So I've had my 3.1 camaro for a little while now and a few months after I got it, I took it to a muffler shop and told the guy to make it sound quiet (as this is my daily driver and I had it straight piped beforehand). He put a resonator on after the cat and a new muffler (I believe he said it was some sort of super turbo muffler or something of the like) and it actually sounds quite nice. But me being me, I think it is too quiet now.

But I don't want to take it back to him and have it straight piped again, because it is nice to be able to fly in under the radar in my neighborhood without the neighbors noticing me leaving/going. So I came up with an idea. If the image upload works, you will see that I want to essentially make an alternate exhaust reroute around my muffler so I can completely change how loud the exhaust is by opening or closing a simple butterfly valve. In the terribly drawn image (which I hastily drew in MS Paint) the two red lines (one of which has a large red arrow pointing at it) are the butterfly valves and the pipes which are outlined in red are the part that will be added onto the current exhaust.

(keep in mind that the pic I drew is a vast oversimplification of what I plan to do, it is just so you can understand what I am talking about).

The idea is that when I open the butterfly valve(s) (by some sort of cable/lever) the exhaust will be able to simply flow around the muffler rather than through it, therefore producing a straight piped sound whenever I feel like being loud and obnoxious and whenever I need to be quiet I can just undo the cable and I'm good to go.

So here are my questions.

-Does this sound like it would work at all?

-If yes, how well?

-If no, why?

-Is there a better way to go about getting the results I want(changeable exhaust sound)?

-Should I only re rout to one side of the dual exit exhaust or would doing both make a big difference?

-Will the butterfly valves leak?

-should I place another butterfly valve in the middle pipe that would stay in the opposite position of the other two so when I open the reroute valves the middle valve closes therefore forcing the exhaust to go through the rerouted pipes?

-If yes, would the valves presence (when in the opened position) hurt the flow of the exhaust at all?

-do you see any other inherent problems with my idea?



Sorry for the wall of text and I realize I am asking a lot but I can't hardly find anything on this subject and really need some opinions on it because I asked my dad about it and he thinks it's a bad idea but he can't come up with any other reason other than "the valves will leak".

 

Just buy a manual or electronic cutout and done.

Put it on the single pipe before the muffler and your gtg. Loud and obnoxious you will have with the flip of a switch/pull of a cable.

I wouldnt add an extra exhaust routing after the cutout. Just put it in a good spot. I think the leaking valves are going to happen regardless because of the heat cycles, depends on how close to the engine you have the cutout. Thats all IMO, so results may vary, as well as answers.

 

I had no idea that cutouts existed or what they were. I think that they will fit my need perfectly now though!

A couple of questions though.

-If I do get a cutout, where should I locate it? Im looking for it to be pretty loud... Should It go before the resonator and muffler or after the resonator and before the muffler? (I think that there actually is no cat on the car so it is just the resonator and muffler btw)

-If I get a cutout, would I need to run some sort of pipe to maybe the side of the car to keep the exhaust gas out from under the car?

 

I would put the ELECTRICALLY operated cutout after the cat .and just have the exh. dump there. simple, relatively cheap.and at the push of a button there you go

 

Sorry for the uber late response!

-Why should I go for an electric cutout over a manually operated one?
-Wouldn't just dumping the exhaust under the car eventually leave scorch marks/cause gas buildup and smell up the interior eventually? I get that it becomes a non problem if you keep the car moving, but I don't want to have to always be moving to be able to have the cutout open.

 

If your worried about scorching, etc.. I would do a small turndown off the cutout. From my reading, depending on how close to the engine the cutout is, you may or may not have problems with the electric motor in the cutout. They seem to not be able to handle heat very well; although that may depend on the manufacturer.

I was going to do a manual cutout, but instead went with a vband clamp so if I want to run open downpipe, all I have to do is undo the vband and take the bolt off the mount at the muffler. Though my exhaust doesnt go over the axel.

Ill post a pic, just got finished welding the rest of my exhaust setup about an hour ago.

 

Tbh I would put the cutout before the cat. But thats me.

 

When I do it I'll probably put the cutout at the section of pipe(in your picture) on the left, where the pipe is parallel to the side of the car but I'm still not sure about how I want to go from there. I guess I could just dump it there with the downturn, but it still seems like having the exhaust fumes and gasses being released in the undercarriage of the car would be bad for it though... Wouldn't it be simple to just fashion a small(probably flat/rectangular tipped) side pipe to let the gas exit right behind the front wheel from the cutout? Sorry if this sounds dumb, I'm just brainstorming here