Hey everyone simple question. I bought an ALTA DP. Worried about highway drone I was thinking about trying the high temp exhaust wrap to help minimze any possible drone. I do get a little vibration from the 3in catback already and do not really want more. Do you Think it will help to insulate the pipe this way? As a result it would lower temp too, but I am primarily concerned with droning

 

I don't see how an exhaust wrap is going to prevent droning?

If drone becomes an issue, you'll have to buy a resonator, it will fix the drone for you quite nicely.

 

How much pure sound will you lose though?

 

My thinking about the wrap was to insulate to minimize droning. Much like you insulate a wall in your house. It absorbs NOISE even though its not the primary function of the insulator, Hell Im just throwingout prospects.
To insulate is to limit sound, Droning is a sound right So I guess Im asking if anyone has tried it.

 

but your "insulator" needs to be in the path of the sound wave.
this is why resonators work. they are in the path of the flow (sound). i'm not sure you could even measure the sound transmission from the exhaust tubing.

wrapping will most likely give you absolutely zero sound deadening.

 

^^^What he said!

 

Great makes sense now, thanks for the input!!!

 

just get some materials like dynomat and line it in your trunk area.

 

Exhaust Wrap will do absolutely nothing for drone. That being said I don't see that being an issue, the Alta DP/exhaust is so quiet you can barely even tell it's on.

 

Do you have a ALTA FULL Exhaust? Ya the CATBACK is quiet when its new. See my videos of the catback before and after brake in. Its not quiet when broke in. You are the first person to say its quiet, Maybe Im getting old
Brand new: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAP71...eature=related



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gAHKYAQ7F0

 

Have you heard my exhaust?




There's more vids on my youtube account but I won't post them cause a few violate the site guidelines...

FYI if your exhaust got THAT much louder and didn't do it right away (a day or two later) the only explanation I can think of is that your resonator is shot. Sounds like you blew all the fiberglass out of the back of your tailpipe. Magnaflow resonators were having this same issue for a while. I went through 2 of them before switching to a flowmaster and solving the problem.

 

RustyBoy...what exhaust, all I hear is Supercharger Sounds nice!

 

Having logged more than 10K miles collectively on my R56's with our DP and Cat-Back I am pleased to say that there is really no drone. The only case where I felt there was drone was heading up hills at part throttle in the wrong gear. Shift down a cog and drone gone, and powerful music emanates from the pipes. Nothing annoying. My wife even can ride in the car and has no complaints.

SO you can try it, but I agree with a few of the others that a healthy dose of DynaMat makes more sense if you feel you get drone.

Let me know if I can help further!

 

Thanks Adam, I did decide to go the Dynamat(r) route as I am pulling the back seat anyways.
So as posted "Rusty" thought I may have blown out a resonator (?) If I expirience such a drastic increase in sound. What do you think. I posted brand new install vid with a well broke in vid. I was unhappy at first that it was so quiet, now its really nice. DOes this sound as the ALTA catback should? Hell no complaints from mehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gAHKYAQ7F0

 

Glad you found something that works. The muffler and resonator will take a "set" after a few hundred miles or a 1K km's but the process can be lengthened if you drive in yearly short bursts to be far longer. So that might explain why it took longer for you.

Also, to note, the EU cars will sound a bit differently vs. the US spec cars due to the changes in the OEM downpipes.

Keep me posted!

 

Usually the exhaust sounds rhaspy and tinny if the resonator is blown out. I was just saying that the timeline sounded as if something had failed (Normally it only takes a few days to "Break in" the exhaust). You said it was a few weeks.

Sounds good though, no reason to change it out if it sounds fine!

 

Just to throw this into the mix of opinions,from the those who have not tried Thermal Wrapping try it you may change you opinion.

Any part of the the exhaust including headers, pipe center section,catalytic convertereven the muffler will add some sound deadening qualities. It is a textured silica based fabric material that is fairly thick. So any part of the exhaust system you wrap you will insulate from heat, deaden sound and depending on where you wrap will increase exhaust velocity .
http://www.thermotec.com/products.php

 

Actually, my headers are wrapped. Not for sound deadening though.

 

I've had the ALTA turbo back exhaust on my car for thousands of miles and haven't experienced any drone, only a really awesome sounding system....I get compliments all the time.

 

Oh I see Getting some free horse power are we

 

I don't know about free, the wrap cost me ~$50, Lots of swearing, and days of itching.

 

DITTO

Ok now I know for sure you wrapped it

 

That looks really nice, Did you notice a reduction in undood temps?

 

Didn't measure before and after, I doubt it did much for underhood temps, most of the principal behind header wrap is containing heat to keep exhaust pulses consistent.

 

Thanks most think wrapping looks tacky.

While every MINI is different side by side without any gauge to determine the temperature you can feel less heat radiating from my Mini then that of another mini with unwrapped headers. I know that I can drive my Mini all day pop the hood and grab a primary tube on the header and not get burned. A fair amount of heat is created by the engine because of lack of air flow under the hood. My reason for wrapping the header is to maintain exhaust heat and velocity out the port as long as possible. This prevents contamination back into the combustion chamber and also stabilizes the exhaust gas temperatures. Wrapping the center section was for more for noise and heat rather then performance.