I know this may sound dumb, but I am new to this. I was wondering if someone would be so kind as to inform me what a cutout is. Thanks

 

It is a small "y-pipe" in your exhaust that goes wherever you want to place it. It is shaped like the picture below and has a cap on it so that you can open and close it. It allows you to bypass the exhaust in order to prevent it from restricting exhaust flow and therefore increasing horsepower (as well as sounding pretty dang good on a stock LS1 or LT1 )

http://www.jegs.com/photos/38753030.jpg

 

i big exhaust leak lol

im getting dual 3" exhaust leaks on mine

cory

 

Exhaust leaks = bad .

Exhaust cutout =

Guys have dyno'd and gotten between ~10 - 20 rwhp by opening up cutouts!! (a lot of that depends on what type of cat-back you've got to start with).

 

i know, i was playing

 

There are also two types of cut-outs. There are electric ones where you can mount a switch in the interior to open the butterfly on the cutout. And the manual ones where you have to physically open them up. I have heard the manual ones seal better for longer usuage. But don't hold me to my word, as i have also heard of the electric ones sealing up just fine.

 

Ditto.

 

I got a Random Tech cat back, if I get hi-flow dual cats on my car and put the cutout right underneath my passenger side door would that be sufficeient? How do Random Tech's flow? I hear they flow pretty well.

 

I got consisten .2 1/2 tenth of the 1/4 mile with the cutout open. And its an Automatic. Its extremely loud but fun to cruise with,

 

yeah i would say that the cutout is one of the best cheap mods you can have done to your car. i paid about 30 dollars for one and the install was about 20 bucks. but i diddnt feel too much of a difference on mine as i do have loudmouth. they sound exceptionally great on LT1's but so so on LS1's. either way, its a good 10 hp or so.

 

i have been thinking about getting a cutout but im not sure. i may be wrong but it seems like a cutout when screwed on would increase backpressure do to the air flowing into the "would-be exit chamber" and then having to force its way back into the exhaust pipe. what does everyone else think/know?

i wouldnt want to have the powerband suffering 23/6 on days the cutout is screwed on, unless the car is only suffering a lil bit

 

bah! you guys are lazy...

on race day i just spend 20 minutes (almost half of that is jacking the car up) and removing the exhaust from the cats - back

 

its not laziness. i wouldnt want to spend money on something thats increasing backpressure (while decreasing horsepower) on a daily driven car. if youre using a cutout its likely you want to maintain a quality/quiet sound, in my case 99% of the time. so im not wanting to put a mod on the car that will hurt performance 99% of the time. i know the gains when cap is off are huge, so the original question is:

does a capped cutout increase backpressure (over no cutout whatsoever) in a way that would noticably (by the driver or the dyno) hurt the cars performance?

 

If you're getting backpressure and 10 horespower, obviously it isn't hurting the performance...People get cutouts to make their car louder, not quieter.

 

He meant backpressure when driving it around w/ cutout closed would be increased b/c the exhaust flow is hindered from the turbulence created by the capped cutout.