That gnarly carburetor sound.

[A Atwood]

I used to love to hear a V8 engine that would get that entirely ridiculous carburetor sound. You don't hear it much anymore.
I always wondered what it was that you were actually hearing. Was it turbulence in the intake ports. Was it air going by sharp edges in the ports. I only ever heard it on V8 engines. Almost a harmonic note.
I had a friend with a small block Chevy. It was nothing special. Basically a stock short block 71 350 with a 230 Crane cam (.460 lift) stock heads, Weind single plane intake and a 650 double pumper. Somehow this engine ran way better than it should have. And it had that killer carburetor sound. He would get off the freeway a mile and a half away, and I could hear his carb as he got into it after the stop sign. Unbelievable.
My brother build a 440 Mopar. This one had a dual plane Edelbrock and a 750 DP. Stock heads. Same thing. It sounded so good from inside the car, you never wanted to let out of the carb. And the more you reved it up, the better the sound.
Anyway, I was just wondering what the recipe was that created that beautiful obnoxious carb note. It did seem, that with a nice port job to the heads, the majority of the sound went away.

What was the common denominator? It couldn't have just been port restriction, because a lot of the old V8's didn't have "the sound". Only certain ones had it.

Just interested if anyone else had an ear for that sound.

ARN

[Procision-Auto]

I wish I could tell you...trying to hear anything from under the hood within the car over my loud exhaust would be a stretch at best.

Even when near the engine while tuning, the fans, valvetrain and ambient noise would mask pretty much everything else. I did hear
the sound of air flowing into the motor; almost a faint whistle with pitch increasing as the throttle opened (through the filter element I believe).

Is that what you mean?

Do you have a recording of this sound? I'm curious to hear what you're talking about.

[Moparious Maximus]

I know of that mysterious air sucking carb noise, dont really know for sure what it is.

My best guess, you are hearing the intake pulses in the intake itself, a bigger carb makes it louder I think, not really faster, just more air-sucky sounds.

I always wonder how loud the motor would be by itself if I could quiet the headers on the racecar. I bet I would still need earplugs with all the valvetrain, piston-cyl wall slap, and the blower noise.

[PackardV8]

FWIW, today's OEM engineers use induction pulses piped directly into the passenger compartment to give the driver the "power roar" he paid for, but which outside noise regulations won't allow any more. Some use a flapper valve actuated at a given throttle depression.

thnx, jack vines

[A Atwood]

I wish I could tell you...trying to hear anything from under the hood within the car over my loud exhaust would be a stretch at best.

Even when near the engine while tuning, the fans, valvetrain and ambient noise would mask pretty much everything else. I did hear
the sound of air flowing into the motor; almost a faint whistle with pitch increasing as the throttle opened (through the filter element I believe).

Is that what you mean?

Do you have a recording of this sound? I'm curious to hear what you're talking about.

The carburetor sound I am referring to is not something that is hard to hear. If you were inside my buddy's 71 Nova when he opened it up, the only thing you COULD hear was the carb. Totally obnoxious and harmonic at the same time. From outside the car, if he was headed in your direction and opened the throttle, same thing. All carburetor! You could hear his car(carburetor that is) coming in your direction before you would see him. He used to do it on purpose cause he knew we could hear it.
I have heard this sound the most on small Chevys, 383 and 440 BB Mopars, and Pontiac 400 & 455s. They also all have similar head designs. Not sure if that has anything to do with it though.

Hollywood used this sound in many movies with almost any car chase scene.

ARN

[A Atwood]

Years ago, I built a SBC for a 1980 Chevy truck 4X4 I was putting together just for fun. I purposely left the heads in stock form and used other parts as well in hopes of getting that sound that I like. No luck. It just didn't have it. Ran good, but no carb sound I wanted. No idea why.

ARN

[pdq67]

My 406 SB had that sound w/ no more then a cheap Melling 292/230 hy-cam and a 750 Q-Jet w/ it's top rear butterfly's set to tip in when I wanted them too. Cheap Summit 3" tall x 14" in dia open air filter.

Sucker sounded like a bellowing Bull once the rear top butterfly's kicked in. I'd start to pass a car(s) that didn't have a clue I was passing and darn near scare them once along side their door when they finally heard my carb sucking at rpm.

What hoot!

pdq67

[Dragsinger]

I understand about the sound and your post caused me to reflect upon a simpler time. Many stock or mildly modified engines of the 50's & 60's had the "sound" Maybe it was the small ports? small carbs? small cams? of that era?

I even specifically remember a friends car as you describe. The scream of the intake announced his coming. He had a 1956 Chevy with a warmed up 283, a pair of the original Chevy in-line two WCFB carbs and a four speed. The car actually sounded better coming at you than it did going from you.

The thoughts from those days make me smile.

[mike walsh]

This is easy!!!! Quadra-Jet!!! That's the huge sucking noise people are looking for!!! Built a 396 Chevelle for a customer, he kept saying it didn't sound right.. He went for a ride in a buddies car and we figured out that the Holley was off to his ear.
Personally I think they are "smog," carbs but lots of people have used them for everything, they did sound cool.....

[Troy Patterson]

Air cleaner has more to do with it than you might think. Going from a snorkle style air cleaner to an open chrome air cleaner causes a large increase in "carb" or "induction" sound. Adding a cowl hood also increases the "carb" sound by providing an open path from open air cleaner to the cowl vents and heater ducts on into the interior of the vehicle. Cold air induction although, great for performance tends to channel the "carb" sound away from the passenger compartment.

Troy Patterson TMPCars.net TMP Carbs

[quickd100]

Yep, there is nothing like the sound of dual AFB's on a street Hemi or the sound of a carter thermoquad at WOT. Dave

[dwilliams]

You can easily tell a Holley from a Quadrajet by the sound. And a ThermoQuad sounds different from a Quadrajet - we used to call it the "moose call."

An AFB on top of a converted Crossfire EFI manifold makes a strange sound. You could actually hear the turbulence inside the big plenum. And frost would form on the 2" carb spacer at idle...

The Mikuni flatslides on my Suzuki sounded like a horse on cobblestones. The noise of the exhaust drowned the sound out at 50mph or so, but you could hear the reflected back from buildings sometimes when going faster. It was astonishing how strong the reversion pulses were at low speed; the carb rack would do the hoochee-coochee. A friend nearly ran off the road riding alongside, watching it.

[6sally6]

This is easy!!!! Quadra-Jet!!! That's the huge sucking noise people are looking for!!! Built a 396 Chevelle for a customer, he kept saying it didn't sound right.. He went for a ride in a buddies car and we figured out that the Holley was off to his ear.
Personally I think they are "smog," carbs but lots of people have used them for everything, they did sound cool.....

A-MEN Mike!!! A "buddy" of mine had the old 396 with a Q-jet and 4-speed. I was in the backseat and he would "pop" the secondaries in and I thought he was down shifting to 3rd gear. The carb would almost drowned out any conversation inside the car.
Sounded like it had NO air cleaner! But it did! I remember exactly what your say'in!
6sally6

[jamie]

My brother had a 70 gto with a quadrajet and he would flip his air cleaner lid over cause he liked the sound it made.Never really heard that sound from a holley.

[Procision-Auto]

Hmm...maybe I'm 'overhearing' the obvious.

Do you mean that deep, throaty, tone that happens when you first punch the throttle?