Prius Exhaust Mods?

Look up pinto girl. She added a nice exhaust to her Prius and the pictures were very nice.

 

I think a louder exhaust will sound odd on a Prius. I think the all or nothing, and I mean nothing nature of the Prius ICE will be quite odd with a loud exhaust but each to his own. I'm not sure how a bigger exhaust will help at 70 or 65 miles per hour. If the Prius needs 30HP to move up the road at 70mph with a stock exhaust it will need 30hp to move up the road at 70mph with a big fat exhaust, gain = 0.

Hey, give it a go and let us know how it sounds and drives. Let us know if it drums at highway speed, I hate that, or if people look at you strange when the engine is barking one minute then silent the next second as you lift your foot. I personally hate the sound of an automatic with a loud exhaust, not Prius automatic but conventional automatic, but I respect the freedom of a person to choose to fit a drain pipe exhaust to what ever as long as it doesn't wake me up at night or stop my chooks from laying.

 

Hey man, Rays Eco Drives FTW.

Also, you might want to ask this guy (member here):

It's a TRUST (GReddy) system.



PriusChat Forums - dk222's Album: My Prius

Speak Japanese (or know someone who does)? Browse around this site (it's like the Japanese cardomain with MUCH nicer cars) and ask some of these guys (they have some of the most beautifully modded priuses I've ever seen)

http://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/434663/car/348752/1192153/photo.aspx


Good luck with the mod, be sure to post some samples.

 

This exhaust thing has stirred up more flack than when I asked about a turbo for the Prius! If you're wanting more performance only & willing to spend the $, a good polish/port/valve job would probably improve things significantly.

 

You don't think the head flows well? I'd imagine that it was one of the things that the engineers looked at first when trying to improve emissions/efficiency. Especially since (at least I'm under the impression that) the 1NZ-FXE is basically a modified Echo 1NZ-FE.

I remember that the old insight had a special VTEC which shaped the airflow in the cylinders to achieve more efficient combustion.

I'm seriously interested.

 

It might be better when trying to have a discussion to just understand that regardless of what disclaimer one might begin with, tone and attitude is everything in forums. Just coming out and telling someone to "shut up" is pretty rude. I would suspect that one would not talk like that face to face (I hope).

I support your right to change your exhaust; we were all young and had "the car bug" too. I had more radical cars that most I would suspect. But today, after driving for almost 4 decades, I still lover cars and hot rod cars too. But for my own cars I choose a quiet exhaust that does not attract attention from popo and leaves me with what hearing I still have.

Regardless, if you express your opinion politely and resist rude comments, life and the forums will all be better.

I like the exhaust on the white Prius by the way; at least the look since I have never heard it.

 

There is probably some room to improve air flow in the head.

Your typical mass produced engine head is a compromise - unless you're buying a high dollar sports car where each head is either CNC machined or hand ported, there is some airflow left on the table.

Now because most of that airflow will only make a significant different at high airflow rates, this typically won't significantly affect fuel economy.

 

It's a 1NZ-FE with a slightly greater distance from piston pin centre to top of piston - resulting in a greater compression/expansion ratio - and a different camshaft profile on the intake side, delaying the intake close to between 72º and 105º past top dead centre.

The very very late valve close - with the piston 1/3 to 2/3 of the way through the 'compression' cycle - pushes some of the air/fuel mixture back into the manifold and reduces the effective compression from the stated 13.0:1 down to a more reasonable smaller value, appropriate for 87 octane fuel. (More compression = higher octane required to prevent autoignition.) It also makes the effective engine capacity more like 1.0 litres.

I don't think any tuner's advice is going to be particularly useful, because the Prius is designed entirely around, and achieves its fuel economy through, the Atkinson cycle engine.

1NZ-F(X)E was actually designed for the Prius (according to "The Prius That Shook The World"), but with the intention always to use it in an Otto configuration for other vehicles, to defray some of the development and tooling costs. That's why it has a starter motor hole (with commonly-misfitted blockoff plate) even though there isn't a conventional starter motor on the Prius.

