Dampening exhaust sound in garage. Need creative solutions!
 

So my predicament is that I live in a 2-family home with the neighbors sleeping directly above my side of the garage. I have a newly installed FI cat-back + high-flow cats, and I leave at 6:00AM each morning to drive to work.

Because the Z runs "louder" for the first 30 seconds or so while it warms up, let's just say there's no possible way my neighbors are still sleeping once I push that red GT-R start button :)

Thoughts for being more courteous? I was thinking of buying some insulating foam and lining a couple of 5-10 gallon buckets that I could situate so they sit behind my car in front of the mufflers. Think that would deaden the sound enough while it warms up for 30s? At warmed-up idle it's not loud at all.

My current approach is to move as fast as possible to start the car and get it on the road away from the house haha.

Dynamat the whole garage. LOL

I hear ya. My GF tells me she feels sorry for my neighbors when I pull off to go to work, especially on the weekends. :P

buy one of these and you should be good..

CC Inserts™ - Exhaust Sound Suppression Inserts

Push the car out of the garage, jump in, and start.

I did this once but it was on accident.

QuietRock
You must adhere to building codes as it pertains to garage spaces, so please review what you intend to do with your local Building Department. Much of it has to do with fire ratings.

Do you open the garage door first? I'm assuming you do, not wanting to suffocate! That actually helps alot, in that the sound can travel out instead of bouncing around in the garage.

And yeah, the first minute after and FI start up is LOUD!

Why not just park it on the driveway, not in the garage... or does your garage open directly to the street?

I have the same problem with my invidia gemini and hfc. I park with the mufflers facing the street, and push the car out of the garage about 5 feet. Kind of a hassle. I tried shoving steel wool in the mufflers, but they shot right out. I need to think of something that will hold them in place temporarily.

Try using some the blue painters tape after you put the steel wool in...

(X) <== Put it in an X over the end of the pipe, crank, idle, and pull it off, won't leave any adhesive residue on the piping...

@XwChriswX - Why didn't I think of that, duct tape is the solution for any problem.
I gotta go to home depot / lowe's and buy some wool, since I lost the last pieces I had.
I'm guessing the more wool = less noise.

Duct tape- Put it in your pocket save it for later. lol

:bowrofl:

The exhaust noise is predominately low frequency noise so is best attenuated using mass. The best solution would be to isolate a second set of panels by using damping that is effective for lower frequencies at temperatures your garage is typically at. Putting fiberglass/foam on the wall panels will help mostly with mid to higher frequency noise. If you are likely to buy some "acoustic panels" check the specifications to determine how much loss will occur in the 40-200Hz frequency range. If you were to back your car up slightly so that sound is not reflected back into your garage that would help quite a bit.

egg cartons as long as they are sprayed with a fire retardent

push it outside and then start it