New Tunable Solo System
 

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:


Spent another day down at Solo Performance in Hamilton Ontario today. For those that are not familiar with Solo, they are a performance exhaust specialist. And I do mean Specialist. I got to see and hear their systems first hand on some C5 members cars, (thanks Rick Ray RCLap, TJ91 and... sorry I forget the rest of you). Although I believe a beautiful exhaust note is very subjective... after much research, I knew Solo was the system for me. I was told these guys are great and how they bend over backwards for you. Well, I got to test that theory first hand. Shortly after I bought my system, a few weeks back, my Stock 2LT RS M6 had a terrible drone issue. Yes I heard RickRay and TJ91’s drone at 2k RPM, but it was nothing like this! This was MEGA DRONE! I got the car back to them they agreed that something was wrong. They changed out parts to make sure they were not defective, and even added drone cancelling resonators but I was not satisfied. Then they told me about a system they developed for the G8’s that had severe drone issues.

Solo “J” pipe G8board: http://www.g8board.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28454

The system included what they called an adjustable “J” pipe that you use to “tune out” the frequencies responsible for the droning in the cabin. The pipe in the shape of a “J” is “T”ed 90 degrees into a straight section of the exhaust pipe. It then dead ends, into an adjustable cap. This cap slides in or out much like a musical instrument and must be tuned such that the total length of the dead ended pipe is a certain length. The idea here, as I understand it, is that the actual exhaust travels past the “J” pipe and out the tail pipe. The sound waves on the other hand, travel into the “J” pipe, bounce back off the end of the pipe, then return back to the main exhaust pipe cancelling out the drone. The only problem here is that the system was developed for the G8 and would not work, or fit on my Camaro. Their solution... They made a “J” pipe system for the my Camaro LT engine. So after spending 10 hours down there today, while they fabricated, tested and fabricated then tested some more, I am happy to say that these guys really know what they are doing! My drone is completely gone! I never would have believed it, if I had not seen it for myself. The good news for all you Camaro V6 guys, is now you have another exhaust option... and you can actually (tune) change the note of the exhaust by simply sliding the end cap of the “J” pipe in or out.

:happyanim: :happyanim: :happyanim:

Here’s a few pictures I took at Solo today, from a happy customer!

Looks Great George..hope it will work for the Automatics V6!!!

very interisting

Wow. Neato stuff.

I'm sure its not much, but I wonder if this 'tuning' option causes any slight performance decreases? I would think if any exhaust does happen to get in that J tube, it just trapped there and will end up causing interference with the exhaust trying to escape through the other piping.

But I'm no expert...it might be a perfectly fine design.

I'm also more curious about the tuning itself. Can you really....noticeably change your exhaust note with it? Or is it just for controlling the drone levels?

Interesting and odd looking. You realize if you run over anyone they will see these pies. :D

While it may cause some turbulance I don't think it would hinder performance.... only dynos would tell. This looks like it was designed by a plumber. They do something simular to negate the water hammer effect in homes.

Awesome post, Mrbrans5. You got it. There is a specific frequency (measured in Hertz) that the drone is at, and that frequency is louder than all other normal "exhaust sounds". The J bends target that frequency's soundwaves (remember math sine, cosine, etc? Soundwaves look like that!) and reflect those soundwaves off of the capped end in the exact opposite pattern... which eliminates them.

Similar to "the sound of silence".

Since the end of the J-pipe is sealed, no real "exhaust gasses" go into here, and if they accidentally do, they harmlessly return to the exhaust stream immediately since there's no where for them to exit out of a capped end. In fact, with the car running, if you were to put your hand on the J bends, they'll be cool to the touch, further proving this point. Be careful not to burn yourself when you touch other piping on your exhaust system, as where the exhaust gasses pass through, it's most definately quite hot!

The end result is that the target frequency "drone" is elliminated, without destroying the greatness that is aftermarket exhaust "rumble" and "muscle". The best of both worlds!

These are adjustable because if you mod your car for additional performance later down the road, that specific frequency that your car currently "drones" at may shift to a higher pitch or lower pitch, slightly. So lets say you add a CAI to your setup, and you've had the SOLO setup on for several months, completely drone-free. Now with your powertrain change, the drone is back, alebit slightly. Well, simply make the adjustment on the total length of your J-pipes, (in or out on the Tuba, so to speak), and you can re-target the drone-zone and make it once again, drone-free, while it's still on your car, in your own driveway!

