LS1TECH - Camaro and Firebird Forum Discussion - Electronic Exhaust Cutout System

Customer write up

Well, I got my first winter project done, before the car was even put away. 70's in November, in Iowa. Sweet.
As the title of the thread suggests, I ordered the exhaust cutouts from Granatelli Motorsports, as they are a supporting vendor to our forum. I had a few questions that the CSR was unable to answer, and after a brief hold I had the man himself on the phone answering my questions and putting my mind at ease regarding some things. So I pulled the trigger and got them in about four days.
Everything is packaged well, and the wiring is much easier than anticipated as it is nothing more than plug and play with a positive and negative to hook up. I did a bit of custom splicing however, more on that later.
Okay, let's get down to brass tacks. The kit that I received is just as advertised on the Granatelli website:
Attachment 591322
My original plan was to install the "Y" pipes in the straight sections just aft of the primary cats:
Attachment 591323
Unfortunately, this would not come to fruition as I ran into a length issue(don't start):
Attachment 591324
Attachment 591325
Okay, now what. I can cut the "Y" pipes down a bit and weld them in rather than using band clamps as I had originally intended so as to not drop the entire exhaust system out and hope I get them straight, or find another spot.
The only other straight shots would be either A. Cut out the secondary cats and put them there, which defeats my goal of keeping the temps in the 70's rather than the 90's in November... or B. After the resonator. After the resonator makes no sense, because I already have the Solo Performance Axle Back exhaust system that deletes the mufflers. On that note I'll go off on a tangent for a minute. I love my Solo kit. It sounds incredibly good under full throttle, has a nice mellow sound at cruise and idle, and has zero drone. Anyone looking for just a little more sound out of their '14 or '15 can do no better. The problem for me was the fact that I hang out with and arrive and depart cruises and car shows with an 800 HP SRT8 Challenger fitted with long tubes, catless mids and a mean cam. Not only could I not tell if my car was even running, but when he rolls in directly ahead followed by a relatively quiet by comparison SS, the Malibu questions are doubled by default. This should help.
At this point I've decided to modify the system. I can order a second set of turndowns, or just cut the flanges off of the very nicely welded and polishes "Y" pipes. The second option is the route I took as two adapters (2-1/4" x 2-1/2") from an auto parts store are cheap and readily available. And soooo:
Attachment 591326
Attachment 591327
Attachment 591328
Also note the size on the adapter. It is wrong. I needed 2-1/4 ID instead of OD so it would fit snugly over my stock exhaust. So I cut the "Y's" down, "fish mouthed" the adapters, welded them up and chose a location. The original spot had the cutout motors hitting the exhaust hangers when put to the rear, or against the exhaust angles coming off of the cats whet put to the front. Those exhaust angle are where I decided to mount the cutouts. I first tack welded them into place, and then used a 2-1/8" hole saw to chase the holes through the adapters for perfect placement. In the end I was happy with placement, although the driver's side is up slightly from the passenger side:
Attachment 591329
The wiring as stated is plug and play, with the instructions having you cut the wires from the second switch and installing them on the other using the supplied red connectors as shown on the switches in the first pic. This would work just fine, but I didn't want to run two "brains" and two sets of power wires. The cables to the cutouts are commonly used in video surveillance systems, as well as heated motorcycle apparel. I was unable to find anything readily available, and was afraid to splice the long leads as they are uniformly round and I wasn't sure if they were an "over under" type of wire. I then noticed that at the "brain" (black box, first pic) the wire lead was definitely a traditional wire, so I spliced the two together there in order to only run one set of leads and one box. Not electronically astute enough to tell you what this box does exactly, other than to tell you that there is no holding up or down of the switch to open or close the cutouts.
I mounted the switch in the narrow panel at the bottom of the center console, for two reasons. First, I didn't want to hack the dash or console in case Barrett Jackson wants my car back to stock someday :) and second, because I priced this panel at about $26 bucks in case I screw it up. The wires to the cutouts run through a small hole in the trans tunnel almost directly behind the switch, which was grommeted and sealed after the wires were run through. I've since added a black cover to the switch to keep it just as stealth as the car that it is in, and least until I open the cutouts.
Final install:
Attachment 591330
A short vid, showing switch install and operation. Audio from my cellphone doesn't come close to the sound difference...

Granatelli Motorsports was a pleasure to deal with, and I'd recommend them to anyone looking for SS goodies, as they have good stuff to offer.
2.5" (63mm) Electronic Exhaust Cutout - Dual System: Granatelli Motorsports
I hope this helps anyone considering cutouts, and wish that you could hear them in person. Sweet mother.