I've got a pair of DMH electrics on my 55. I love them. Not that I drag race and need the extra power. I love to open them up from time to time and enjoy the music. It's cool at shows and cruise-ins too. Open them up as you're idling in and people hear you coming and move out of the way.
.......I have them on two of my cars........they are really loud.....I use to run them open a lot, but after paying a $187 ticket..........never could understand why cops don't like "cool"
So I can expect leaks from the electric cutouts? What is the life expectancy of the electronics? I was about to order a set from Summit. Advice?
Hate to be the party pooper here... I was just wondering how much low end torque you loose from uncapping those???
Here's what I did. My open pipes were too loud, even with the baffles. The closed system with the glasspacks was too quiet. So, I drilled 1" holes in the block-off plates, got a pair of those flanges from the plumbing section of Home Depot & screwed them to the block-off plates. Now, I have just the right exhaust volume & if I do ever get tired of it (like on an extended trip) I can just screw in the 1" plugs that came with the flanges. If I'd ever want to open the headers completely, it can still be done.
Yep, had 'em back in the mid 60's on my '57 Chev, and now on my Austin's 327 too. Got many a finger burn trying to open them, but now I carry gloves. Got smarter in my old age!
So what's the secret to welding the cast cut-out to a mild steel exhaust? Oxy and Silver-solder? I have one (Mr. Gasket) here I'm itchin to put between my stovebolt and the rest of the world.
Around here the cable operated ones were called "cutouts" all the rest with caps that you had to remove were called lakes plugs or lakes pipes.
I'll second that . Had one on each side of the steering column in my '51 back then. I could pull both at the same time when sitting at a stoplight . Highly ill legal back then, but worth it. Also tried Flame Throwers but never could get them to really work unless I had the carbs adjusted so rich the car ran like sh*t . We use to buy the cutouts from JC Whitney's back then for about $2.98 each, plus another $1.50 for the choke cable!
The thing with cutouts is that unless your engine is pushing some good compression and running a decent cam, open cutouts don't sound very good. All they do is make a lot of noise and in some cases with a near stock engine will sound like an old tractor with a straight pipe. Hearing all these cars with open lakes headers and open pipes makes me think I'm at a vintage tractor meet listening to all the old Massey and Cockshutt tractors rumbling around. And there's not too much cool about a hot rod sounding like crap.
None, if the engine is tuned properly, and should see a gain in hp and torque. If any engine makes more power or torque with the exhaust restricted, then it has tuning issues. T.
Tractor sound guys unite against the noise elitists!! We'll gather at the village square tonight....torches not furnished.
The original old type of cable operated cut out valves did not seal and they leaked around the pivot shaft just like a worn out heat riser valve. Not cool sounding at all. I was a steamfitter in the early 60s and the speed secret for home made cut outs was to weld a threaded nipple into the down pipe and get brass screw caps.(not found in your local hardware store) The cast iron screw caps would rust and freeze up on the steel threads. We would braze a piece of rebar across the face so that it could be opened with a hammer like a knock off wheel. I worked with one guy that made his own copper exhaust system including his own copper glasspacks. It never would rust out but it looked like shit to me.
Im in! Is it weird that I love the sound of old tractors and fondly remember the days of hauling hay and running widly from wasps and hornets at every damned barn? My favorite was the slow-flying fat round wood boring bees that you could just stand and swat out of the air if there wasnt too many of them. Back to the subject; I too had the JC Whitney cut-outs on my truck for about maybe 6 months while in high school. They leaked from day one, the choke cables started to seize up after about a month and eventually both broke off after just a few months. They sucked and didnt last long, but I sure do remember how giddy I was after I first had them put on and using them that first week or so. Ill never do them again, but Im glad I did and got it out of my system. If I was to ever, ever, ever try some sort of cut-out system again, Id do the caps with bolts and gaskets. You could at least put new bolts and new gaskets in w/o having to go to the muffler shop when they start to seize up.
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