Well It happened, I finally moved. I was evicted for having a pit bull. He never did no one no harm. I lived here for two years with my dog. And two years after living in this place without any problems, now they say they didn't know I had a pitbull. Funny that this happened right when rent is going up in the area. I have a feeling a lot of people are going to start getting evicted for no reason. But this is totally beside the point.

I am moving to an ultra conservative neighborhood. We're talking Ultra Conservative. Like I am gonna stick out like a sore thumb before they see my car.

Now I finally have a place with parking. YEAH!!! No more walking 15 blocks in the early AM to get the car out of the lot to avoid the late charge. it is not secure, but is somewhat secluded and off the street.

Now my issue is that I will pull up down a driveway and park right infront of my landlords bedroom window. And I keep very late odd hours.

So this leads me to where y'all come in. I love the sound of my exaust. My flowmasters sound quite nifty with my big exhaust. but they will not be making me any friends in my new neighborhood.

Now I know that people use exaust cutouts/cutoffs for the track and for those times when they want to run open exaust and piss of the neighbors.

So what if I did the reverse. What if I got two exhaust cutouts and had my car normally running through the flowmasters for when i want it low and loud. And then when I wanted it to be quite time charly, I could hit my electric cutouts and go through a set of quite mufflers. then when I get out of my neighborhood I could switch back over to the loud normal flowmasters?

Is this possible? Is there enough room? How would I go about doing this?

Did this make sense?

Thanks

Jim, move here to Maine.

No parking problems, most people could care less about what type of dog you have. Best of all....loud exhaust isn't a bad thing. Modified cars only come out from May to September and to everyone - it's a sign that the nice weather has arrived. When I fired up my 402 with flowmasters last spring, and was revving it after installing a new Holley, many neighbors within walking distance came by the house to shoot the breeze. The grille got turned on, and they hung around talking to each other for a couple of hours. Most of the year is too cold to be social outdoors. Three houses near mine are for sale - all within hearing distance. Hope one of them sells to someone with a car I can listen to. Tom

As much as I would love to live in Maine and not have to pay shipping for Lobsters, I am a Hollywood Boy. I wouldn't fit in very good anywhere else.

And as for my dohg, i used to be involved in pit Bull rescue, so I know the problems most owners face, and I am one of the more responsible ones. I am just grateful I found a place in such short notice.

But I worried about the noise making me enemys, especially with my landlord. need to quite it and would love to have the best of both worlds. Loud around time and stealth in my hood.

Is it possible? how and how much?

I think you're better off finding a set of mufflers that aren't too loud at idle or cruise but are loud at WOT. Or, you can just see what happens when you park the first time. Maybe your new landlord is a gearhead.

I've had home owner's insurance drop me from coverage for having a German Sheppard.

Have you talked with your new landlord yet about the car? Let him know the situation, and that you really dont want to change anything on the car if it's not absolutely necessary. See what he says. Is this a daily driver? That would make if more difficult. I only bother the neighbors with my noisemaker several times a week and pretty much every weekend in the nice months:p ....but at least it's not every day, and I dont come in at all hours of the morning. I say talk to him and see how it goes.

Let's put it this way. here is my landlord:
http://misheli.image.pbase.com/u23/automat42/upload/37024583.WaitingfortheBrooklynFerry.jpg

No Joke. ultra orthodox. I strongly doubt he is a gear head. And it is a daily driver and I run a bar so I would be coming home and waking him up at 4am-6am.

it NEEDS to be done, no doubt about it.

My car is LOUD and I love it that way. i love it loud at idle, Cruise and WOT. But I NEED to find a way to silence it at the home only.

I think it will work, but will hang low. You may need to alter your crossmember a bit to help.

You could add a single set of quiet mufflers with a pipe diameter smaller than your normal setup using the cutouts, and just have it exit before the rear axle to avoid 2 sets over the axle - I don't think that would work at all.

Or, use cutouts at the rear of the car only to route through a quiet muffler in back, but I think that would show too much and look pretty odd.

