I'm thinking of ordering a set of electric cutouts for my car, how reliable are they? what brands should i be looking at?
The butterfly style, that have a valve that looks like a carburetor all have a tendency to leak and rattle. Only the Doug's Headers one with the guillotine style gate don't have that leaky gasket sound. Whether or not they are worth it is something only you can answer. I have installed a bunch for customers and they love them
A lot of people buy the QTP and Race Ready style butterfly type, but my experience has been that they all leak and the valves can break in them. It the car is fairly loud through the mufflers you may not hear the leaks, but if it is a bit quieter, you will definitely hear it.
Or you could try something like this. GTO option in the late 60's. Kills 2 birds with one stone so to speak. http://www.waldronexhaust.com/drivercontrolledexhaust.htm
I've put several on for customers, the butterfly style from Summit. Like HRD said, they leak and you hear them leak. And they are great fun for making noise. Not sure if you gain anything performance wise, probably lose some unless your combo is set-up for open exhaust. And like any other open exhaust, if you don't have a killer engine, it just makes obnoxious noise. I think the novelty wears off after a while and you don't mess with them too much.
My uncle and my grandpa both have the guillotine styled Doug's cutouts. They are alot of fun for cruising. They don't leak either. My uncle decided to try the butterfly styled kind on his O/t daily and they leaked real bad after about 3 months. They arnt cheap but definitely alot of fun factor.
So I'm probably better off to install Y's with flat caps and unbolt them when I want it noisy then... exhaust leaks are the most annoying sound to a car guy
Those take all the fun out of "uncorking" the headers, I remember when we used to cruise up & down Wisconsin Ave and pull over on lake drive, crawl under the car with 2 9/16" wrenches and pull the cut out caps off. Burned our fingers most of the time. We used to put them back on and stick a couple of nuts between the flanges to create a open slot to get a little more rumble out of it........ Come to think of it now it wasn't as much fun as I thought, I'd listen to the guys and use the good slide door type that seal better....
These are the ones I use http://www.summitracing.com/parts/DOU-DEC250AK/ and yes I developed these for Doug's
I have them on my Merc. If you have a large cubic inch motor and can't fit large pipe throughout the vehicle they can make a significant difference in performance. I like my car quiet but at the day of the drags I picked up several mph in the quarter.
Yowzers! they are sweet! look nice but are pretty pricey!. I'm looking for a set of the old type, just the bolted on plates, even those aren't cheap...Maybe i'm just cheap...Now that i think about it.
Those electric units are fun, and especially convenient when "played" in concert with the loud stereo in the car next to you at stop lights. I have a single, 3" QTP that dumps to the right side and it hasn't leaked at all. It has probably been closed 99.999 percent of the time and I only have about 250 hp in the V-6. It also isn't installed at a high pressure area, the primary route the exhaust takes to the muffler is a couple feet upstream of where the dump is located - and that route still remains open when the dump is opened. Gary
They came on a car I had last year and sold. I never could get them to stay closed all the way, I hated them!
The best electric cutouts I've ever owned are Badlandz HPE. They also have the best warranty on the market, and are cheaper than almost any I've found. I have had mine for years, and they don't leak, and work perfectly. I also have 5-6 friends who have put them on their cars and love them. They use a flange that is infitnitely adjustable to locate and clear the motor. And they have a larger butterfly than most others in the same size. I see a lot of electric cutouts that reduce the collector by 1/2"-1" in size, so they flow poorly when opened. 3" dual complete kits sell for $270. http://www.badlanzhpe.com.webshop3....D=120&osCsid=39f3bb40d76c7d1a6af16bbdadc721d7
The question you have to decide on is, do I want to make noise or not?, and do I want to spend $500 bucks to make noise?
I think the whole purpose of electric cutouts is to allow you to make that decision, and make it easier to do.
We used to weld on 2" black iron pipe nipples, then use a 2" cast cap you could tighten up by hand, (with a glove on) and open in a minute or less. Every once in a while the cap would loosen up and get lost, so I carried a few extras, cost less than 20 bucks. A buddy of mine has the electronic cut outs, he's had a few problems with them, mostly not closing all the way..