Trufit Exhaust Blogger

A deep sense of satisfaction slips through your vibrating bones when your exhaust system lets rip , but that happy grin rapidly drops away when you enter a residential district. Clearly, your car exhaust is generating too much noise. It’s breaking some local ordinance and upsetting your neighbours. Let’s pacify that street full of howling dogs and angry residents by making sure your exhaust noise level is street legal. Gain Some Noise Perspective The decibel scale measures sound intensity. The loudness of the sound is calibrated across a logarithmic scale, but we don’t really need to know the mathematics behind the science. Suffice to say, we have a measurement system for sound intensity, and we also have several reference points that illustrate key points on that chart. If you’re listening to a regular conversation, you’re experiencing 60-dB (decibels) of loudness. A crowded party ramps that figure up to 70-dB. It’s at this point that you really recognize the sound as an irrit...

The engine in a motorbike is smaller than a car engine, yet its noise profile is louder than its four-wheeled highway cousin. Admittedly, that larger engine is concealed in the car engine compartment, an enclosed alcove that can be soundproofed, while the two-wheeler wears its power plant out in the open. Still, this question begs an answer. Are there exhaust noise differences between cars and motorbikes? Motorcycle Culture Unlike cars, motorbike owners often buy their wheels with the sole intent of putting the bike on steroids. The biker immediately opts for aftermarket pipes. The bike pipes are shorter than a car exhaust system , though, as is the muffler housing . The upshot of this condensed exhaust system is more noise. Essentially, that biker culture and the motorbike’s streamlined form encourage noisy leanings. That bias demands svelte pipework, tighter turns on a slimmer frame, and a near obsessional need to feel that noise vibrate the owners’ fillings. Engine Ar...

If your financial situation is rocky this month, you probably think your vehicle’s performance credentials aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Hit the brakes on that thought, for there’s a way to boost engine performance without buying a new exhaust kit . We’re talking about exhaust system cleaning , a procedure that purges hydrocarbon leftovers and other pipe-fused pollutants so that the exhaust gases produced by your car engine can move unimpeded. Beware of Carbon Deposits An underappreciated exhaust system has to deal with the same waste that it’s removing from the discharge rushing out of the vehicle’s pipe tips. Certainly, most of this gaseous load is catalysed, broken down until it’s transformed into oxygen and nitrogen. However, the fuel is loaded with hydrocarbons, which means carbon particulates are also passengers in the exhaust stream. That sooty stuff, even in tiny quantities, tends to coat the inner surfaces of your pipework in ashy carbon. Sparks Performanc...

A poorly performing catalytic converter isn’t like most other working vehicle systems. If a car fuse blows, an electrical system goes on the blink. It’s the same with the engine because you feel the misfiring cylinders. The engine’s overheating, the car’s stalling out, and there’s a general performance drop off. No, a bad catalytic converter isn’t easy to diagnose, but its symptoms can really hit hard. Hard-hitting Environmental Symptoms What happens when your vehicle’s catalytic converter goes bad? Well, your emissions are moving unprocessed into the atmosphere. When it was functioning properly, the chemical neutralization process converted those emissions into harmless compounds. That’s no longer the case. In the short-term, the car no longer complies with local vehicle emissions standards, as set by a nationally accredited authority. From a long-term perspective, those harmful emissions are contributing to the global warming problems we’re all trying so hard to preven...

Use your five senses when a car exhaust leak is suspected. Swap out the sense of taste for common sense, though, because you’re not about to lick a failing exhaust pipe. Anyways, the symptoms we’re looking for are likely to cause a racket, and they’ll probably stink. Finally, look for clouds of nasty gases. Better yet, come with us now as we describe these common symptoms. Noise and Vibrations A performance-tuned exhaust roar is loud, but there’s a feeling of refined control behind the sonic rumbling.  Damaged car exhaust  systems, on the other hand, create a hissing and crackling racket. Listen for the irregular sputtering tones as a rusted or blown seam is forced open. The backpressure is leaking, perhaps before any hazardous emissions are scrubbed from the discharge. A “bad vibes” feeling often accompanies the noise. The harsh metallic reverberations propagate through the chassis, run up the steering wheel, and reduce the vehicle’s handling characteristics. Livin...

A double chamber exhaust system  is arguably one of the most attractive aftermarket additions on the market. Instead of a narrow containment area, one that limits the processing innards, a beefed up double chamber unit provides ample gas routing space. Broadened  exhaust tips  peer out from the expanded profile so that the overall shape of the system suggests pure performance output force. With that being said, do they deliver on that performance front as well as they do in the looks department? Double Chambered Performance Gains  If the different pipe crossover profiles in the mid-pipe lines act as inline control elements, the sections that control how the back pressure gasses interact, then an end-point  double chamber exhaust system  manages that enhanced performance envelope at the output threshold. Designed with doubled-up tailpipes, the expanded chamber provides a figurative exclamation point of exhalation for those gases, with the signature...

Aftermarket enthusiasts wade through distracting piles of advertising media. Digital or paperbound, there’s usually more hype than anything else locked inside the promotional literature. How do we separate engineering science, the real performance gains, from the wily publicity brochures? Maybe, just this once, all of the available styles and types of aftermarket exhaust systems are muddying the waters. What’s needed is a strategy, a muffler design and sound absorption game plan. A Noise-Based Muffler Design Strategy The top exhaust system brands make their performance gains a reality, but they’re sometimes a little coy when it comes to explaining the engineering methods behind the product. You start your strategy with a shortlisting process, a way of putting your thoughts on paper. What do you want the muffler to do? Is there a sound profile you want to emulate? Yes, you want to absorb the sound, but you also probably want to tune the noise until it reproduces a legendary ...