My current flowmasters end right before the axle. Also my car is low as it is. I scrape the collectors everywhere as it is.

I was thinking something like this:
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p3/topfueljohn/DSC01012.jpg

but obviously myine would be disgned to be quiter not loud as shoot.

Do you have a heat crossover in your intake manifold?

Install ONE cutout (or vacuum-operated heat riser valve and a vacuum switch, if you can find a heat riser valve the right size) just behind one header collector.

You want quiet, you close the cutout--instant single exhaust. This weighs almost nothing, produces no clearance problems, and won't even cost that much.

Don't run the thing as a single exhaust very long, though. You'll boil all the fuel out of the carb.

It's a Performer RPM intake. Not sure if it has a heat riser or heat crossover.

This depends on your parking setup. I know a guy that would coast it in. He would shut it down half a block away and coast into his parking spot in the wee hours. Heck when I was a teen and had my first 65. I would sometimes stay over my girlfriends until the birds were chirping. I would push the car out the driveway, and down the road a ways. The things we do for love, and not getting caught by her father. :D

Yeah the driveway is maybe 2 inches wider then the car and I will have to do some three point turning when I come in and out so a quite setup at home and a loud normal setup in the city is definately the desired goal. i thought about coasting it, but there is no way.

I love my car etremely loud also.I run wide open headers with an 18 inch collector extension for a little more torque.Let me tell ya,with 11.6 compression blowing out of there,its REAL LOUD.I love it!!!!My next motor is gonna be 15:1,I hope its louder.

I have the same problem and am contemplating something similar. My Fairlane has a 796 hp 13.5:1 engine with 4" bullet mufflers with turndowns right after the mufflers. I think they are every bit as loud as open headers. I LOVE the way it sounds, but it's too d*mn obnoxious to drive around much on the street, and I always feel guilty when I crank it up on Sunday mornings. I'm going with something smaller and quieter that exits under the rear bumper, but want cutouts for when I'm at the track.

I'm sure you could engineer a system with two sets of mufflers, but that sounds quite complicated. I'd quiet down what you have by replacing the Flowmasters with something quieter.

Scott

Just run 18-22" long case mufflers.That will quiet it up some and you won't lose any flow.You might even like the sound :)

Jim,nice to know there is another APBT fan out there

So far, it looks to me like the Mgr or landlord will want you to park out in the street again when they hear that exhaust note. At night when its quiet, that exhaust will sound like open headers, next to there window..Curious, what area are you talking about?

It don't think that it works like you think. The cut out won't block off the other route, just opens an alternative, less obstructive one. You could put a cutout behind the muffler with the main pipe plumbed over the rear end with small mufflers on each side behind the lower quarter (behind the back wheels).

Most of the American luxury cars of that era had what they then called resonators mounted in this area. A glance into a Walker Exhaust catalog could give you several possible part numbers or a bullet style muffler could be used instead.

I don't know what size pipe you now have, but you could have 3" to the regular mufflers and on to and including the cut out, then 2" (basically stock replacement stuff) the rest of the way to the back. It would be alot quieter and irrelevant when the cut-out was employed. Just point the cut out opening downward as if it were your regular "dump".

First do you have a 2.5" system on there now (as opposed to a 3")? The smaller size will help.

Next do you have a crossover in the system? Either an H or an X.

Next you might need to consider alternate mufflers. Longer case mufflers will provide more noise control than the more typical short case mufflers. This could probably be done to create the same tone but less of it.

Next are your tailpipes the same size as the pipe in front of the mufflers? Smaller tail pipes will reduce sound without much affect on power. Likewise do you have full length tailpipes? Dumps will be louder.

If you have a crossover you could potentially setup an exhaust valve to shut down one tailpipe and likely reduce noise. Just put the valve after the crossover.