 

Been thinking of some exhaust mods myself since the pipe diameter greatly decreases after the first cat. I unbolted the muffler and started the car just to find out what it would sound like and it was actually pretty cool. May do a custom exhaust from the first cat back and see how it turns out.

 

Hmm,

The air flows twice through the intake port. Sounds like a good grind and polish is just what is needed! Every time the air flows through a port, it wastes energy due to skin drag. If the skin is smooth, the drag will be less. Cast heads are pretty rough, and at least in older cars were never ground smooth, let alone polished. Aluminum heads might be pretty smooth to start, though.

Will this give you more power? Maybe, but I think it would be a significant fuel economy boost if the casting is rough in there, for moutain driving.

 

Hi All,

The only exhaust improvement I am interested in is the one that provides extra electricity or thrust. That is, that recovers some of the energy in that exhaust flow and applies usefully. Its silly to be dumping all that heat into the air. Maybe a mod that retrofits the coolant warm-up device onto the 2nd Gen Prius.

 

how about sum twenty fo's?


kidding aside, I've thought of doing some mods to the car. But in the end it's a prius!

not a sporty car, if you wanted sporty..you should have bought a Tesla..seems you have the money.

 

I searched and this one had the least amount of "kill the OP for wanting an exhaust" posts..

I know its silly but I also have exhausts on most my other cars. I do love the silence of the hybrid but at WOT, it sounds like a camel sneezing and scratching his balls. I hate it, it sounds awful. I am wondering will an exhaust and intake fix this when I am punching the throttle gas? I know this is not what the car is built for and I rarely punch it but when I do, i don't want it to sound so bad I want to hurl.

I guess the other route is just go for "looks" and get some tips added.

Modifying cars is what I do . This is my first hybrid and I'm looking for answers as there are very few GS 450h owners on Clublexus. Thanks

 

any news on tones yet? Tom's or anyone custom one yet? also i heard we shouldn't mess around with too much air flow... any comments?

 

I have to agree that I am old school & have had just about every muffler, headers, straight pipes, etc sold for 6 & 8 cylinders & Harley's for more years than I care to count, but a 4 cylinder is at it's best when neither seen nor heard.

My Toro mower sounds better/sexier.

 

I have to disagree - while most 4-cylinders are rather lacking in the sound department, it is possible to make them sound good. The problem is that it takes careful selection of components to make most of them sound even half-way decent.

FWIW, I love the sound of my Subaru flat-4 with just a STi muffler on it, but there's plenty of ways to screw it up, too. Apples & oranges, I know, can't compare a flat-4 with unequal length length headers to an inline 4 with a close coupled cat...

 

I saw a GS450h racing in the Targa Newfoundland (the recap show was on TV a few weeks ago) - you might want to contact the company that prepped the car.

Lexus returning to Targa Newfoundland with GS 450h — Autoblog

http://zh-cn.facebook.com/pages/Team-Lexus-Targa-Newfoundland-2008/24117799254

Have you guys heard Ken Block's 2008 STi prepped by Crawford Performance (videos on Youtube)? It sounds mean (I posted about the gymkhana practice video/infomercial in the house of pancakes section). It's a 4-cyl.....although I'm not saying you can make a Prius sound like that.

 

Yep, Suby flat-4 there - The Gymkhana videos are a lot of fun - the newer sounds sound a bit smoother than the older ones thanks to a more efficient exhaust manifold. I'd love it if I could make my Prius sound like that when I'm in the mood to tackle some twisties (though quite a bit more mellow!).

 

Re: Prius Exhaust Mods? hit a curb

Recently ran over a curb and noticed a slight increase in exhaust sound.. course doesnt sound too good having holes in the back -- it looks like the pipe between the last cat and muffler replaced once and it was hanging lower than probably stock -- so that got hit -- i noticed a bit more pep and mileage -- not much .. but it made sense because i have the K&N on the front end that the matching reduced back end restriction would complement. -- while looking at the impact briefly i noticed how dang small that pipe is going into the exhaust, it looks like 1" diameter ! with the K&N in the front and a larger pipe going to the stock exhaust I thought this would improve things ... I imagine there is a certain amount of backpressure desired but that some gains could be made-- a little sacrifice of quietness for an improvement in mileage and performance....