DIY exhaust cut out - the nut and the welder strike again!

Hi and happy anniversary!!  Well hey it's been a year but I am by no means done!  I have been working on the cooling system, building a luggage / tire rack and several other things.  I will post when they are ready to show you. 

Yep this is the one year anniversary of this project and blog.  Well actually the research and dreaming started years ago but the work on the cars started one year ago this weekend. WOW!  My dad, who passed in July, would have had is birthday this weekend too and I'm sure would have been reading this today.  

For today I have to show you the crazy exhaust cut out I made and why it ended up like it is.  They say there is a fine line between insanity and genius and I’m pretty sure I know which side this one falls on…

The saga begins with a random 3 ½” exhaust elbow laying on the counter at NAPA.

I picked it up and thought hey this would make a much better cut out than the 2 ½” pipe I have now that doesn’t flow very well.

But if I am going to fix that I have to fix the other problem too that it is it's really hard to spin wing nuts off fast at a stop light!

So with the bigger pipe in hand I started hunting for at least a 3” throttle body.

I felt like I hit the lottery when I found this LS1 throttle body for 21 bucks shipped. Wow!

 

Then out comes the welder to put them together.

 

With a header flange I attached this monster to the muffler just like I did the old one.  It’s hard to see here but on the back of the flange in there I put a little scoop to direct exhaust toward the cut out.

I tried to tuck it up so it won’t show.  Mostly because another chrome tip is a low budget priority but I will probably do that at some point. 

 

To make it move I just happen to have an old control cable laying around thanks to my "I'm sure I will find a use for that someday" motto.  I ran the cable up by the drivers seat.

However this did not work at all like I thought it would.  The spring on the throttle body is so stiff it took both hands to pull the cable out and when you let go it just snaped back in.  I tried backing off the spring but then it would not seal shut when closed.  So I needed something that would pull really hard but not let go.

Well now I just happen to have 2 complete Camaro doors that have not been able to sell.... insert mad scientist laugh here MAW HAHA!

So I cut apart one of them to get the motor and controls out.

Then I welded a piece of cable to the gear and welded the motor into the trunk.

 

I ran the cable through a handy hole that was there, through a pulley and to the throttle – a, no make that to the exhaust cut out.

 

Last but not least I wired it up through a limit switch and relay to the Camaro power window switch.

And voila an electric cut out for 34 bucks!  Crank up your speakers and click HERE to hear how well it works. Yeah I was shocked too…

Body work starts this weekend and I promise it will blow your mind!

Thanks so much for reading, without you this blog would be worthless!!