Exhaust Cut out

Okay, I'm going to put an exhaust cut out on the Riv. Firstly because I know it gives the car some extra power and secondly because I like the idea of making my car very loud one minute and quiet the next. Now what I need to know, where exactly do I mount it? I'm going to have someone install it but I just don't know where it is that it'll be. I'm going to buy one that has a wire on it so I can open it from inside the car (Would go electric but they're expensive) and I was thinking of getting it from JEGS (This one to be exact but I'm thinking it's too small).

I don't want the cheapo kind that you have to manually undo as my dad told me those kind get stuck on there if you leave them on for any period of time. Not to mention, I'd have to undo those before I drive off. I like the ability to open it and close it when I'm already driving. Anyone have anything they could recommend otherwise? What size is the piping where the exhaust cut out would go?

If your exhaust is stock it should be 2.5". You shold put it before the CAT for best results. You will have to move the CAT down further the exhaust. ( hopefully it will not interfere with the rear 02 sensor) . I have heard that the manual cutouts like the one above may leak. You should be sure this is what you want.

most cutouts leak. with the exception being the high priced quality electric ones.
before the cat is where most cars have them installed, and it would be cheaper for you to have it put in right after the cat so that you dont need to extend the pipe right before the cat.

There are some nice electric cutouts. Somebody used to make them for GNs a few years ago. I'll see if I can find his name.

I don't mind electric because I was going to get it originally but I want something that's not super expensive (In other words, I wanted to keep this mod under $100 but I could maybe go $200 for a decent electric one).

Why don't you just do a downpipe and res delete? that should give you more noise at WOT , more power and not affecting cruising noise much IMO.

The resonator gets rid of the annoying sounds at highway speeds and that's the one place I don't want to hear that noise. I like a cutout because I can open it and have pure noise and performance in an instant and persay a cop rolls by I can close it up and be nice and quiet. Loud exhaust is loud all the time and you can't shut it up unless you put the car in neutral and coast. I'd do the downpipe but that's too hard to get to and I can't see that making hardly any difference in sound.

Quote :

I like a cutout because I can open it and have pure noise and performance in an instant

My opinion is: 80% noise, 20% performance - at best. Based on what I know from changing up exhaust parts, most of your restriction is upstream at the manifold and downpipe areas. The cat, resonator, T-pipe, and mufflers don't hurt you as much in performance. Those things do control noise pretty well, though.

So when you cut-out right after the downpipe, you're still using the most restrictive part of your exhaust, while getting rid of the part that flows well. I'm not sure what kind of improvement that makes, if any. You're going to hear a lot of noise, though. And it won't sound pretty, imo. Also, you could see a torque drop unless you have a robot under the hood that is programmed to swap your SC pulley at the touch of a button.

But to each their own. I saw a Park Ave last night (not Ultra) that was humming around with probably straight pipes. I wanted to cover my ears, he was happier than a in

Shintsu wrote:

The resonator gets rid of the annoying sounds at highway speeds and that's the one place I don't want to hear that noise. I like a cutout because I can open it and have pure noise and performance in an instant and persay a cop rolls by I can close it up and be nice and quiet. Loud exhaust is loud all the time and you can't shut it up unless you put the car in neutral and coast. I'd do the downpipe but that's too hard to get to and I can't see that making hardly any difference in sound.

From what i've read on regalgs.org , basically the resonator is only important with aftermarket mufflers , the general consensus on it is that with stock mufflers it should be deleted and there is almost no detectable increase in noise levels , especially with our quiet mufflers , GTPs have a bit louder exhaust from the factory , so the resonator might be a little more crucial for noise reduction. The downpipe would have to be installed by a shop anyway. You'd be looking at about 150 all said and done IMO.

But would a downpipe make any difference without headers? I don't know how you guys put headers on there, there is no way in hell I could ever hope to try that. No garage, no motor lift, I don't have any of the necessary stuff to do it. Unless there's a shop I can take it to and have it put on for me, I'm screwed on that.

A 3" downpipe is regarded as a good simple mod in the 3800 community. It did seem to add some power for me. Even after the few mods i have now , my car feels nothing like it did when it was stock.

Headers on this car wouldn't be too bad. The front could be done pretty quickly with almost no issues ( except getting that damn heat shield off) and the rear is pretty accessible if you could put the car on ramp.

I'm debating whether or not i wanna do headers as i'm very happy with how my car runs right now and i'm don't even have it dialed in that well on the tune ( those timing tables are great though derek!).

From what i've seen though , a powerlog and downpipe is competent for most bolt on applications , just not ideal , unless you wanna go turbo.

I know of a Riv that ran a 12.77 sec 1/4 mile on stock manis with a 3" downpipe, rockers, and nitrous.

camlifter?

Yes. He may have ported the manis, but he didn't have headers.

AA wrote:

I know of a Riv that ran a 12.77 sec 1/4 mile on stock manis with a 3" downpipe, rockers, and nitrous.

That's pretty awesome. So if I were to get a 3" DP do I just take it to a muffler/exhaust shop and say "Put this on" and hand it to them and pay them the labor? I thought places like that didn't like to put stuff on unless you used their stuff or something like that.

Depends on the muffler shop, and it depends on you. They have to have a good understanding of what they're doing, because if they think for a minute there's a chance that they could mess something up, they probably won't even try it.

You have to be a cool guy, cooperative. They might not have time for you right away, so you have to work with them. It helps to go back to somewhere you've dealt with before.

Try to find a small shop with some older guys working there. Talk to the one in charge. Have the part on hand when you go. If no good, try somewhere else. It's not always easy to get this kind of stuff done, but there's always a way.

What I did was installed my headers and deleted my cat, then put clamps on everything. Took it to a muffler shop in the country and had them weld it all in place. 4 TIG welds for $20 - still holding.

I believe my dad has a muffler shop he goes to all the time. I suppose I could get him to come with me and help convince them to do it. Is there really anything they could screw up by putting this DP in? How much does it cost?

You might have a slight tick , but other than that not much.

The shorty DP is 89 bucks from zzp.

Any way to keep my nice high-flow cat or am I going to have to use theirs?

You should be able to use any cat.

Well, the downpipes I saw on ZZPerformance looked pretty long. They looked too long to leave the cat on there. Btw, what would it probably cost to get the resonator cut off and a pipe welded in? If I cut out the resonator I'm not going to get drone on the highway am I?

You need to get the shorty downpipe. From what ive read with stock mufflers you don't get any drone with no resonator. But there are some differing opinions with that.

Can someone link me to one? I can't find it on ZZPerformance or Intense and those are the only two I can think of off hand.

Its one of the options on the downpipe on zzp. Just scroll through them you'll see it.

Oh okay, I see it now. To get their $50 off coupon do I have to send just the downpipe back or the downpipe and the catalytic converter too? Also, do I need to order any gaskets?