I know that most of the boxer engine sound comes from the unequal length headers. I have also heard what boxer engine sound with equal links headers, which is pretty much like any other four-cylinder. So, would it be possible to make an in-line four-cylinder sound like a boxer by using unequal length headers?
i also know some of that sound is inherited from the firing order. But I could make the header to reflect that. Just thinking out loud today.
Just unplug one injector.
A while back the vacuum line to my megasquirt blew off in a high boost situation. A short drive fouled a plug and I had like 2 dozen people ask if my car was subaru powered.
So yeah. Just kill one cylinder
God, why? They sound like E36 M3, IMO.
I mean you can always make a wildly unequal length header.
In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :
Because they sound awesome
I have owned a few flat four engines. Many beetles and a 914. All of them sounded better than a subaru flat four
In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :
You've got a point.
In reply to mad_machine (Forum Supporter) :
My beetle had a 4-1 header and sounded nothing like a subaru, thankfully!
Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :
Because they sound awesome
They sound like a flatulent pig that's due for butchering and those with open exhausts are almost exclusively driven by complete morons.
Change My Mind.
Trent (Generally supportive dude) said:A while back the vacuum line to my megasquirt blew off in a high boost situation. A short drive fouled a plug and I had like 2 dozen people ask if my car was subaru powered.
So yeah. Just kill one cylinder
One of my guys drove some sort of turbo Subaru into the shop with a farty exhaust. I said to myself, why does that thing sound like a real car?
Had one dead plug wire.
Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :
Because they sound awesome
They sound like a flatulent pig that's due for butchering and those with open exhausts are almost exclusively driven by complete morons.
Change My Mind.
To be fair, open exhausts are usually not a great thing on any engine configuration.
Yes you can
Off the shelf solution for Honda D-series!
Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :
Because they sound awesome
They sound like a flatulent pig that's due for butchering and those with open exhausts are almost exclusively driven by complete morons.
Change My Mind.
Sound is such a subjective thing though. I quite like the way my car sounds, even though it's just an anemic Lima with a hole in the muffler.
OP, I would think that a custom (read:diy) header with runners that match the lengths of a subie header should get you pretty close if you're playing with a dohc 4. And little to no muffler for the full vape experience. Do it because you can. Party.
Would blasting the Subaru song from the early days of the internet out the windows work?
NSFW - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHbNuyubhz0
Quit sniffing glue, check out my Subaru
Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :
Because they sound awesome
They sound like a flatulent pig that's due for butchering and those with open exhausts are almost exclusively driven by complete morons.
Change My Mind.
I'm actually with you here. And I think you live in the PNW also, so they won't get it until they are surrounded by fart can equipped subies. I live down here in Bend, and it is straight up annoying to hear these cars rumbling around town at every light. It's actually refreshing to hear an equal length Subaru go by. As for why I asked this question, it was more a "can this be done?", rather than "I want to hack a four cylinder for street cred".
admittedly, it would be fairly neat to make a certain "Subaru looking 80's Honda Civic that has that special Subaru 555 paint livery" sound like an Impreza.
In reply to _ :
Yup. I live in Portland. Of course, driving a Focus RS makes the dill weed Scooby owners come out of the woodwork and act like arseholes. Most of the time I'm driving my kids in the car, so no. I'm not gonna race you.
Being involved with the local Rally and Rallycross folks doesn't help either. At least they use them for some fun and there is a method to their madness. Many dislike the sound, but take it because the cars are just so damned capable and easy to configure for rally.
I generally don't mind most enthusiasts, but I know quite a few are just poseurs, like a good friend of mine, they just latch onto the latest cool thing and follow the crowd. I see it in the Focus and Civic circles. So many looking for deals on the same parts to make their cars look a certain way, except so many look, sound and drive the same.
I really don't like the sound of that unbalanced flat four. I like the sound of VW flat fours, Flat sixes and even Rotaries. Flat four Subaru's with unequal headers? No thanks. That's just flatulence. I'll pass.
All I can offer is that a Cobra replica with side pipes and the wrong firing order for the camshaft so that only four cylinders actually fire, sounds like an air cooled VW.
So if you want an uneven, lumpy, broken-sounding engine, I guess you could take an already broken sounding engine like a crossplane V8, give it a no crossover dual exhaust, and disconnect half the spark plugs?
buzzboy said:In reply to mad_machine (Forum Supporter) :
My beetle had a 4-1 header and sounded nothing like a subaru, thankfully!
A guy i used to rallycross with about 15 years ago had equal length headers on a 2.5RS and it sounded like a Honda B18 at full chat, in all the best ways.
Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:God, why? They sound like E36 M3, IMO.
I mean you can always make a wildly unequal length header.
THESE EXIST.
Apparemtly there are enough people that enjoy the exhaust-fighting-itself blop-blop-blop sound of Subaru boxers that they make headers for Hondas where cylinders 2 and 4 have like 4" stubs that blow into cylinders 1 and 3 respectively, to give that "I hate horsepower" sound.
In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :
Oh they are immediately challenged by your RS. It's a matter of street cred and pride at that point, and if YouTube has taught them well, they will "chop" that RS, because Subaru's are superior in every way. Lol
How would you go about building an "unequal length header"? It's not as simple as different length tubes. You would need to build a header to make the exhaust pulses arrive at the collector at the correct timing to try to duplicate the boxer sound.
Firing order, tube length, torture in the path, cylinder head port design would all contribute to the eventual exhaust sound.
Anything you would build would be a wild guess and IMO and the chances of ending up with a "boxer" sound would be next to nil.
In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :
Can't change someone else's poor taste
In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :
Having owned the EJ25 and the new FA20F, I much prefer the sound of the latter, with its equal-length header. Never really found the EJ25's sound particularly unique or charming, just very loud at high RPMs.
That said, though, in my area at least I don't run into a lot of asshats driving turbocharged Subarus. Maybe that's because I'm in NE Atlanta, and there are plenty of AMGs, twin turbo Audis, bimotor Teslas, etc. and nobody driving a WRX is going to think he's top dog. Around here those cars seem to be driven by young males who wanted something a little sportier than a V6 Accord, or people who actually participate in some form of motorsport.
b13990 said:That said, though, in my area at least I don't run into a lot of asshats driving turbocharged Subarus.
Wow! I actually cannot fathom roads free of hordes of stanced, straight piped Subarus with giant hoonigan stickers blasting through traffic at WOT.
Don't get me wrong. Giant lifted diesel trucks with binary throttle control still outnumber them 10-1, but if one were to look out my window at work for an hour you could easily count 3 dozen of these enthusiasts and their teenage driving habits.
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