Why do old V8's sound better or different than new V8's?

Question

Older V8's sound more aggressive and you can almost hear each individual cylinder fire. the newer ones kind of just hum. Even if the displacement is the same on an older engine and a newer engine, the older one would sound better. Is it the carburetors that separate the distinct sound of the two? Or like a combination of different variables? Any help is much appreciated.

Answer 1

Modern V-8 engines are running 4 valves per cylinder and dual overhead camshafts whereas the older V-8 was 2 valves per cylinder with rocker arms, or a single camshaft operating all the valves. Aftermarket suppliers re-grind camshafts with more aggressive grinds keeping the valves open longer and in conjunction with free-flow exhausts creates the aggressive sound you hear. Modern V-8 engines don't need the radical valve timing to create more horsepower due to the 4 valves per cylinder. Some older V-8 camshafts are ground just to give the sound and may not be optimal for generating more horsepower, like the "Thumper" camshaft from Comp Cams. Radical grinds for modern V-8 engines are probably available, but much more expensive due to needing 4 camshafts instead of one, and the low numbers of production run would increase costs as well. Plus the fact that fuel injected cars rely in accurate manifold vacuum readings to calibrate the fuel flow, and radical camshafts would throw off this vacuum reading. Whether an engine is carburetor or fuel injected has no bearing on the aggressiveness of the sound, it is almost all in the camshaft or valve timing. Many decades ago they used to label the camshafts available as 3/4 race or full race. The 3/4 race I have in my Mustang will still idle at about 1,000 rpm but still had a somewhat aggressive sound, but the full race was not very good for street use and had to idle at about 1,400 rpm. These were most commonly used at the drag strip and super aggressive sounding.

Answer 2

The old V8s are carburetted, and carbies have a distinctive intake noise, but mainly older cars have free breathing exhausts and inlets. New cars are so choked up with exhaust cats, air cleaners and a whole load of emmisisions sh!t, you can't even hear them.

Answer 3

exhaust emissions weren't as restricted long ago meaning parts like the catalytic converter which on current cars reduces a lot of the impact of the exhausts noise.

on top of this, their fuel mixtures weren't always as accurately controlled. a well tuned carb for high RPM power could under-perform at lower RPMs. this odd fuel mixing compared to what we see today gave cars a more unique sound.

Answer 4

Possibly due to a different ratio of cylinder area to stroke. Older engines tend to have longer relative stroke, more torque at lower rpm, and are geared to run at lower rpm. More modern engines tend to have shorter relative stroke and are designed to run at higher rpm. What you are hearing could also be due to a difference in mufflers (older engines tend to have worn out mufflers?), but my guess is that is probably not a difference between carbureted and fuel injected engines.

Answer 5

Hi simpe we don't use carburettors any longer as they waste fuel. so now we have electronic fuel injection systems. the car goes faster and is less likely to catch fire too.