Additional sound deadening?

[Fredvon4]

Anyone thinking about adding in Dyna-mat or similar sound deadening materials?

I did this to my King Ranch F350 and it was a royal pain to do correctly. Fairly expensive too.

However I did drop the road and wind sound level inside the spacious cabin by 14dB. In effect this lowers your need to turn up the radio. The truck is now acoustically better then my ceramic and granite tiled house.

I am old with 24 years of Artillery and Helicopter damaged ears. I listen to Ham radio, Talk radio, old Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Rock, and Classical. Thus a quite environment is required to understand human speech or to enjoy subtle music.

I retained the factory head unit feeding very modest amps. I replaced all the factory speakers to good component bass, mid, and tweeters. I home brewed the crossovers.

[Gortok]

I was wondering about this as well.
If not just over the engine panel, then the doors, as well?
What about the floors?

Would the added weight kill the fuel mileage?

[Fredvon4]

For the folks looking for absolute best MPG the addition of the material will probably have a negative impact... how much of an impact depends a lot on how much weight you add.

I plan on entire rear section, all of the floor area, and fire wall. Not sure about the doors yet...have to take one apart...sounds like the plastic skin on the out side is bare on the inside surface... the door is a simple frame skinned inside and out side in plastic... I tend to think a lot of noise can be stopped in the doors...just not sure if there is a way to apply the material to the inside or outside plastic parts and still re-install them.

I looked real hard at the demonstration cutaway chassis Tridion at the road show... I think there is lots of space to spray in expanding foam... down side is now the wiring is permanent in there and you can never chase any new wires inside the "cage" or remove and repair factory wires.

It is possible to significantly reduce interior noises with out the heavy weight materials but the cost is higher and the loss of space is significant because the lighter weight materials are thicker and must have some way to keep their "loft"... Usually this method is too hard to do in a vehicle and I think in a very small Smart car will be too much trouble.

Dyna-mat type products are thinner and heavy density. I did not use Dyna-Mat brand but a similar product and it added 115 pounds to the truck... The Smart car will take less square feet. I estimate the same stuff would add around 50~70 pounds for complete coverage. Less if you just concentrate on the engine compartment.

Kill the fuel mileage? I don't think so, but it will decrease it some, perhaps 1 or 2 MPG

While I certainly want best MPG, I also intend to significantly modify the motor for more torque and wide band power curve. I also intend several suspension mods for better handling.... all of these things will take an overall toll on the MPG. If my Smart ends up being only a 32~35 MPG machine I will still be way ahead of my current 12.5MPG daily driver...

I am not buying this as an eco move...rather a life extender for my other much more expensive and thirsty vehicles. Plus it is a fun car to drive. One does not describe a F350 as fun to drive.... The giant beast is powerful, stable, and comfortable to drive...

[CruisingAZ]

Originally Posted by Fredvon4

I am not buying this as an eco move...rather a life extender for my other much more expensive and thirsty vehicles. Plus it is a fun car to drive. One does not describe a F350 as fun to drive.... The giant beast is powerful, stable, and comfortable to drive...

This is the same reason I am purchasing the smart. My current vehicle gets 13 miles to the gallon and I do 95% of my driving as the only person in the vehicle (communting to and from work).

[Carnut]

Fred, based on what I have read, it would be prudent to go easy on suspension mods with such a short wheelbase.

[jonnysan]

Originally Posted by Fredvon4

Anyone thinking about adding in Dyna-mat or similar sound deadening materials?

I did this to my King Ranch F350 and it was a royal pain to do correctly. Fairly expensive too.

However I did drop the road and wind sound level inside the spacious cabin by 14dB. In effect this lowers your need to turn up the radio. The truck is now acoustically better then my ceramic and granite tiled house.

I am old with 24 years of Artillery and Helicopter damaged ears. I listen to Ham radio, Talk radio, old Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Rock, and Classical. Thus a quite environment is required to understand human speech or to enjoy subtle music.

