Cornholio7979

iTrader: (1)

I know everybody loves the sound of an aftermarket exhaust, I do to. I want to be able to silence my exhaust by the flick of a switch. I was thinking pretty much the reverse of a cutout. I don't know if anyone has done something like this before. I don't want the exhaust to be so loud all the time. I do have an aftermarket exhaust, and it's plenty loud, but it would be nice to tone it down by flicking a switch if a cop drives by, or I pull into my neighborhood late at night. Controlling the loudness without having to put a different plate in the muffler would be a novel idea, so I'm curious if other people have already come up with a solution like this.

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (2)

Well, it sounds dofferent, but if you want somthing like that, find somone who does exhaust and tell them to give you some ideas, if they are no good then they will leave you with nothing, so find somone with a good idea of what you want and let them run with it, might be a little pricey but you get what you pay for.

online170

I would do something along the lines of.... Getting the sound you want, be it straight exhaust, or a muffler of your choice. Lets say you want to go with flowmaster 40 series muffler.

Now, you place an electric cutout at past your headers, and y-pipe. Right after the cutout, you have another Y-pipe configuration, however its more of an O-pipe.

Basically, on one end of the cutout, you have a free pipe leading to the muffler, and on the other end of the cutout, you have two catalytic converters which link back up to the free pipe leading to the mufflers.

SO... your exhaust will flow through headers/manifolds, through y-pipe,
then you have a choice to direct it through the cats via switch.... or by pass the cats, and go straight to the 40 series mufflers.

Whatever you do, would have to be something to that effect. Instead of two catalytic converters, you may choose one catalytic converter and another quierter muffler, or just a quieter muffler, or even 1 catalytic converter.

All im gonna say is, this is kind of a backwards, and idiotic idea, if you want loud exhaust, nothing beats open headers. Just leave your exhaust system the way it is, and put in a cutout. If your muffler is too loud now, get a quieter muffler and a cutout. If you wanna do LOUD, do it right. Save the $$$, the hassle, and weight along with it.

my, 0.02.

Roorancher

Boats have that option. (Kinda)
it's known as Captain's Call......but doing it on your car seems just short of moronic.

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

I don't know about doing it backward. You could partially block off exhaust flow and it will quiet down the car but it will also severely restrict the exhaust, much more than putting a quieter muffler on it. Back in the 90's my '83 wouldn't pass a tailpipe emissions test with a 3" straight pipe but I found that if I hammered a dog food can with a roughly 3/4" hole in the tailpipe it was significantly quieter and passed, but it also ran like dog poop (I'd go through emissions like that and then pull the can out of the tailpipe as soon as I got my "PASSED" slip.

Most people tone it down as they get older, I've been doing this a long time and I've added a cutout to my exhaust just for some extra noise (I have no evidence that it makes the car any faster, I just like it). In my case I custom-made an exhaust using Dynomax Ultraflow welded muffler that flows well in excess of what the car needs but is actually pretty quiet (I feel it sounds a lot like a stock exhaust with headers added, it's completely drowned out by every aftermarket f-body exhaust that I've ever had it parked next to but non-car people still think it's loud), and then I added a cutout in the intermediate pipe right in front of the axle. I use that to tune how loud my exhaust is to adjust to my mood, from "coming home at 3am and don't want to wake anyone up" closed to "F#@KING RACE CAR" wide open and anything in between.

There are factory exhausts that have various "cut out" arrangements as well as muffers with valves in them (both factory and aftermarket) but be aware that in most areas adding cutouts has been outlawed, I suspect that it's a deal where most officials have no idea if you're bypassing emissions or not so just make it illegal either way thing. In Maryland, there is a law outlawing replacing the exhaust with anything but the factory configuration and volume as well as a separate law banning cutouts, but I've never heard of either being enforced.

blacksunshine'91

iTrader: (10)

It might be worth looking into some of the modern cars that have active exhaust. You might be able to scavange one from the junk yards and modify it to work with what you want without having to choke your exhaust.

84 1LE

iTrader: (9)

It was 2007 when the OP asked, but since im butting in. Might as well try to be helpful.
Couldn't the "cutout" be mounted after the muffler (in the tailpipe). Look up ex-up valve, used in sport bikes. Used for various reason, one of which is noise regulation.
Normally these are controlled by the ECU. So it have to be wired up as a stand alone system