I cannot believe it, I just added power and sports exhaust sound to my 360 without spending a penny and I am as HAPPY as you can get! BIG GRIN! How? Okay here goes... It starts a bit like this. The Govenments of the EU have rather strict noise regulations for cars which they enforce for production of new cars. Ferrari cars are powerful V8's but they need to meet the regulations all around the world to be certified for road use and make it easy for Ferrari to manufacture the cars. The regulation sound 'drive by' tests are measured by driving a car at given speeds and measuring the result in db. If it is too loud it will not pass (in some countries) and would not be authorized for road certification. The technical engineering solution Ferrari used still needed to allow good power gains at high speed (where the tests don't measure incidentally!!) and low noise at low speed. The decision was to engineer "valves" in the exhaust that open automatically over a given rev's to reduce back pressure of the escaping gases, ultimately meaning that both exhaust tail pipes are now getting used, not just 1 each side (which happens on the 360 and I believe other Ferrari's in the range!)... Ok, so we now know that Ferrari built the V8's exhaust system so that there is a butterfly valve lets look at how it works. It stays shut closed below 4000 rev's (computer controlled) on 2 of the exhaust outlets (one per side). Once the car is rev'd above the 4000 limit all hell breaks loose as the full 4 pipes are used to expell the exhaust fumes out of the car. The disadvantage (or advantage if your a neighbour near a 360 owner) of solution used is that below the limit is that the car really does sound wisper quiet (as no Ferrari should in my opinion!!) as a sop to regulations, BUT the solution works and allows the car to pass and be driven in all 52 countries around the world. Some counties have much less stringent sound laws than others. The route most performance exhausts take is to simply bypass the 'trick' valve mechanism altogether meaning full sound can be heard. E.g. Tubi, obviously there are other advantages of sport exhausts like style, weight reduction and acustic tuning to different styles of sound... Now onto the good bit. Since the engineers at Ferrari designed the exhaust valves stay OPEN if no air pressure is being fed into the valve (instead of the otherway around which would have been a pain for us) is that we can have some fun playing with this system. Why? Well it means that if you happen to simply DISCONNECT the pressure pipe (by merly tugging at it with you hand, its not very tight and is easily removed in seconds) the valve will stay open ALL THE TIME. I.e. below 4000 revs we get the full 'sports' soundtrack !!!! We also reduce back pressure and gain a few more hp at lower rev's. (some people have suggested that you could loose power but I just drove it like this and I can tell you it feels stronger (!) faster, more urgent, more responsive, much better sounding - i.e. AS Ferrari intended if it could be allowed in all countries !). In order to complete the process, simply bung up the pipe you've just pulled off the exhaust valve (to trace the valve look at the T-piece and the pipe going down towards the valve on the exhaust is the end I pulled off, there is no jubilee clip on the end that connects into the exhaust valve). I then used a piece of wooden dowling in the rubber pipe (anything that restricts the air sufficiently will do) and tied the pipe so it wouldn't flap around in the car on the move. Thats it! 2 minutes for sports sound (in countries that allow it ofcourse!!) I love it and I am happy driving around like I just fitted a performance exhaust, but in the knowledge that any time I get bored of it I can just swap it back to stock in minutes. A brilliantly engineered system that Ferrari boffs certainly engineered like this for enthusiasts to find out about! Obviously tuners and exhaust sellers don't really like to mention this too loudly, but still performance exhausts can be worth while for the tips style and weight reduction over stock.. however as a 'free' mod this is perfect, I'm happy as larry.. Will post some easy DIY pics up once I have charged my digital camera up... Trev Image Unavailable, Please Login
trev I fitted a Tubi to my Spider to really let the car have its say and it was amazing, however I hear capristo is as good and has an even higher note . Or just fit a CS box now thats sweet J
I swear the car feels quicker! Lets face it the engineers had to design the valve system to blow to keep the valve closed, and when its not blowing (above 4000revs) the valve opens. It would have been a lot easier to design it the otherway around but then this mod wouldn't have been quite so straight forward... It feels like a free performance exhaust!! I'm chuffed to bits!
This thread is worth a read on this subject: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8543&highlight=Exhaust+Bypass
Cheers Ken, I wasn't sure about removing the connector incase it logged a 'check-engine' fault, obviously the ECU doesn't care! So you've got 2 choices, either remove the connector lead or disconnect the end of the pipe! I'm impressed with the results, it really does sound a whole lot more agressive at llow speeds, I cannot stop blipping the throttle now at low speeds, sounds so good! Trev
read race tech mags for many years,also build model jet engines to find out the truth on how they work,books up to the roof/10years of study and seeing the pic now,turbo cars are great cus you have two engines in a single turbo car thats where the extra power comes from-two engines 1 volume engine 1 gas turbine =two engines simple
I've heard about his valve thing before, on the US forum, but no instructions given....nice write up, will let perform op tonight...
Trevor, I am pretty useless at this stuff but can you explain something. Are you disconnecting the electrical connectors, or pulling the tubes off? (Maybe I am asking this question wrong). If you were to do this using the electrical connectors do you think you would get any error lights on, such as the engine error light?
I disconnected the connectors to see how it sounded - nice sound. Have re-connected them for the moment until I can find out more on this. Does anyone know if there could be any unforseens consequence of doing this? In theory it's a great idea, I was contemplating driving my car up to the UK at christmas to get a tubi fitted - this method is much more appealing!
Mark, I can only speak for the 355 but in this the valve is held closed by spring pressure to around 4K rpm then it opens if You want it open all the time You merely fix it open by looping a piece of wire around the valve actuator arm and lock it to a convient part of the engine or car, doing this can bring on the "slow down light" but this tends only to happen if the car is being driven slowly at low RPM.
