Making a V8 Diesel sound better
Making a V8 Diesel sound better
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Discussion

irfan1712

Original Poster:

1,307 posts

183 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
quotequote all
I have a V8 diesel in my Panamera. While the car is very quick and has laugh out loud levels of torque, the only place it lacks for me is that engine noise.. or lack of. There's certainly a muted V8 grunts undertone to the whole experience but thats about it. Not even any turbo noises really.

Would a custom exhaust system be worth while on this to open up a bit of noise? or just a cat back perhaps? or am i wasting my time! I have no idea what noises to expect and if it would sound pants, I'm hoping because it has 8 cylinders it can still sound pleasing.

not looking for 'buy a petrol' posts and I'm aware it wont sound like a Corvette or bang and crack like a C63. and yes diesel is the devils juice etc etc. just wondering if anyone else here has opened up a bit more pleasing noises from a V8 Diesel as I'm not finding much on the 'tube to help.

cheers.

Mr Ponkerson

1,537 posts

122 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
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Performance active sound system?

J4CKO

46,969 posts

230 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
quotequote all
A custom exhaust would do the job, and it should sound pretty good, V8 diesels sound about as good as diesels can sound, still aV8 at the end of the day.

2pad

292 posts

181 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
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If it's the eu6 V8 with adblue they are rather muted compared to the earlier eu5 spec Porsche V8 diesel.

Loyly

18,291 posts

189 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
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I love diesels, but if I'm after more pleasant noise in a diesel I turn up the volume on Radio 4.

Plate spinner

18,084 posts

230 months

DanielSan

20,041 posts

197 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
quotequote all

irfan1712

Original Poster:

1,307 posts

183 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
quotequote all
thanks guys.

i have read the euro6 adblue engine is quieter than old, although theres nothing to compare to on mine as its the SQ7 engine. (the difference in noise common discussed is between the new & old 4.2 v8 diesel in the cayenne i believe).

not sure what i think about those sound boosters, essentially speakers stuck just before the silencers. I think a cat back to free up some noise could be the solution. Long as it doesn't drone inside of course.. can't be dealing with that.

anonymous-user

84 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
quotequote all
A turbo diesel will always be a lot quieter than a non-turbo petrol engine due to the turbo acting as a very effective silencer.

Given the right exhaust system, a V8 diesel should still sound very nice though.

Have you ever heard a diesel Scania V8 with straight pipes? One of the best sounds out there.

In my experience Porsche massively over silence their cars. My 911 required some Fabspeed race mufflers to sound decent.

I have a 4.8S V8 Cayenne and it was stupidly quiet for such an engine.

I've just had to remove the cats and 'straight pipe' the exhaust system all the way to the back box to get it sounding fruity.

With your car, I think if you ran a straight pipe exhaust system from the cats right to the tailpipes it would sound good.

To give you an idea of the sound, here's a Merc E420 V8 diesel with no silencers. Just the Cats and straight pipes to the rear.

I think it sounds very good.

https://youtu.be/cWIIIyOwSak

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 28th October 21:04

Triumph Man

9,623 posts

198 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
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I don’t really have an answer, but I did see a YouTube video of a Mercedes e400 cdi v8 with an aftermarket exhaust and that sounded amazing

leigh1050

2,461 posts

195 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
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It's a tractor engine! It will always sound st!

Triumph Man

9,623 posts

198 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
quotequote all
Give over, multi cylinder diesels (ie more than 4) can sound quite nice.

anonymous-user

84 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
quotequote all
leigh1050 said:
It's a tractor engine! It will always sound st!
You are showing your ignorance there.

Spend a few mins watching this with the sound turned up and you'll realise that 6-12 cylinder diesel engines sound better than 90% of cars on the road.

https://youtu.be/7nS4GmAR_ow

And that's even before you get to things like hearing the amazing noises made by Caterpillar or Detroit Diesel engines.

henrycrun

2,473 posts

270 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
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Just turn the engine off

Sump

5,512 posts

197 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
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It's a diesel...

gazza285

11,213 posts

238 months

Monday 29th October 2018
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leigh1050 said:
It's a tractor engine! It will always sound st!
A straight six John Deere sounds alright to me...

TheDrBrian

5,444 posts

252 months

Monday 29th October 2018
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DanielSan said:
That's just sad.

Lord Marylebone said:
leigh1050 said:
It's a tractor engine! It will always sound st!
You are showing your ignorance there.
Spend a few mins watching this with the sound turned up and you'll realise that 6-12 cylinder diesel engines sound better than 90% of cars on the road.
https://youtu.be/7nS4GmAR_ow
And that's even before you get to things like hearing the amazing noises made by Caterpillar or Detroit Diesel engines.
That's because they are massive and barely silenced.

doro708

27 posts

165 months

Monday 29th October 2018
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AJB88

15,905 posts

201 months

Monday 29th October 2018
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I run a straight though system on my MK2 Golf TDI (old 1.9 mechanical pump TDI) so its a straight pipe from turbo to back, it grunts and whistles, sounds quite good.

I ran a similar set up on my 2.0TDI PD170 Leon a fair few years ago but that was 3" from turbo to back. That was stupidly loud and barked when you blipped the throttle. Think Scania V8 loud.

Cheapest way for you would be to get a local place to remove a box/boxes off exhaust until your happy with the sound. Not sure how many boxes the OEM system has.

anonymous-user

84 months

Monday 29th October 2018
quotequote all
TheDrBrian said:
That's because they are massive and barely silenced.
Also see the video of a V8 diesel Merc E420 CDI i posted earlier. Straight pipes on that and it sounded really good.