Dog House Sound Proofing

[dcullen]

Hello,
I am currently in the process of spraying Lizard skin (sound control and ceramic insulation) on the entire interior of my van, except the front doors which will receive dynamat for ease of install/ masking etc.

The one point of concern I have is how to reduce engine noise transmitted through the dog house (interior engine cover). My 6.0 PSD is fairly loud and if there are gains to be made in the doghouse area, I would like to do them while I am at it with the rest of the sound control. The doghouse already touches the exhaust heat shield (can tell by the nicely buffed shinny part of the shield), so I don't think I can add any thickness to what is already applied.

Can anyone give advice on what they have tried, results, etc? Or maybe the stock insulation is as good as it gets?

Thank you,
-Dan

 

[bknudtsen]

It's really the areas to the sides and under the dash that are lacking in sound deadening materials. I would start there and double check that the doghouse seal is seated tightly against the firewall and floor.

 

[Crom]

You want to block sound use some mass loaded vinyl. 1lb per foot variety. Use foam between it and the dog house. Hands down, the best to block noise.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[_hein_]

I would suggest 3M Thinsulate(TM) sound/thermal insulation which is engineered for vehicles. OEMs use it in new vehicles.
Please PM for a sample. Or look for it at our ebay store .

Feel free to call if you like. 54l 49O 5O98

-Hein

 

[Petrolburner]

All these generic sound deadening solutions are fine for the rest of the van, but what about the flame resistance of the materials? How silly would you feel if you layered the doghouse with foam or Thinsulate and it caught fire and ruined your van? I'm interested in some improved sound deadening too, but I probably wouldn't use the same foil faced foam that I used on the rest of the van. When I pull the front seats to install my swivel bases I'll insulate the floor and firewall a bit and that should make a noticeable improvement.

 

[dcullen]

All these generic sound deadening solutions are fine for the rest of the van, but what about the flame resistance of the materials? How silly would you feel if you layered the doghouse with foam or Thinsulate and it caught fire and ruined your van? I'm interested in some improved sound deadening too, but I probably wouldn't use the same foil faced foam that I used on the rest of the van. When I pull the front seats to install my swivel bases I'll insulate the floor and firewall a bit and that should make a noticeable improvement.

Exactly. Dynamat and the like make products for under the hood which could work, but I am really looking for what people have done and what their results were. I would be pretty bummed if I stripped off all the insulation off the back of the doghouse and replaced it with dynamat hoodliner and it was louder.

 

[ohpyramids]

I think the badger trek sportsmobile couple did a post about this on their website. Made an improvement with heat and noise after re-insulating their doghouse.

 

[Mwilliamshs]

My current (personal) van has no sound-deadening other than OE. A previous project, a work van I practically lived out of for several months at a time was not a diesel but I saw significant gains in sound deadening when I removed the OE insulation from the doghouse, lined it with foam-faced, mass-loaded vinyl then reinstalled the OE insulation. Best of both worlds IMO and even though my engine was already pretty quiet (no mechanical issues and no diesel clatter) it was nice not having any of the other sounds that come through the doghouse like road noise, A/C compressor cycling, etc. I do think a blanket approach is better. I probably would've seen less than half the noise reduction I achieved if I'd not also applied sound-deadening material to the front wheelwells, floorboards, and firewall.

Think of noise as a bitter cold wind and the exterior surfaces of the van (roof, walls, doors, floor, firewall and doghouse) as your clothes. In stock form the van is naked and miserable with just pubic hair in a few areas (doghouse, firewall). What you want to do is insulate all those exterior surfaces and seal all the cracks where cold (noise) can get in. I'm not saying you have to cover every inch of every panel in dynamat, you don't. I am saying that you have to do something to every panel. I've found through several project vehicles that adding sound-deadening (vibration dampening, really) to the doors is very satisfying because you take the tinny ringing out of them and since you open or close a door every time the vehicle is used, you really appreciate the difference. However, treating the doors makes the next most obnoxious areas even more noticeable. For me that #2 problem was rear wheelwells. Even HT tires make a lot of noise, especially in the rain. Fixing that made the front wheelwells really stand out. Fixing that made a new doghouse seal necessary (I fudged by pulling a thick rope into tired seal, which prevented the bulb seal form collapsing). Fixing that made the floor as a whole seem much worse. Fixing that made the walls #1 on my problem list. Fixing that pretty much left the windshield and A pillars as the worst noise offenders and there was not much I could do about them but the driving experience had become far, far more enjoyable.