I retained the factory head unit feeding very modest amps. I replaced all the factory speakers to good component bass, mid, and tweeters. I home brewed the crossovers.

I share the same hearing problem, Fred. 4 years of working under F-4 jets in the arm/dearm area helped alot as well as many years of tractor engine noise.
Fooling with noisey car engines, helping a friend out at the race track on weekends, working in a weld shop grinding and doing other loud type things all contributed to it. I have tinnitus now and generally speaking my hearing is still there but really sucks....HUH? is my most used word in a conversation. The hell of it is, a hearing aid will not help low tone deafness so much so you kinda gotta live with it....you know> My eyes and other things still work pretty well, though, and I am in generally excellent health despite all the abuse I've given my body over the years! LOLOL

[Fredvon4]

Carnut...HUA (Army speak for; Heard, Understood, Acknowledged!)

Not to be confused with the Marines OORAH! Which means nothing more then; OK! cool, can we go hurt something now? ...


The stock 450 I drove had semi severe under-steer just as autocrosser described... I managed some techniques to control it and still accelerate through the apex on fast, bumpy, and hard on/off ramps and other areas where steering control and speed were needed....

After I have some time behind the wheel of the 451 I will re-evaluate...

If still a significant problem for me and my wife's driving style... defensively semi aggressive, I plan slightly wider stickier tires, progressive rate springs and shock rebound rate changes (probably adjustable coil over designs) all seeking to make it more neutral in the nose to even a little loose in the back.

Here in CenTex for some reason the road engineers created a lot of off camber, and progressively tighter curve change, on and off ramps... I get fooled all the time in my F350, fortunately it has a superior front end that keeps me out of the ditch.... I deal real good with a sliding rear axle but a front end pushing is just dangerous in my opinion.... Anyway thanks for the caution... if and when I find some formula that works I will post the recipie...

Jonnysan

Constant high Sound-pressure levels from the F4s and all the other aircraft on the ramp is probably just as bad as the instant High pressure from Artillery shots... and the rest of the high noise activities I can understand too...

After getting smart and changing from Arty I got into Helicopter repair... I bet you wore your hearing protectors religiously like I did...that is, every where except at the Rock concerts, on the race track, and other fun non work loud activities...

Yep no implants or hearing aids can fix the tinnitius... In fact it is so annoying that I require external noise like a radio just to mask the damned ringing some days...

[Gortok]

Originally Posted by Fredvon4

... tinnitius...

In fact it is so annoying that I require external noise like a radio just to mask the damned ringing some days...

Same here...US Navy, engineroom, steam driven turbines for main engines, boiler feed pumps, electrogenerators, and other aux turbine pumps...
THEN, if that wasn't enough, I am now an auto technician. Plenty of noisy air tools etc. there...
I thought for years the squealing in my right ear was from a noisey hard drive in my PC at home...Sometimes, I still do... No one else hears it...

[Fredvon4]

Hard drive squeeling... yep me too, wonder how many I changed that were really still good? Do you constantly demand you wife answer the danged phone... Renie (my wife) is semi annoyed with this little quirk...

Biggest reason I opted away from the cabrio I really wanted, was during the test drive the rag top noise was kinda in tune with the noises in my head and was not pleasant at all...

VA fooled me a few months back and had me report to audiology because they had some new info on tinnitus...

I was thinking drugs, implants, something... seems during the current war they have discovered that some soldiers with severe PTSD and tinnitus are getting better sleep with a pink or white noise generator in their bed room. Now the VA will provide the devices...

Wife and I have used a low volume TV for same effect for years now so I passed on the offer... Dang, was really hoping for a wonder drug!

OH well, back to the voices in my head...ah, er, I mean the ringing...

Shush! Now, I am trying to keep my security clearance and I don't want to get all weirded out that the feds are tracking my Internet musings...

Remember! ... Just because you are paranoid, does not mean they are not really watching you!

[dbwill]

Originally Posted by Fredvon4

Remember! ... Just because you are paranoid, does not mean they are not really watching you!

Yes it does