Silencing the Beast

[majicwrench]

My wife wishes my 72 would be a bit quieter. SHe love going for drives, wears ear plugs most the time. It has an old exhaust system, basicly just a straight pipe and then a rather large/flatish muffler in back. Not sure what they came w originally. Nice deep cool sound.
Anyway, looking for opinions or experiences. would I be better off sticking some noise insulation under carpets?? Putting in a quieter muffler? Findig a new wife?? I fix cars for a living, but that means I would rather not fix my own any more than I have to, so looking for something easy/cheap. Thoughts??
Keith

[aj81spider]

I can tell you from experience that the new wife route is neither easy nor cheap - so...

My 74 has the stock resonator/muffler combination and is much quieter than my 81 was with no resonator and an ANSA muffler (which was fun to drive for about a half hour - then got tiresome). Not sure where yours fits in the spectrum, but I find the stock setup reasonable from a noise perspective.

[toplessexpat]

I highly recommend not trading in the wife for a newer model - there are significant costs involved in both sides of the equation I understand.

Do you have anything in the "cat" bump under the passenger seat? I've just done the opposite and removed the cat from there, and it got considerably louder.... logic would suggest that the reverse would apply....

EDIT: I'm running Mark's header down a 2.5" pipe to a Magnaflow twin tip muffler.... yes, it's fairly noisy - and such good fun!

[majicwrench]

I don't have a "cat" bump in my 72, at least I don't think I do...

[KidDingo]

Keith,

What about the ANSA muffler? Mine has it and it isn't loud, but has a great, sporty note.

M.

[toplessexpat]

I don't have a "cat" bump in my 72, at least I don't think I do...

I don't know if the '72 does or doesn't - although a quick excursion off road can probably create one.

If you don't - then either a new muffler, or repacking the old one could work

A

[lanciahf]

On my 70 I put on a Auto Ricambi exhaust and loved it. Nice and quiet but sounded like a sports car.

[btoran]

if the beast you're trying to silence is the wife, definately trade her in.

[majicwrench]

Nah, wife is a sweetheart. If I could get Fiat 10% quieter methinks she (and I ) would be happy.

[spider2081]

Do you have a wind blocker installed on the car ?? Wife and I were both amazed at how much more comfortable the car is noise wise with one installed. It mounts vertical behind the seats not between them.

[fiat218]

if the beast you're trying to silence is the wife, definately trade her in.

Geesh

[Fi8spider]

Haha, majicwrench, you sure it's not the induction noise wifey might be refering to

Maybe more sound deadening under the bonnet. Sacrilege I say, however, what do they say, happy wife.....

[So Cal Mark]

no cat bump on a 72, cats didn't come into use until 1975. Basically you need a muffler that isn't straight through. It will have to make a pass inside the muffler in order to cut the noise. You may change the tone with various straight through muffs, but they all will have an agressive sound

[spiderdan]

[carl]

Put a new stock exhaust system on, they are nice and reasonably quiet. The muffler and resonator on Fiats are all straight through glass packs but are quite effective when in good shape. As they roll up the miles the glass gets blown out and they get louder. The nice thing about a stock system is there is no hassle installing them. Noise padding under the hood won't have any effect on the exhaust noise if that's what your wife is objecting to.

carl