Building your own muffler

[Brett Proctor]

People underestimate how exhausting it is to have a droning muffler. Yeah, it sounds great when revving but no one wants to listen to that on the highway.

Listening to the exhaust from the back, it doesn't sound that bad but driving the car the sound just echoes through the car. Can't comfortably listen to the radio.

Anyway, yeah, definitely post progress as it happens.

Right now I'm researching what the best design would be.
Did a search on what designs are used in todays mufflers and seeing if I can use them.

Biggest issue is if these designs can be used in a compact muffler and do a good job at keeping the sound down.

Obviously a straight through design is not going to do the job. That's whats on the car now.

 

[Brett Proctor]

Looking at the first design (chambered) What makes them think that just the sound waves (Blues Arrows) will be routed into the chamber section and not follow the hot exhaust gases (Red Arrows) out to the outlet.

The Turbo design has packing that will absorb some of the sound.

So, to me at this point in time I think a turbo design would be quieter than a Chamber design.

Still looking at what else can be done to dampen the sound.

 

[Brett Proctor]

One thing I find interesting about these two pictures is that the "artist" seems to think that the exhaust and the sound are separate from each other and they take separate paths going through the muffler.

If it was that easy

 

[Brett Proctor]

Quick update of whats going on

Came across a chamber style muffler on Temu that had possibilities of fitting.
So with a slight modification I got it so it will fit on the car
Muffler cost was $30. For that price I can't buy the materials to build my own muffler. So it was worth getting it just to see how that style of muffler would work.
I was going to buy a decibel meter to make this a somewhat professional test but it never happen. I figured I needed the money more for materials than a gauge for just this one project.

Sound of the muffler was a deep throaty sound but to loud.
I'll try to get a sound clip and post it.

I have a design for a "turbo" muffler but will have to order the materials to build it.
Will post progress when I get the materials to build it.

 

[Brett Proctor]

 

[Brett Proctor]

Calculations are done for the parts to the muffler and patterns are made and then cut out.
Next is to transfer the pattern to the 0.065 steel that the muffler will be made from and cut them out

 

[Brett Proctor]

Got the parts cut out and Kind of got them bent into shape.
Once each piece is welded together I'll work on smoothing out the edges.

 

[Brett Proctor]

Update

Casing is made just waiting on the materials to build the internal baffling.
There was a hangup getting the materials. Shipping costs were ridiculous. Close to $100. The cost of the materials was about half that.

Got shipping down to a reasonable amount, $26 and now materials are on order. Should be here with in a week.
Once here it should be just a couple of days to put everything together

 

[Brett Proctor]

Not much posting is going on so while I wait for the rest of the materials to arrive I thought I'd add this to the construction of the muffler

Baffling will be done by using (4) 1.25 diameter perforated tubing rapped in sound packing material.

 

[farfegnubbin]

Nice fabrication! I’m excited to see how it’ll turn out.

Yeah, that Temu unit has a nice snarl to it but seems pretty loud.

 

[Brett Proctor]

Update

Still waiting on materials.

Ordered them from a place I've never ordered from, and it took a week for them just to process the order. After a week of waiting I sent an email asking whats going on.
Well the items have finally been shipped and I'm looking at Thursday for delivery.

On another story
I got a letter from the DMV which said my personalized plates that I originally wanted have been granted and to make an appointment and come pick them up.
Spent over an hour on their web site to make an appointment and there was no place you could make just an appointment to pick up plates. So I had to go to the office and make one.
You would think since I was already there that I could just exchange my old plates for the new ones and be on my way, but nope.
Soonest I can get in is December.

 

[Brett Proctor]

While waiting for the materials to get here, I do have a sheet of perforated stainless steel with 0.25 holes laying around.
So I thought I'd get some practice in making the perforated tubes. I'll need to make 4
Not sure of what size of holes will work out the best. I ordered a sheet with 1/4" holes and another with 3/16" holes.

I could have made this muffler out of stainless steel but I was trying to save money.

 

[Brett Proctor]

Materials finally got here so between waiting for the grand daughter to get dropped off and the time during her nap I managed to get the muffler made.

I ordered 2 different versions of the perforated steel. One with 0.25" holes and another with 0.125" holes. Decided to use the 0.125" sheet.

first did the calculation for the size of material that needed to be cut.

Then used a section of tubing to bend the material around
Marked out the base line on the tubing to make sure the material would be bent straight.

Lined up the material and clamped it in place with vise grips

And started to wrap the material around the tubing

Got them all made and tac welded them together at the seam.

Didn't get pictures of installing the sound damping material. The grand daughter started to wake up and I had to rush the assembly before she was up.

Haven't installed it yet. Still need to make the hangers for it, but that shouldn't take long, so sometime tomorrow we'll see what it sounds like.

 

[Brett Proctor]

took the car out today
Cruising around town the interior noise isn't to bad (from the exhaust not the radio)
you can actually enjoy listening to the radio but at highway speeds forget it. Noise from the exhaust and the road make it impossible to listen to the radio.
Didn't notice any down on power

tried to down load a video but with no luck.

Since I have material left over I may try making something a little different

 

[Brett Proctor]

 

[Brett Proctor]

Since I have material left over, I may try making something a little different

Made another muffler.
Just a basic glass pack design that would fit in the space that I had.
Used the 0.25 hole perforated sheet this time with some modifications to the holes that would direct the exhaust more into the packing area than travel straight through.

inlet and outlet are the same size as the main exhaust.

This design seems to be working better than the previous design. I can actually listen to the cars radio at highway speeds. Still a bit noisy but its better than the previous design.

I did order a muffler from Summit Racing that has the same dimensions, but it uses a baffle design and from how loud the previous baffle design muffler that I tried from Temu was I don't think I'll waste time installing it. Cost on that was around $40. I can't build a muffler for that price. I think just the materials that I ordered were over $100. But building my own muffler I ended up with something quieter than anything I could buy, and it fits.

I used left over muffler packing to act as a heat shield between the muffler and water line. I'll make something better when I get time. this was just a quick fix for now.