Century Torpedo

[Sar]

I installed the Century torpedo on the Bergen today. I took the advice of Greg Alderman and changed the way the muffler mounts on the header. I drilled out the threads and used longer screws with M3 locknuts.

I didn't have any lockwashers small enough to mount under them though, so I skipped that part.. hopefully it won't come back to haunt me :D

Instead of running a setscrew into the header mounting bolts I put a lockwasher under them which raised them above the machined surface of the header. I then ground the tops of them down so they are flush with the header surface. Hopefully the combination of lockwasher, rtv, and the muffler will keep them from going anywhere.

(Yes, I did take care of the excess RTV in the header ;) )

[Sar]

I flew with this muffler today, I am very happy with the way it sounds. It's actually pretty quiet and the tone is very.. mm.. soothing I guess. And the muffler is still attached, but I only ran about 1 tank. The chrome already started to bubble off as the little slip of paper indicated, but I can live with that. If at some point I can't I'll just get the chrome bead blasted off of it and paint it... black :D

[ShawnK]

Glad to hear that it's quieter than the stock can! (Hardly conclusive, though... just about anything is quieter than the stock can!)

How does it perform?

Paint it black?? Shoot, I'd just bead blast the chrome off and buff it. (Can't figure out for the life of me why anyone would chrome plate an aluminum gas muffler... duh) :?

[Sar]

Quieter, I think my buddies Evo 50 was louder today.. I'll need to do some more testing on video at fixed distances to prove that, but it was pretty quiet and I could actually hear a lot more of the blade noise.

Perform compared to what? I'm still breaking it in so I'm not really doing a lot with it at the moment. Also with as much time as it took to put on, I'm not going to switch back to the junk can to do tests :D It was satisfactory for my needs.

[ShawnK]

What I meant was, does it give you any noticable performance increase over stock, is it about the same, or is it a little worse? (In general terms, you can make an engine quiet, or you can make it produce good power, but you can't do both. Of course, that's not always a truism.)

If you've never used the stock can before for comparison, then I'm probably barking up the wrong tree. :mrgreen:

In any event, I'm glad to hear that it's not obnoxiously loud. I need to get something for my EB, and since I can't find a Bergen pipe for love or money, and a Hatori pipe costs too danged much, then maybe the Century torpedo is the way to go. I just hope I don't get my official "Bergen Customer In Good Standing" card revoked for using a Century product! :wink:

[Sar]

I only hovered with the stock 'muffler' before. I can only imagine how loud this thing would be without any muffler. Straight stack.. oo. The couple of comments I have read on it say it's OK. Whatever that means.. they probably didn't know either hehe.

Really it came down to economics and availability to me. If it works, doesn't cost us much as a Raptor 30 kit, and I can have it tomorrow. Fire it over. As for the "Bergen Customer in Good Standing" just crash every so often or buy a heli, you'll be ok :D

[Greg Alderman]

Buddy..."does it make more power?" Can't be for certain that the muffler is actually making more power as I put mine on with only about 1 gallon through the G26 and I was still using 6oz of Blue Marble oil/gal. My motor is getting stronger by the tank full and I am down to about 4.5oz/gal and now using Camper Fuel instead of gas. I am not having any masive bubbling of the finish...a couple of little "pin-head" size bubbles is about the extent of it.

anyway, I certainly don't think it makes any "LESS" power than the stock muffler but is is many times quieter than the stock...to me that was woth the $99 I paid for it.

Regards,

[ShawnK]

Sounds like a winner, then! I wasn't really looking for more power, but as I said, I was curious because "quiet" typically means "less power". My biggest concern was that it didn't choke the engine down something terrible.

[Sar]

So I guess you wouldn't be interested in one of the quietest mufflers around then :D

[Greg Alderman]

Jon...looks very restrictive!!! :tongue

[bigrcr]

Reminiscent of the old "HeliBall" muffler ! :glasses: