Help, my Elan is Officially TO LOUD

[jbeach]

So yesterday evening I went on a spirited 80-mile drive on some country roads surrounding Columbia South Carolina. While it was 92 degrees, it was a glorious experience.

Sidebar - although I drove hard in the 92-degree heat and was also stopped in traffic for several minutes, my cooling solution - CoolEx S-3 size aluminum radiator, Cliveyboy dual puller fans and thermostat housing/control - performed flawlessly. The engine dutifully responded in spades to my every request, but stayed between 170 and 180 degrees Fahrenheit the entire time. Very happy with that.

Back to the subject at hand. My exhaust system consists of a stainless steel header, stainless 2" pipe, and the stainless silencer Ray sells at R.D. This is the S-4 configuration some have derisively referred to as the "Pea Shooter." Side bar to side bar - can we eradicate Pea Shooter and Baby Elan from our vocabularies?

Anyway, I love this silencer - it is well-made and looks great on the S-4. Unfortunately, my silencer is utterly failing to live up to its eponymous name.

When I'm motoring along on level ground at around 70 mph (which, if memory serves, is around 3,800 rpms), it is not to intrusive. OK, after an hour or so, it is a bit intrusive. The exhaust level renders conversation with a passenger at a normal voice level essentially impossible.

When I open up the throttle, I begin to feel like Jim Clark driving a 60's-era Lotus Formula One car. Which, don't get me wrong, is not all bad. At 6,500 rpms and still pulling strong, this engine does sound sweet.

But I'm not on a race track - I'm on public roads. While young boys all love it, the entire rest of the human population, based on their steely glares and leaps of terror into the nearest roadside ditch, appear irritated. And my wife harbors a visceral hatred for the open-throttle Elan experience.

Another considerable downside - every traffic enforcement officer within 2 miles can hear me coming in plenty of time to park their cruiser behind the nearest billboard and set up their speed detection devices (so far, no citations - fingers crossed).

So I need a solution.

I've read about folks staying with the classic S-4 silencer configuration, but going with the original mild steel. But I don't want to jettison my silencer, so that's out. I'm thinking something very low profile I can spice into my 2" pipe and snug up into the chassis channel in about the middle of the auto - something oval and between 3 and 4 inches thick. Is there such a thing? What have others done to solve this problem?

Many thanks!

-John

[JimE]

Personally I think you can't beat the original mild steel sound of the S4/Sprint Elan. A little loud but not obstrusive. Kelvedon Lotus in the UK are remanufacturing the original silencer. They're expensive though. Jim

[69S4]

I'm in the same boat with my S4. It has a (now rather elderly) stainless twin peashooter standard set up and has always been loud - even back when the silencers weren't elderly. We're just back from a weekend away in the car, covering about 200 miles, and we both ended up using earplugs for much of the driving.

I've been considering what to do about it. I'm not convinced that replacing the silencers with new (probably mild steel) would make that much of a difference. The period road tests complained it was loud - in 1970 Motor commented (with a degree of understatement) "exhaust noise is rather obtrusive although (initially at least) not unpleasant". That's pretty much how I feel now - fine for 10 miles but annoying by 50. If it was loud back then ...

Changing it for another Elan variant is a possibility but I'm also not sure whether a, say, sprint silencer would fit in the body recess intended for the twin pipe. It looks a little narrow to me. Does anyone know for sure if there are moulding differences? I also quite like the twin pipe setup and would be reluctant to put anything else in its place unless it really was the only option.

Option three is to take a hacksaw to the silencers, open them up and replace the almost certainly non existent sound deadening packing. My skill set will get me to that stage ok but putting it all back together again is going to involve stainless steel welding which I can't do. Neither do I know anyone round here who can do it for me, either at mates rates or commercially.

I have considered putting an intermediate silencer in the middle pipe but have not really progressed the idea. Anything that would fit there would have to be pretty thin or maybe custom made (= $$$ or ??? depending on your location) and how much silencing would I actually get for my effort?

[mbell]

I think a few people have added a very small in line silencer to the +2 and detailed it on here. Might be worth a search...

[richardcox_lotus]

I think the exhaust gap body mouldings are the same for an S4 and a Sprint

[jbeach]

I've done some very quick research and believe this Thrush glass pack would fit. 2" in and out, 3.5" diameter, 14" length.
http://www.thrushexhaust.com/mufflers/t ... 24041.html
The problem is, I don't know what effect, if any, it would have on the noise level. These cost about $40, so the price is almost insignificant. I may just have my local muffler shop add it to my system and see what it does.
Ideas? Thoughts? Experience?

