Loud vs. Quite Engines

[TheNewAmericanSpirit]

I recently bought the Festiva that was for sale in Richmond, Va and being in it after 2 minutes the first thing I notice is how quite the engine is. After driving it I realize that I am shifting higher in the RPM range because the engine is smoother. My loud Festiva is an 88 carb with 170k and the quite Festiva is a 92 FI with 131k.

My question is, why is one quieter than the other? Carb vs. FI, millage, differences in oil that was used, shear luck? Mainly I am just curious because people are asking me and all I can do is speculate.

[crazyrog17]

There's a decent expansion chamber on the intake of the FI cars, it helps reduce the underhood sound a bit. Also, the mounts might be going out on your carbie and sending some of those vibrations all through the car to make it feel and sound louder.

[blkfordsedan]

From the mechanical side, engine wear makes a difference as well. Piston clearance, valvetrain wear....stuff like that. Before my old B3 took a dump on me, you could stand beside it while idling and you couldn't tell if it was running or not. We used to have a '49 Lincoln Cosmopolitan with a flathead V8 and only like 20K original miles. When that thing idled, you could literally balance a coin on it's edge on top of the air cleaner, lol. Dad sold it back in 1989...Wish I had that car now.

[Ford Fester]

I'm betting the valves need to be set on the carby.

[TheresGabe]

The intake noise is TOTALLY different on a carby.

LOL, that just reminded me. I LOVED the noise my aspire made when I did this to the intake box!

[TheNewAmericanSpirit]

The intake noise is TOTALLY different on a carby.

Crap come to think of it when I changed the intake on my Silverado it changed the way the car sounded. But the noise does sound mechanical so I'm not throwing out the idea that something needs adjusting or something is worn out.