Your right It sounds the same I was driving it today and she moves fast. I do however like driving with the exhaust cracked just a bit in the open position has a nice sound when moving and a mean idle. Fully open and my wars bleed lol

 

I noticed that with the cutouts open I don't get any horsepower. I am getting high rpms before the car starts to take off. When there closed the car takes off quick. So are cut outs just to for sound rather than horsepower. Note I have a Chevy 350 330hp 380 torque engine. I know it's not the fastest but the best bank for my buck coming from the 305. I also have dual exhaust no cats and put the cutouts righ after my headers

 

It could be that your engine just does not respond well to the lack of back-pressure.
Mine loves it's back pressure and that is why I decided against the cut-outs after I tried running open headers for a few weeks.
Oh it sounds AWESOME with open headers but it does nothing for my power

 

all vehicles react different to more or less exhaust back pressure. my turbo monte and supercharged cts-v love cutouts but there both boosted so back pressure doesn't matter for them. its very possible the lack of back pressure is causing it to be a little lazy.

 

Very good points it makes sense. Obviously with them closed the take off is completely better. Yes they are loud and Awsome. I like driving with them about a little more than cracked open. They sound great and I still have good take off. In the end i bought these for fun (noise)

 

I believe I mentioned it earlier, but there are really only two ways you'll gain noticeable power with a cutout:
-Turbo setup- the less restriction you have behind the turbo, the easier of a time it has spooling up, so cutouts and short exhaust almost always make power on a turbo setup.
-Restrictive current exhaust- if your current exhaust is undersized for the amount of air your engine is flowing, then you would notice gains. However, it sounds like your current exhaust wasn't particularly restrictive, so it would be just a sound mod.

Also, it is possible to lose power in certain rpm ranges with a cutout. The exhaust has tuning frequencies somewhat like an intake manifold. The length of tubing from your collector to the end of the exhaust (be it the tail pipe or cutout) changes one of the tuning frequencies involved.

 

one more question.

my car is left in my driveway under a cover. i have a very good car cover for the winter and one for the summer. my question is should i remove the cut outs for the winter and bolt the flange caps to the y pipe to prevent cold air from entering up the system? or can i just leave the valves closed?

 

"Cold air" is going to enter the exhaust either through the cutout or through the tail pipe so there is no difference. Plus whatever temp is outside is going to be the temp of everything no matter what. All I would think about is the electronic part sitting all winter with possible rust but I would think they should be fine

 

Thanksv everyone u all been great with helping me. I like driving with them about 4 1/2 seconds openend. I did a count down on how msny seconds it takes to be fully openend. 6 seconds is all way open and way to loud inside. But 4 1/2 is nice and I still get good pick up.

 

So this may sound stupid, but I did not know that electric cutouts existed until I started reading this thread. I actually was thinking of trying to custom-fab something like this myself! I was wondering, I currently have single exhaust that is (mostly) stock, just a magnaflow muffler with custom tip on it. I was thinking of dropping the cutout right behind the downpipe, and maybe running a second exhaust pipe back on the other side, complete with another muffler maybe (but one that is much louder than the magnaflow), or maybe no muffler at all. It would appear to be dual exhaust from the outside, and could swap between the two depending on desired noise level. These would be purely for fun, as I have a mostly stock 3400 engine and I'm sure I'd get no performance gain from having them open. Does that sound ridiculous? If I just put them on and let it be open directly from the cutout (nothing extra behind it), would that sound awful from a stock 3400? I mostly just want something to turn a few heads every once in a while. Thanks to everyone for all the great info!