-John

[1owner69Elan]

I have a 69 S4 that originally came with the dual pipe silencer (muffler).

Yes, it was rather loud as I recall. Before bringing it back to California I drove it extensively throughout Europe. It would wake up an entire village as I cruised through. I started to feel guilty about the disturbance I was creating and would carefully try to keep the revs down to lessen the impact of the Elan's presence.

In California, the dual pipe silencer finally wore out. It got replaced with a straight through "glass pack". This was not particularly a solution to the noise generation, however. But, as a young man, I enjoyed its "outlaw" nature.

With the recent restoration of my car after a long hiatus off the road, I now have a TTR "race systems" silencer (car has 181 bhp). The car is now quite socially acceptable. In fact, it almost seems too quiet. My wife has commented that she cannot hear me coming as she used to be able to in years past.

The TTR system fits into the S4/Sprint cavity well enough though I still need to make an adjustment to bring it up a little as it hangs a bit low - there is room to move it up another .5 inch or so.

[jbeach]

Hmm. A "TTR 'Race Systems' silencer." Intriguing.

Another sidebar. I have quite a few TTR products on my Elan and they have all been pretty much top notch. I have read varying opinions on this forum regarding Tony's "proactive" approach to customer service. I am personally a huge fan of that approach. While I admit Tony is a strong advocate for the items he sells, he knows a lot about making the Elan perform. I feel very fortunate to have had several long conversations with Tony. While i acknowledge he is selling his products, Tony is also very generous with his time - willing, at least for me, to spend whatever time necessary to work through his customer's issues and help provide the appropriate solution

While I have a Stromberg car, mine is a stroked "tall block" - built by Dave Bean back in the late 80s. It is an amazing engine. But I do believe it's high performance likely adds to the decibels.

I don't love the idea of giving up my pea shooter. I would likely try putting the Thrush in line before I give up, but, it may be unavoidable.

This is asking a lot, but would you be willing to take a video (with audio) of your car, idling and revving, and post it in a reply to this message? I'm not sure how we post videos, but if you have a YouTube account it's quite a breeze to post a link.

Many thanks!

John

[Terry Posma]

Try one of these: https://jetex.co.uk/custom-exhaust-parts/U935130/

Inobtrusive and you should be able to slide it in from the rear of the mid pipe.

[JonB]

Link is down. Did you mean the "Decibel Reducers" shown on this page? https://jetex.co.uk/custom-exhaust-parts/

[elanner]

Here is an excellent thread on the topic:

lotus-twincam-f39/how-repack-non-repackable-silencer-t36438.html

Nick

[69S4]

Here is an excellent thread on the topic:

lotus-twincam-f39/how-repack-non-repackable-silencer-t36438.html

Nick

My inspiration! The twin silencer S4 set up looks a bit harder to cut / weld as both cans are held together by the Y arrangement at the inlet end but it should be possible. What I don't want to do though is set about it with a hacksaw and find the project stalls due to some unforeseen complication. That would either leave me with an undriveable car over the best part of the summer or taking a chance on TTR or one of the other suppliers.

From the pictures the Jetex decibel reducers look like they stop sound getting out by stopping everything getting out. Flattening the pipe with a hammer might well have the same effect but cost less.

[mbell]

More likely referring to something like:
https://jetex.co.uk/custom-exhaust-parts/U404500R/

Which might just about be small enough to in the center pipe.

[Citromike]

My S4 Elan has these two small mufflers at the end of a central pipe which is welded to a Dave Bean header. It took 3 tries to get the right combination to have quality sound and not too much of it. We started with a single central silencer and then a sideways one in the under-trunk cavity, but the bends were a nuisance and it didn't sound good at all.





Here's a YouTube video you can watch to hear the sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3zqFBTh0x4

I am still very happy with it after a few thousand miles.

Mike

PS - I think your existing tailpipes seem too long - I have cut my shins on mine several times walking around the car

[saildrive2001]

I have a complete stainless system & it is certainly louder than the original stock system. I used to be able to drive even with the top up & hear the radio (original single speaker in rear). I couldn't do that now even if I could get some stations on the radio. I seem to remember a few years ago someone posting that they had put a small muffler or expansion chamber just to the rear of the area where the exhaust goes into a single pipe. Does anyone remember this & have any info on it?