ok, this is gonna sound pretty lame to our American cousins but before this forum i had never heard of these electric exhaust cutouts before. i looked on ebay.co.uk and no finds, and it seems that they are only available in the states.
my questions are:

1: do they make a difference to the cars performance?
2: do they make a big difference to the sound over OEM?
3: should i have saved my money on replacing my stock muffler and bought exhaust cutouts instead?

 

1. Yes. It's different for different cars, but it usually robs a little low end, but really cranks in the high RPMs.. But if you get electric-cutouts you can change them as you drive.. So close from start, then open 'em up once your off.

2. When they are closed you can't even tell you have them. When you open, your exhaust will be WAYYYY louder than stock. Not sure about the crossfire, but on V-8s it'll make your ears bleed. like a harley riding by you. its sweet. :-D

3. Uhhhhh tough decision. Complete exhaust systems by Borla and such companies can create a big improvement with performance, but the cutouts don't have any defined results. SO if you just wanted the loud exhaust, yes shoulda got cutouts. for performance I'd say you made the right choice.

 

Theres no way you could use cutouts in the city, it would be WAY too loud and would smell awful. People around you would NOT be happy. For a drive out in the countryside it would be okay, but would undoubtedly still make your ears bleed. After listening to videos on YouTube, I think the exhaust tone of the 3.2L in the Crossfire has too high of a pitch for this anyway. It won't be the nice throaty sound most V8s have. Given the amount of time the cutouts would actually be open, I think you would get more use out of a catback for sure. Sticking with the stock muffler was a good decision for performance as well. Most catbacks only net around 2-4 whp, cutouts might get you 8-10 whp if you bypassed the cats, resonators and muffler. Just my .02 - Jay

 

yeah, if you get the e-cutouts, you can open them to a variable amount too, so keep them about 25% open, will increase the exhaust noise a bit and give you better performance

 

I wonder if anyone has tried this on the xfire? and what it would sound like coming out before the second set of cats

 

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ad.php?t=22422

 

I referenced the other thread where these have been applied to the SRT exhaust. Here's a question. They are usually applied to the end of a set of headers so you don't have to physically get under the car and unbolt the cutout. I'm looking at this application and with all the plumbing I wondering what good it will do other than increase the noise? If it was installed as intended it should go at the end of the header where it bolts up to your tailpipes then you don't have to get under your car and unbolt the cutout and you have a pretty direct flow out of your headers but that application doesn't seem to make sense to me?
Pat

 

sorry misread your post, disregard what I wrote before if you read it..

yea noise is the main reason for doing this, although it will bypass the rear cats I believe, which means less back-pressure.

 

I was contemplating pricing out some of those fabricated side pipes they used to run on older Corvettes and using those cutouts going into them. I think side pipes would look real nice on the Crossfire.
Pat

 

so where do you have to put the cutouts exactly?

 

They are supposed to go at the end of a "tuned" race header. Old school you had to crawl under the car. Unbolt 3 bolts and drop the cap. Then you basically had straight exhaust through the header. These new electric gizmos make it so you hit a switch in the car and that happens. I guess you could put them anywhere along the exhaust system but the proper place is where the header bolts up to your exhaust pipe.
Pat

 

I just installed a set of the best E cutouts out there, DMH low profile Stainless Steel. They do rob low end torque, so I have been launching with them closed and opening them as soon as I get rolling. They seem to add some power but I really haven't been able to do any conclusive testing. The track was so crowded friday night I only got two runs in and never got to do an open/closed run. They are loud and I actually prefer the sound of the stock exhaust combined with the supercharger whine. Maybe when I get a bigger pulley they will really help out. I am waiting for my friend to upload a video, may take while. I also have yet to try thr 1/4 open method that was mentioned in this thread. Weekend is over so maybe next weekend I'll try it.

Origional thread I posted in the SRT section
https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ad.php?t=22422

 

Got off work early today and I was eager to try the 1/4 open method. I found that just bumping the cutouts open a bit seemed to give a noticeable difference in power/acceleratrion over having them wide open and little to no loss of torque on the bottom end. This is all according to the butt dyno , but I think I will run like this when it's time to race and def. have to try it at the track next time.

 

glad it worked for you. :-D

 

Now you just need a little magic box that watches your Speedometer and Tach signals and opens the the cut-outs as they both climb past a certain point. Opening slowly too with the RPMs would probably get you some gains...

What do you think... variable back pressure exhaust?

 

Wow.....next you guys are gonna start trying variable cam phasing, variable intake runners, etc.

You guys are starting to scare me!

 

I want to hear the sound clip

 

To me it sounds like *** inside the car, I prefer the stock exhaust with the supercharger whine over the cutout sound. I will try to pressure my friend to upload the videos from the track. He's pretty busy and said it might take a while.

 

cutout sound clip, cutouts between the front and rear cats for now
http://www.needswings.com/videos/opencutout.3g2

 

link doesn't work. Have you done any dyno testing? I can't honestly say whether or not mine are just noisemakers at this point.