Here's an example: If you've ever heard two people "Humming" a constant note, and then just one of those people goes a half (sharp or flat, for those into music) step away, you'll hear the difference in those sounds as they both continue to hum. Amplify that by 304hp and that's kinda like the engine drone. What you're doing by adjusting the J-pipe, is you're having the second singer bring their "note" up to what the first person has been humming, now they're both singing the same note, and the 'drone' is gone. It's fascinating, at least to me. :iono: :thumbup:


the "tuning" aspect of the J-pipes allows for "fine tuning" of the cancellation of the soundwaves of the 'drone zone', as your mods change over time. For example, you may be at a stock intake now, but if you get an aftermarket CAI later, the specific Hertz frequency of the 'drone' may be shifted slightly by your CAI mod. Thus, simply loosen up the bolts on the adjustable part, slide the "tuba part" in or out, and take a test drive. If it get's worse, that's easy, it just means you slid it the wrong way, so crawl underneith and go back to your starting point, then back the other way and re-test.

Since the ends of the J-bend pipes are capped, it's a "high pressure" area, so no exhaust gasses will go in there. Similar to blowing through a straw with your finger firmly covering the other end. Just won't happen. These only target the soundwaves, which are present throughout the entire exhaust system, and can travel through high pressure areas like the capped J bend without issue. There are no performance decreases either, once again, as this technology only targets the soundwaves as they exit the rear of the car. Exhaust gasses bypass the J-bends harmlessly, while the soundwaves get cancelled out effectively by this technology.



The J-pipes have been a huge hit on the G8 SOLO offerings, and I've been proud to be a part of the initial testing phase with my own car. The L76 engine, like the v6 camaro engine, is a "harmonics nightmare" ... and I worked with Jeff and the crew at their Buffalo shop to bring this J-bend technology to SOLO to see how it would work. The rest is history, and I'm really glad that it now is being applied to the V6 camaro.

I've had a SOLO Catback on my g8 since Thanksgiving 2009, and had the initial pre-alpha "proof of concept" J bends on my G8 in January 2010. That led to the development of the adjustable J bends from SOLO for the G8, and it is one of two "drone free" exhaust offerings for the G8 community, and has turned out to be a very successful product for the G8 guys. Really glad to see the technology can be used in other similar zeta chassis applications as well!

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me!

--zepcom

Awsome response zepcom!

I've added a link to this in the SOLO section of the V6 exhaust sticky thread.

:popcorn:

MrBrans5, that was an awesome day yesterday. We made some great progress and it was very exciting to duplicate the J-pipe technology on the V6 Standard Camaro. We made a ton of progress yesterday. Thanks for making the 2+ hour drive both ways and hanging out for 10 hours to get this done.

Hi Zep. Nice to see you over here on the Camaro board. Once again thanks so much for all the time and efforts on your part to get the original G8 J-pipes perfected. Thanks for the fantastic post and all the information. All I can say to add to it is the J-pipe technology is near magic. If you can measure the drone frequencies ( that in itself is not at all easy ) you can eliminate them using J-pipes with no adverse effects.

Rick Ray give Jeff a call when you get a chance at 905-703-1557. I know he wants to talk to you.

All of us at Solo are very excited about this and we would like to duplicate the J-pipes on another Camaro V6 Standard and then expand our "Exhaust Kit" offerings.

Thanks very much.

can anyone make a video showing all the various tones the car can have? that would be great.

Drone is an unpleasant/uncomfortable sound to the ears, it's not reproducible on videos. In fact, most speakers and headphones are designed NOT to reproduce these types of sounds, because it would be unpleasant to the listener.

Sorry, you need to experience drone in person. Drone generally comes in two flavors on AFM equipped cars. a low-rpm (~2000) 6th gear highway speeds vibration or sound is the main drone. I tried to give the example where two people are humming (loudly) at the same note, then one goes slightly higher. The human ear now picks this 'differencial' up as an unpleasant sound and that's the closest 'real world' example of drone that I can think of.

Additionally, on the L99 cars with AFM enabled, the factory exhaust system is near quiet stock. When the car goes into AFM mode (4 cylinder mode to save gas mileage) with an aftermarket exhaust, some have described the sound as a low "thrumming" sound like a fast drum. This sound goes away when the v4 mode goes back into full v8 sound, but it's noticable if you're listening for it. The J-pipes also serve to limit/minimize this thrumming sound. Some people call this drone (I do not) because it sounds 'different', it's simply a side-effect of the AFM doing it's job without the extreme-silence of the factory exhaust system hiding it from the listener.

