication with @Aerie about the muffler pipes, and they're going to either add another inch or two to the ends of the pipes, or include a pair of extensions with the muffler for those that need or want them. To be determined.

 

[crestima]

LOL yeah I know, but right now I'm experimenting. I wanted to see if this would work, and it has.... to a point. I've asked @Aerie if they can make a couple of these in titanium for me. They're literally about 3 1/2 inches of 2 1/2 inch diameter pipe, expanded on one end to fit over another 2 1/2 inch pipe. No welding necessary.

The ones I got didn't weigh much, maybe 6 ounces or so, but it would be nice to have everything matching in titanium.

After giving it some thought, I realize what's happening is the thinner walls of the titanium muffler are allowing more of the boom out from the muffler itself. What I'm now looking at is thermal/sound heat shield material that I can put on the factory aluminized heat shield material that's currently all around the muffler area.

You can see the area here above and behind the muffler.

View attachment 50659

This also affects how hot the trunk gets. Secondskinaudio has a couple of options that look good. Depends on how much room I have above the muffler. Option one is an 1/8" thick shield material that's rated up to 800° F, and option two is a 1/2 thick material that's rated up to 1000° F. Both reflect 98% of the heat, so either one should have a dramatic effect on the heat in the trunk. The thicker one would absorb more sound, so if I can put that above the muffler and behind, as well as behind the 3rd cat, that should do double duty for reducing heat in the trunk and engine compartment, as well as absorbing a fair amount of the boom.

I was wanting to do something about the heat in the trunk anyways, so this may be my first effort instead of putting sound absorb mat inside the cabin behind the seats. If the heat shield doesn't do enough, I can still add the mat inside the cabin.

I've used 1mm Secondskin sheets on two of the under trays to help reduce the sound drum effect sound they theoretically must be producing due to their thinness, size and location. I've read posts from some members dealing with this issue. It's kind of difficult to measure the before/after results, but I'm convinced there's got to be an improvement in sound insolation for those under trays. I was curious about your efforts in also educing trunk heat by insulating the section above the exhaust. I do hope you're successful in your endeavor and please let us know if it works. in my view, the problem with reducing trunk heat of the Emira is that heat gets transmitted from 3 sides: 1) the Top, due to the hot air vent directed over it towards the rear window; 2) the Rear from the engine firewall; and 3) Under - from the exhaust section which is the part you're trying to tackle.

 

[Eagle7]

I suspect the bulk of the heat is coming from the muffler underneath. I just ordered 8 sq ft of the 1/2 inch stuff, so hopefully sometime next week it'll arrive and I can see how much of a difference it will make.

 

[RyanGphoto]

I suspect the bulk of the heat is coming from the muffler underneath. I just ordered 8 sq ft of the 1/2 inch stuff, so hopefully sometime next week it'll arrive and I can see how much of a difference it will make.

Really looking forward to how you fare with the heat shielding. Curious about deadening the sound as well.

I really appreciate all your efforts with the car and what you have done.. It's absolutely amazing and man I really wish I could work on my car as I can't imagine what this would cost if you had to goto a shop to do this stuff.

Thanks again for all the effort..
Ryan G

 

[Eagle7]

The shielding panels finally arrived, and sometime this week I'll get them installed. Thursday we're supposed to get a break in the hot weather, and that'll probably be the day I do it.

 

[Eagle7]

Today I was driving around a bit. I didn't do anything to the car yesterday because we had a thunderstorm come in Wednesday night, and it was rainy windy and cold yesterday. It's clear and beautiful today with a projected high of 75°, so maybe later today I'll see about getting the car up on the QJ and starting to figure out the placement of the heat shield stuff I got.

I noticed today for the first time that the ECU seems to have started to adjust to the @Aerie titanium muffler, as it feels like all of a sudden the car has more torque. With the exception of a slight bit of drone at around 2,000-2,300 rpm, the exhaust sounds fantastic, especially if you get up above 2,500 rpm. This is in all modes. With the window down, between the supercharger whine and the exhaust tone in Sport mode, the car sounds just incredible.

I'd brought a laser thermometer with me because I wanted to see what the trunk temps were, so when I got home, I popped the trunk and immediately took a laser reading and the temp inside the trunk was 83°; this is with an outside air temp of 61°. So now that I have a baseline reading, I'll take another reading after I get the heat shield mat installed, and see what the difference is.

Here's a shot from this morning; the morning angle of the sun really brought out the green tones.

 

[ToonFan]

Today I was driving around a bit. I didn't do anything to the car yesterday because we had a thunderstorm come in Wednesday night, and it was rainy windy and cold yesterday. It's clear and beautiful today with a projected high of 75°, so maybe later today I'll see about getting the car up on the QJ and starting to figure out the placement of the heat shield stuff I got.

I noticed today for the first time that the ECU seems to have started to adjust to the @Aerie titanium muffler, as it feels like all of a sudden the car has more torque. With the exception of a slight bit of drone at around 2,000-2,300 rpm, the exhaust sounds fantastic, especially if you get up above 2,500 rpm. This is in all modes. With the window down, between the supercharger whine and the exhaust tone in Sport mode, the car sounds just incredible.

I'd brought a laser thermometer with me because I wanted to see what the trunk temps were, so when I got home, I popped the trunk and immediately took a laser reading and the temp inside the trunk was 83°; this is with an outside air temp of 61°. So now that I have a baseline reading, I'll take another reading after I get the heat shield mat installed, and see what the difference is.

Here's a shot from this morning; the morning angle of the sun really brought out the green tones.

View attachment 51493

Those wheels really suit the car!

 

[Eagle7]

Got the final dyno run today. This is with the @Aerie titanium muffler added. My seat-of-the-pants feeling that the car had more torque from the get-go was confirmed on the dyno. You can see the improvement up to the 2750 rpm point. Above that everything is consistent with the Eventuri run. We've had several days of rain, so the humidity was higher than the last run, but even still the car performed very consistently overall.

I noticed yesterday and today, that the sound has changed. Either the muffler needed some break-in time, or the ECU has adjusted the fuel map, or maybe both. There is slightly less resonance than before, and the sound is smoother overall. There aren't any harsh frequencies. The sound is very smooth and refined, with more body and tone than the factory exhaust. It's REALLY starting to sound good, especially at around 3500 rpm and up.

On the chart below, the purple line was the stock baseline run that showed 369 hp to the rear wheels. The blue line was the Eventuri run which gave 386 hp to the rear wheels. Today's run was 383.5 hp which is essentially the same as the Eventuri run, except there's an increase in torque up to 2750 rpm. The @Aerie titanium muffler seems to have made the most difference below 2750 rpm. You can even see a slight improvement there in the power too. All of this is with all 3 cats still in place; no 3rd cat delete.

 

[Eagle7]

I was able to record the @Eventuri and @Aerie dyno runs with my iPhone 12. Hopefully these audio clips work.

Eventuri intake, stock muffler

Eventuri intake, @Aerie titanium muffler