Hello fellow Bay Area NAM'ers!
I'm looking for a little assistance and I'm hoping that someone who has done this before is willing to help me out a bit.
I just installed a Milltek cat-back exhaust with my Milltek Header. While my MINI feels great, the sound is almost overwhelming. I had no idea it would be so loud! It's on the border of being too loud in the cockpit when I step on it. I think that if I install Dynamat, or some equivalent Sound Deadening material, it should help a little with dampening the noise. If anyone in the Bay Area has done this to their car and would be willing to assist me install it in my MINI, I'd be very grateful. I'm willing (of course) to drive to wherever you are located and bring some food, beer (if you're interested, and of age!) and donate some $ for your time. My guess is that the whole car will take between 2 and 3 hours.
Anyone have the time and basic knowledge to help me out?
Thanks,
Matt

 

cascade audio makes a great material, and the 3m adhesive is all you will need, if it doesnt have the adhesive backed material. it is cheaper than dynamat, and provides more deadening for half the weight.Should look something like this:

 

Okay, I have a dumb question... since you have a convertible will the sound proofing really be worth it since sound inside is bound to be louder with the fabric roof (if its up)?

Anyway, best of luck and be careful of the police hearing you at WOT

PPS: If its that loud I hope you don't live near me

 

Yeah, I've thought about the issue with having a convertible. From the best I can tell, the majority of exhaust noise is coming from below, not from the side/back/top of the convertible. I'm hoping that by placing some sort of sound deadening material just above the exhaust inside the car, under the carpet, some of the noise will be muted. I could be totally wrong, I guess I'll see. I figure that it can't hurt to try though.

 

Are you sure that your not just getting vibration noise transmitted into the cabin? When I installed my Miltek cat back I thought is was to loud. The cause was that the center resonator was pressing against the heat shield. After I added some spacers the noise was gone. Check this thread:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...647#post669647


I don’t have the Miltek header but that shouldn’t really add much more noise would it?

Anyway it’s worth checking to see if any part of the exhaust is touching any of the body to eliminate this as a cause of excessive noise.

As far as installing Dynamat or such stuff it’s really easy to do. All you need to do is to take off say your door panels and then cut a piece to the size you need peel and paste it in place. There are many places on-line to get this stuff. I would be willing to help you a bit if you need it but I don’t think it really deadens the sound that much or not enough to keep a loud exhaust quiet.

 

Hmmm, I'll check the center resonator to see if it's rubbing against the heat shield Steve. Thanks for the suggestion. My initial guess is that's not the case on this one just because I'm not really hearing a vibration noise, it's just a very loud exhaust (which really surprised me because I had heard that Milltek is one of the more tame exhausts out there)

 

My Miltek is not very much louder than the stock one was (once I got rid of the vibration noise). But noise level is very much different to different people. If you still need some help pm me and we'll see what we can do. I wouldn't mind checking out your ride as well to see what the header sounds like with the cat back.

 

I also have the Miltek catback@header,you are right about the noise,how ever for the gain in power the noise is worth it to me.

 

Easy stuff.... if youre in my area send me a PM. You can get some dynamat at kragens even. If you want to open up all that junk like in those pictures make sure to go to the dealership first and get a bunch of those little yellow clips that hold the entire interior together cuz those little ****ers break WAY too easily

 

i posted here or on mini2 about how i made a sound deadening "thing" from a combination of soft matting and hard rubber. it worked very well in taking the sharp, hard edge off the sound from my supertrapp. i recall that i even measured the dbs.