Introduce a better flowing, better sounding, aftermarket exhaust system, and now you sometimes have a 'side effect' of GM powertrain harmonics, or drone. :paddle:

Just like videos do not do catback exhaust systems justice, best to experience these in person for the full effect.

The crew at SOLO spent countless hours perfecting this V6 kit to be one of the only "drone free" aftermarket exhaust offerings. Once more people who buy this kit post their own experiences, it will in turn prove further how great SOLO's extensive R&D that went into this has paid off.

And Steve, Although you are forced to conform to GM's underbody design, wouldn't these be more appropriately called "7 pipes" instead of "J" pipes? lol ;) just kidding!

"7 pipes"
 

:laughabove:

“7 pipes” ... I like that. On the Camaro LLT we’ll call them “7 pipes”.

I can tell you that as we changed the length of the “7 pipe” not only did the sound change, but I felt the performance of the car as well. Jeff said this may have been due to several factors including the cars computer making changes as we drove?

My goal was to completely eliminate drone on the highway as that is where I drive the most. There was actually a better setting for scooting around in the city... for me anyways.

:happyanim:

wow, that is a cool exhaust

Wondering if this has to be behind the muffler. Most systems have the mufflers where the old stock cans were located.

I told you, you would go SOLO! That is a really cool system, i remember SOLO explaining to me about the j pipe when my car was in the shop. ALl i know is that the guys down at Solo are all a class act, ive never experienced such great customer service before!
Say goodbye to your gas milage! I keep trying to find excuses to drive my car :D hence my horrible gas milage :D

That is wicked weird exhaust.....and I like it. I installed Solo's automatic kit resonators on my 6-speed Solo kit to reduce the drone. Works pretty well.

May not be able to pick up the sound difference, but post a clip for the hell of it.

So it looks to me like the J pipe takes the place of having mufflers. Which is going to be louder, but with no drone ? My Magnaflow mufflers don't have drone, but they are not as loud as most of the other exhaust system out there.

"Kinda".

The SOLO offering of "Muffler" on their catback systems, is the single mid-muffler that has an integral X-pipe design (and some other "magic") inside it. The rear pipes, however, where GM saught to further silence it with a set of "rear can mufflers" ... SOLO decided to have "just stright pipes and shiny cool looking tips". Then some flavors of cars had drone, so the J-pipes were introduced to combat the drone.

So the solo system has the mid muffler (a straight pipe system with no mufflers sounds terrible on most cars!) as the central point, but aft of that, no mufflers, just straight pipes and a device that targets a certain unplesant frequency to keep the permasmile applied and the accellerator pedal applied.

And by the way guys, although I don't own a camaro, I totally understand what some of you are saying with the fuel mileage. While adding SOLO exhaust products to your car is making it somewhat more efficient, your gas mileage goes down because you find yourself always tromping the car to get those wonderful new exhaust sounds to come out in full force. Happens with SOLO G8's too, so don't feel like it's just you. We should start a support group or something, lol.

Hope this helps, fellas.

I like this board. Mind if I stay a while? :D

--zep

"7 pipes"
 

They tried the auto. kit on my M6, and even a few different resonators. The resonators reduced the drone quite a bit but I guess I'm just too picky... sorry Jeff. :facepalm:



They took some video of my car on take-off and driving by. Hopefully it will get posted for you to hear. I assume this is what you want, because there is nothing to hear in the cabin. I'm not exaggerating... before the "7 pipes", the sound at 2k RPM's especially in 5th and 6th gear on a slight up-grade was unbearably horrible. My OnStar voice recognition wouldn't work and listening to the radio was impossible, at any volume! This is what we targeted to tune out and I'm happy to report that 2k RPM in any gear (even under a load) is the quiet spot now! That’s my cruising spot. As Jeff said, "You'll have no problems traveling across Canada, even with grandma in the car now".

:happyanim:

All I hear is that soft Solo burble on take-off.

:happyanim:

Ok Steve I'll try calling Jeff next week...looks good on paper have to see/hear for myself..(Next Friday when George comes down to Montreal):thumbsup:

I know what you mean. Before the resonators, it droned more up around 3-4 grand if I remember correctly. You couldn't even have the radio on or talk on the phone. My 2LT is my daily driver, and I have headers, 2.5" exhaust and Magnaflow mufflers on my real fun car, a '68 drop top Camaro. In this car I NEVER listen to the radio and want it that way. But not for the DD.

