On 4/17/07, Kim Brennan <kimbrennan@mac.com> wrote:
>
> I've thought about it, and the only thing I know I can't do
> > without is that VW boxer noise: "pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb!"
> >
> > Does the Subaru engine have that?
> >
> Subaru engines are usually quieter than the waterboxer engine (SVX
> engines excepted.)
>
> Now Tiico engines sound a lot like the original engines...cause they
> use the original mufflers.

Hmmm... maybe "sound" isn't the right word for it. I don't really hear my
engine's exhaust note so much as I sense its reciprocation secondarily
through the firewall.  "Feel", maybe? My "other car" is a Honda Civic, and
that inline 4 DEFINITELY feels totally different. Like every other inline 4
powered car I've had, it feels "buzzy", with a lot of high frequency
vibration. The WBX in my '91, like the air cooled uprights in my dad's old
'68 bus and '76 beetle, has this distinctive boxer "rumble". I'm wondering
if this is an artifact of the VW boxer design that Subaru boxers don't quite
have due to balanced crank, overhead cams, etc.; or if that soothing, low
frequency vibration  is common to all boxer 4 engines.

--
John Bange
'90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"