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I put a car muffler on my generator this weekend
Topic Started: Aug 25 2011, 06:24 AM (4,926 Views)
rmcelwee
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Not sure if anyone cares but I thought I would post it here. Maybe it will give someone an idea for a future project. It is hard to tell the difference in the video but there is one. The biggest thing is the gurgle/burble exhaust sound is gone. It is amazing how loud the engine internals are now that you can hear them.

http://www.lightweightmiata.com/projects/generator]www.lightweightmiata.com/projects/generator



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wizard93
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There's obviously a big difference. If you had a Ford tractor muffler pointed vertically with one of those rain flaps on top, that'd be really cool.
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Memphis metro


Not bad but did not seem to make much differance. I think the baffles in a cars muffler are to big thus not making a lot of differance. Some generators have small mufflers but larger than the original muffler on your generator. One of these type mufflers may have smaller baffles than a cars muffler and be quieter. I would remove the original muffler you have from the generator and see what other options they have that would bolt up to it, or make a adapter to mount a slightly larger small engine muffler like this. Not to be negative, I like your setup, I just think you could make it a lot less noisy.

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rmcelwee
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enginedoctorgeo
Aug 25 2011, 07:08 AM
Not bad but did not seem to make much differance.
The video doesn't really do it justice - there is a much greater difference than what it appears to be. The exhaust note has completely changed and the noise is now coming from the motor vs the exhaust.
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Old Man


your neighbors will be thanking you forever
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Coche Blanco
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Troll Certified

Just buy a Honda. :P
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Tofuball
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Strange Mechanic

Neat, good job.

Even with large or small baffles, just having the expansion area in the middle of the pipe helps quiet a system and cut the peaks out.
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metromizer


Unfortunately, most of the rest of the noise is likely coming from the frame, the fins on the air-cooled engine, etc.

This reminds me of a generator story I have... in 1996, a local computer and printer repair guy agreed to help out my race program. He didn't have much money to advertise, liked cars, and knew I showed my racecar at the local car show a couple times/year and knew several local business owners. We work out a mostly 'trade' sponsorship deal, a couple square feet on the side of the car for a little cash and some stuff I need. He gave a 6-in1 fax-printer-scanner, then promised a used generator.

For you younger guys, the flood of inexpensive gen sets had not hit until about 1999, when a lot of people were worried the national power grid would be crippled due to computers perhaps not recognizing the millennium date change. Well, Doug cobbled this generator together from a couple a marginal ones, and came up with 1 'less than marginal one' haha. It put out the power I needed to charge my battery and run a couple small lights at the track, but my gwad this thing was noisy! I atrubuted the racket to the rusted out rattly muffler. Guys in the pits would complain, not just one or two, but everyone within a 100ft radius of my pit space.

Something had to be done, I didn't want to appear ungrateful and complain to Doug, he did what he was supposed to do for me... so I gathered up various mufflers and tubing, took off work the Friday before our next race, and was determined to fix this thing.

I had several lawn implement mufflers, a new one the size of a beagle with holes punched in it, one for a rototiller that I knew would still be loud, but settled on a new-ish car muffler off a Datsun or something, had lots of packing, small inlet and outlet.

Like these jobs often do, it took on a life of it's own, I spend 3x longer on it than I had planned. But I have to say, I did a first class job! I made a new exhaust flange as the old one was rotten, radius tube welded together. The new muffler was contained within the generator's steel framework, so my crew wouldn't burn themselves, heck, I even had a flex joint in the system!

Proud as a peacock, at 10pm, I fire this thing up, and MAN was I disappointed... I think it was louder! My neighbor came out (in his PJ's no less) to see what all the racket was. Not one of my finest moments.
Edited by metromizer, Aug 25 2011, 10:28 AM.
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Tofuball
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Strange Mechanic

HAHA

At least you got a story out of it for which would come in handy a decade later to amuse some guy on a forum with ;)
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nerys
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Grr

yeah most of the noise is from the actual generator and the engine itself.

remember our cars engines are in a rather good sound deadening "engine bay"

what you need to do is ENCLOSE the genny. problem then becomes one of how to get rid of the heat since its air cooled.
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metromizer


nerys
Aug 25 2011, 11:41 AM
yeah most of the noise is from the actual generator and the engine itself.

remember our cars engines are in a rather good sound deadening "engine bay"

what you need to do is ENCLOSE the genny. problem then becomes one of how to get rid of the heat since its air cooled.
yep ^o)

You're right... I left out the most important part of my disappointment;

With my generator running at 10pm, neighbor in his PJ's, my mouth gaping open in disbelief, I pushed my tennis shoe against the muffler's outlet. Almost NO difference in noise level :banghead

I wound up giving that thing away to one of my racer buddies a couple years latter, under the condition that he NOT use that :shit any where near my pit space :rasp
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Tofuball
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Strange Mechanic

Basically offset walls will take care of that. If you're worried about airflow add a fan.

This kind of shape: |i_i| with a lid. Air can get around the sides but sound doesn't like turning corners, especially if they're the type that like to suck up sound :)
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JellyBeanDriver


Tofuball
Aug 25 2011, 12:03 PM
Basically offset walls will take care of that. If you're worried about airflow add a fan.

This kind of shape: |i_i| with a lid. Air can get around the sides but sound doesn't like turning corners, especially if they're the type that like to suck up sound :)
:gp
Thinking of building a box and doing the baffling this way for a larger Chinese generator down the road.
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