The resonators were installed and pushed the now slight drone to 1800-2000. Now I just downshift for the hills. I can hear music nicely at a level of "17" which is pretty damn good. Before it had to be waaaaay up. Look forward to the sound of the "J's".

any videos?

This is going to be a great option ! I love my Solo and hope to get this version on soon !

approx. pricing? video/audio?...I didn't see a vid link

We should have some pricing soon...we wanted it perfect before we even mentioned it on the boards:) As soon as we have an update on it, I will let everyone know.

If tone is basically the same as the original systems, then I'm thinking videos are really NOT needed. This is a solution for tuning out Drone, not changing the tone of the exhaust.

To capture the real in person sound of drone on camera is likely tough to do, and we already have nice videos of the two current offered systems, so unless SOLO feels a new vid is needed....I'd say there may be no need for it.

Aw c'mon this is a different system.... let's hear it!!!!

The J pipes are made to eliminate drone only....not much air at all even goes into the J pipe...only sound waves. They cancel out certain frequencies of sound. We used a device that measures frequency and found where the trouble area was. All of that information then has to be calculated into a mathematical formula in order to get the correct length of the J pipe for both the frequency and size motor. I hope this is helpful to how a J pipe works...it's the short version, but good enough I think. The exhaust will sound almost exactly like it was before, without the drone. it might take away a slight amount of the gurgle, but not much. I would say that it "smoothes out" the exhaust note and eliminated the drone.

Steve

"J" pipes
 

:rolleyes:

It’s actually the same, all stainless, mandrell bent system, with the addition of the tuning pipes.

I'm sure Solo will post the video they took of the new system when they get organized. They just finished their first installation Thursday. I agree... the sound is only slightly different, (outside the car) than without the tuning pipes so you probably won’t hear a difference, on video anyway. I only notice it going through the gears. I find the real difference is in the cabin (very quiet now) where you can “tune out” any unwanted frequency (noise/drone).

:happyanim:

Sound links to Solo’s tasteful burble (with-out tuning pipes) are here...
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92204

:thumbsup:


Fabrication from stock system in progress

Awesome....you got a sneak peak of our mandrel bender:)

Those vids posted sound high pitched and raspy to me. I do think the J pipe is a good idea.

Videos don't do it justice...there is no raspiness in our exhaust kit tone. I am sure others will attest to that as well. Possibly there is someone near you that has a SOLO exhaust. Most likely they would be glad to let you hear it in person:)

Videos definitely don't do justice, although if you have a good quality recorder, as well as a nice quality sound system (desktop and laptop speakers don't cut it people! lol) you can get a real nice taste forsure.

Tried listening to vids of some cars on a laptop the other day, and it was worthless. Was totally missing the sound from my home speakers.

If the vids don't do it justice..... I'd think posting the vids would hurt sales.

I'm posting on our H-town Camaro Club boards to see if anyone has solo. I've never heard anyone talking about them.

"rolnslo" on C5 and our own h-town site has the Solo cat back system on a manual V6. He just hasn't been to any meeting lately, he's busy working on his place.

Love my Solo cat back. When I first got it I had some bad drone but it really calmed down after it broke in a bit. The drone was further reduced (oddly enough) when I replaced my Airaid tube with the new V2 one. Now I only get it ocasionally when cruising on at 2k RPM. I have learned to burp the throttle to get it to stop.

Something I'm not clear about is how the J..erm..7 pipes attach to the car. They look to be attached directly to the spare tire well but that would transfer all the exhaust vibrations right into the body. I doubt that would be a good thing. I wonder if they could convert my existing system to the J...erm...7 pipe system. :) If the price was resonable I might consider it. I wonder if they need an automatic test car. :D

Hello...the J pipes are welded directly to the exhaust pipes in the rear. We could send you a set of J pipes at a reduced cost since you already have our kit. A shop would have to weld them on. Your other option would be to send us your rear section, and we will weld on the J pies and ship it back.

Also, just so everyone knows....we are working on fitting high flow cats for the automatic and manual V6 Camaro...starting tomorrow:) Pass the word around!!

Thanks Kelly...... the american thunder axle back is supposed to deliver tomorrow. I'd still like to hear these though.

I'll have them on Midgey's car by next meeting.

"J" pipes
 

:rolleyes:



You can see the circle marked on the stock Solo exhaust in this picture. They just cut it out with a plasma cutter, then welded the tunable "J" pipes on. :thumbsup: