Do 4 cylinder car gets exponentially louder at approximately 4,000 rpms?

Question

I heard that a 4 cylinder will get exponentially louder than a 6 or 8 cylinder car at the same RPMs. I think it was somewhere between 3 and 4k RPMs that it starts to happen.

Answer 1

The sound an engine makes is sependent on many, many things, such as:



-Camshaft grind, such as intake and exhaust lobe lift, duration, and overlap. (Things like variable valve timing (VTEC, VVTI, MIVEC, etc, fall under his category).



-Engine displacement.



-Cylinder head design.



-Intake tract design.



-Exhaust system configuration.



Because of thier design, inline-four engines tend to have a buzzier sound than 'vee' configurations, and they tend to sound boomy as their displacement goes up, but there do not have an inherent tendency to get 'exponentially noisier' at a particular RPM. You may have been listening to someone refer to variable valve timing (like Honda's VTEC), where the engine will switch camshaft profiles at a certain RPM. The new cam profile will cause the engine to have a different , usually noisier, exhaust note, but the inline-four configuration has nothing to do with that.

Answer 2

An average 4 cylinder engine in general is a bit louder than V6 although usually V6 has more louder exhaust. But there are many 4-cylinder cars that have very quiet engine, and there are many V6 that are loud.

Answer 3

Some cars like Hondas with V-tech are designed to change to performance cam timing at a set RPM. By changing settings they are able to putter around town economically and have good performance at higher RPM.



I have owned vehicles with many different engine layouts including 4s, 6s, V8s, a V12, and a rotary.

Answer 4

the exhaust system governs the way a car sounds. consider a Nissan sentra w/ a 4 cyl. and a v8 mercedes. or a v8 pick up and the same nissan. all a matter of exhaust flow and muffler design and placement.

Answer 5

if you put your head under the hood they all sound about the same.......step on the gas...........and it will make your ears think you just came out of a rock concert............