You could also install a second set of mufflers in the tailpipes to reduce the sound. This was the idea with the "resonators" that some cars came with. Mufflers with smaller internal pipe sizes will provide more noise control than large internal pipe sizes. You could put the exhaust cutouts in front of these after-mufflers to turn them on/off. Depending on where your exhaust runs in the back round mufflers may be an easy fit.

I just put a 3" system on my 11.5:1 402 and even with an H and 22" long case Hooker Aerochambers it is a bit louder than I would prefer. Sounds pretty good but too loud. I am seriously considering adding 2.5" glasspacks into each tailpipe to tone it down.

so jim?...what was the deal with your anti sway bar? did you have to replace it? i searched your posts but couldnt find where you resolved the problem.
as far as your proposed "cut-ons"...as you can see from your pic, anything can be done. personally id just get quieter mufflers or actually what i'd do is simply make as little noise as possible in the early hours (really, they can't actually ask for more than that)....plus, it's funny how one might hear a neighbors car when first exposed to it (or a train or a certain dog bark) but, after awhile you may barely take note of it or it might even become a comforting familiarity (best case scenario, of course).

so jim?...what was the deal with your anti sway bar? did you have to replace it? i searched your posts but couldnt find where you resolved the problem.

I never did anything with the sway bar. I kinda just gave up on the car for a couple years when my girl got preggers. Now for some unknown reason, I got the bug bad and I'm spendin' some time workin' on her and fixin' her up. i'm hoping to do the rear sway bar soon after I get some holes made for it. But I think i am going to wait on the front sway until I get new springs, spindles front disks and an SC&C package installed.

Actually ran her down to the gas station last weekend for ****s and giggles. I missed that car. my dog was going crazy wanting to come along when he heard me fire it up. I just got to be careful not to get impounded since i'm still under a non-op registration.

Have you talked with your new landlord yet about the car? Let him know the situation, and that you really dont want to change anything on the car if it's not absolutely necessary. See what he says. Is this a daily driver? That would make if more difficult. I only bother the neighbors with my noisemaker several times a week and pretty much every weekend in the nice months:p ....but at least it's not every day, and I dont come in at all hours of the morning. I say talk to him and see how it goes.

That was my first thought, too...

I always point out that fire trucks, schoolbusses and garbage trucks are as loud as any car I have ever had.

But I only have one car with Super 40's dumped in front of the axle, right now.

Otherwise, your situation reinforces my love of the South Mississippi redneck lifestyle!

I run the el cheapo summit turbo mufflers with 2.5" full exhaust on my 10.65:1 cr 496 motor. it is just right.....

Maybe go the other way? make your main exhaust as quiet as possible and open the cut outs while you drive around and close them when you get home?

What you want to do really isn't difficult. The cutouts cost around $400 a pair and the rest is simply whatever the shop charges you. So could easily run $800 in total.

As mentioned above. Make it so it normally runs through the quiet exhaust with the cutouts closed. Then when you open them it will take the path of least resistance through the loud ones. The loud can go anywhere available. For the quiet, the farther back the muffler is the better. You could even use factory mufflers people are throwing away to put on flowmasters.

My suggestion is leave everything as is until after rearend. Just as the pipes pass the rearend install your cutouts. Make a the pipes Y into one pipe followed by a sedan muffler(one of those really small ones with a 1" pipe). Keep it tucked by the rearend so most won't see it. Then on the sides of the cutouts that open, continue your normal pipes out the back. This won't do anything about underhood noise, but will still look right with an option to sneak up on people.

My exhaust got even more noticable when I install a new 383 stroker in lieu of my 350. To be nice to the neighbors and my wife; I took out my 40 series flowmasters and had the 50 series installed instead. Still get the sound that I need but just not as loud. It's an option......

First thing, don't ever get on it, hop the throttle, anything to make it noisier. This is really hard with a fun car, BTW. Save it for the end of the street.

Second, run full tail pipes. Regardless of diameter and muffler type. There is a huge difference between axle dumps and full pipes. Yes, smaller pipes, quieter mufflers and cut outs "in reverse" would help. But pipes will be easiest/cheapest/biggest impact.