Turbo sound aka whistle?

[Sandman_GN85]

Well my 85 GN is finally going to be hopefully in top working condition soon, first time since i got it, but I have noticed something in the few times it has been taken out and used. The turbo does not make the whine when I get on it, like I hear everyone talk about on here! No whistle, no nothing!? It sounds like its sucking in air harder then my cold air intake thats about it. How can I get that noise so everyone knows what the big black brick has? Thanks for any answers to this retarded question.

 

[Stephen Soulsby]

What I have always noticed (back when mine was running) was that it made a pleasent noise for normal driving, but when I let into it (even at 17PSI) the motor was so loud it drowned out the noise of the turbo. I have a 2.5" hooker exhaust with stock headers and downpipe. It's just always been like that for me. Now the intercooled cars had a larger turbo and it would make sense to me that they would more likely be a little louder.

 

[crazygn]

Do you have stock exhuast on it, or after market. With some free flow exhuast on it you should hear it.

If not get a down pipe with a dump and open it up you can hear it a mile away.

 

[BuickTV6]

I dunno, its weird with these cars, ive seen some 84/5's that the turbo is so loud on it, its insane. And others ive driven, the turbo was so quiet, the only way u knew it was working was cause you were going so damn fast. Mine under wot sounds like a dog whistle. Are you running the stock airbox? That does make some difference as well.

 

[cool 84]

An open K&N filter usually does the trick. Or you can open the downpipe and you'll hear it through the exhaust. In my experience the bigger turbos are louder through the intake while the smaller turbos are louder through the exhaust (at part throttle). My TE64 was so loud that as soon as it started whistling people would look over at me kind of funny.

 

[FJM568]

Cool 84 is right...If you are still running the stock air filter box and not a open element K&N(cone), you probably can't hear the turbo too well...I guarantee that if you put a 9" K&N cone filter on it, you will hear it spool!!!

 

[V6cious]

I have a kn filter and just a 3" downpipe and it you can't help but to here my turbo all the time it is very loud even with normal driving

 

[Sandman_GN85]

I have the BigMouth Cold Air intake kit for our cars off of buickgn.com with the big K&N on it and i dunno I hear that wierd whistling intake noise it makes but not the turbo. I have aftermarket exhuast with what looks like dual glasspacks(it sounds a lot wussier then pple expect when they hear it has glass packs). I just wanna hear it whine and grab some attention hehe

 

[xxninja]

i could never hear mine while it was stock

but i changed to a 2.5 atr downpipe and got a mark heuffman cold air kit and that thing whistles like crazy.

i think if u remove some of the restrictions and let it breathe better, u will definately hear it

it's kind of annoying , because mine whistles and it sort of sounds like a police siren, lol

kinda makes u paranoid

 

[TURBOV6]

I have a K&N cone on now, the air intake is louder than the turbo. Its the throttle body that drowing it out. If you got the stock air box, forget it you'll barely hear it.

 

[323GTX]

My 84 was very loud!

Car was all stock.

Was loud under normal driving conditions with no boost. (1500-2500 rpm)

Friends in the car for the first time started looking around........ they thought is sounded like a police/fire siren in the distance, hehehe

Was kinda annoying I have to admit.

 

[TURBOV6]

Originally posted by 323GTX
sounded like a police/fire siren in the distance, hehehe

Was kinda annoying I have to admit.

Oh that sound is kinda loud, but under boost the whistle is hardly heard.

 

[Buick From Hell]

Being the king of replacing stock turbos, I've generally found that if it's loud (with stock airbox & exhaust), something's wrong! Main reasons are: out of balance, the housing is leaking air, or some turbine blades are hitting the housing!

The first turbo on my car was barely louder than whispering the word "whheeeee"...

 

[EyeTalk2Trees]

on my 84 you could hear it spool up then when it produced boost it sounded like a radiator fan with a locked clutch. I replaced the stock box with a 9" K&N cone put it outside the engine bay and replaced the leaking passenger side herader to have it run much better but about half as loud on the spool up. its almost not there now

 

[cool 84]

Originally posted by Buick From Hell
Being the king of replacing stock turbos, I've generally found that if it's loud (with stock airbox & exhaust), something's wrong! Main reasons are: out of balance, the housing is leaking air, or some turbine blades are hitting the housing!

The first turbo on my car was barely louder than whispering the word "whheeeee"...

Very true. Especially when cold my bad turbo would have me looking around for police it sounded so much like a siren. It went about 6 months from the time it started getting loud to the time it broke the shaft.

 

[Sisaro]

SandMan are you Chip or Dave hows the cars been. Hows Colonel Z been. My Car doesnt make the famous whistling sound either...but the fact that i have a hole in my exaust could be part of the problem too, even at 16 psi.

 

[jadams]

you cant hear your turbo well i cant hear my car over the knocking of the motor