Thread: lakester headers

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You don't hyave to have turnouts but it looks kind of goofy with a plate on the end of the cone with a 2" hole in it. With the turnout on it you can't see the hole.

California law does not allow for exhaust to be dumped in front of the cockpit area.
I would imagine most other states are the same.

In most roadsters running at speed, the cockpit is a low pressure area aerodynamically speaking.
That means air exhausting from the hood side louvers as well as lakes style headers will be pulled into the passenger cockpit area through the front and rear door gaps.
It gets worse if a top is installed.

Do yourself - and the rest of us - a favor and run blockoffs on the lakes style headers.
Making a good looking run of pipe to the under chassis exhaust system where it can dump out the back behind the rear axle at the least shouldn't be too difficult for anyone who can build the lakes headers to start with.

It's not about noise, it's about a good sounding exhaust note.
Mechanical music if you will....

Too much common sense, here.

I was hoping for THE LOOK and THE SOUND. Another case of wanting to have my cake and eat it, too.

Thanks for all the imput.

Will let you know what I go with.

If you're looking for the sound as in "back in the day" you'll find that muffler choice, placement and tail pipe length all had a part to play.
No one ran lakester headers on the street.

The closest you'd find there would be guys who'd occasionally pull the caps on their cutouts.
Most times two bolt caps, other times three bolt caps.

There were cable operated cutouts, but they weren't popular in Southern California.

What you're talking about doing is simply making noise.

Originally posted by C9x

What you're talking about doing is simply making noise.

.............well, hopefully, not too much.

C9x, your comments bring back some memories. I was raised back in the boonies. Our answer to what you were talking about was a piece of 2" black pipe welded onto the exhaust pipe with a cap screwed on. When you got away from the folks and the house, you got out with a rag and unscrewed the cap.

Our family car was a tank....'51 4 door Plymouth. One night I was going to a friend's house and part of their driveway was a series of "stairstep" bluff rock. I failed to judge the amount of "bottoming out" and tore the "plug" clean off, leaving a gaping hole. That was a good one to explain when Dad went to work the next morning. That was never done again.

Your comments also brought up a subject that could be a whole new thread - what does putting mufflers as far back as possible do to the sound or putting them as far forward as possible do to the sound (mufflers being the same)? Is a cross-over pipe between dual pipes ahead of the mufflers necessary on a "mild" engine? etc.

I don't know what you decided but I came across some inserts specifically for Lake style headers in Speedway Catalog #221, page 171. There are inserts which look like small glasspacks without the outer casing and helical auger baffles but they are not legal in Califirnia. Anyway it looks like there are inserts if they are legal where your are, sorry I did not seem them before.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Thanks, Don.

Haven't done anything as of yet. I've been talking to an outfit out of TX that is experimenting with plates and discs which will fit the "cone" of the lakester-type headers. They will fit into the cone and bolt to the flange on the Patriot or "Limefire" headers. They are working toward getting them street-legal as far as noise is concerned.

C9x brought up some issues that have me concerned, such as the
low-pressure area that the cockpit becomes at highway speeds. Nothing quite as interesting as gassing myself on a long trip, besides ruining what hearing I've left.

This is an old thread, but I'd like to add a little more. I had no luck finding baffles for my Sanderson headers, so I fashioned a set of my own. After some research, I patterned these after lawnmower mufflers. I attached three photos - the first shows the baffles in the middle fabrication stage, the second is an end view that shows the fit of the 2" ID perforated tubing. Third photo shows one side installed in the header.

Note that the end cap is flush with the header cone. if you look closely at the first photo, you can see one other plate that is a close fit in the cone, located downstream from the rear exhaust tube. The way it's designed, I can use these either hollow, or packed with steel or glass wool. Running them without packing is a little too loud for me, and ordinary steel wool quickly burns out. I'm trying to source ceramic "glass wool" that should work under the heat and pressure. Actually, I found some, but I don't need it in the industrial quantities offered.

I fabricated these using 16ga cold rolled sheet for the plates, and the same gauge perforated sheet for the tubes. When I fitted the internal plate into the cone, I positioned it so that when the end cap is bolted down, it will squeeze the inner plate tightly into the cone for a good seal.

Total fabrication time was about four hours.

Lake_Header_Kit_Correct_Louvers_-_Copy-418x308.jpgThese weld up baffles are what you need for the lake type headers. Some measuring and welding needed, possibly some wool added depending on your sound level needs.....you can put a plug in the main outlet, or a restrictor, or run em open holed with the baffles to take some of the nasty out of em...they are out of Minneapolis.....Gear Drive Speed and Custom

Originally Posted by Mohead1

Attachment 57011These weld up baffles are what you need for the lake type headers. Some measuring and welding needed, possibly some wool added depending on your sound level needs.....you can put a plug in the main outlet, or a restrictor, or run em open holed with the baffles to take some of the nasty out of em...they are out of Minneapolis.....Gear Drive Speed and Custom

First of all, your Gear Drive Speed & Custom is buying that kit from Ken Mulinix at Car Chemistry in Waxahachie, TX. If you use Ken's unit I would highly recommend that you anchor at least two, and preferably three places around the perimeter of the large baffle. Anything less will result in the large baffle plate deforming outward from the mount point due to the heat and exhaust pressure pressing outward (wanna see pictures??), which will leak and rattle. The rings are stamped from nominal 18ga metal (calipers ~0.05"), which is pretty thin. Might as well buy them from the source if they are what you want.

Second, not a big deal, but this was a thread from 2005 that then got updated in 2010 to show a home built alternate. Nothing wrong with resurrecting old threads, just sayin' it's not a new discussion.

Originally Posted by '32 skidoo

Just found you all and hope this topic hasn't been worn out.

I'd like to put "lakester headers" on my roadster, but do not want to run blocked off and into the exhaust pipe. I don't want to end up as "jail-bait" or arrive after a 4 hour drive with a boomin' migrain, either.

Has anyone figger'd a way to have their cake and eat it too on this subject?

Thanks in advance

They are Lake Headers to give them their proper name, I have tried the baffle system several times and its not successful i'm afraid, If you want to arrive without your ears blown out run them through a undercar system.

.

Originally Posted by roadster32

They are Lake Headers to give them their proper name, I have tried the baffle system several times and its not successful i'm afraid, If you want to arrive without your ears blown out run them through a undercar system.

I made my Lake Style baffles, copying the Car Chemistry approach but increasing the internal pipe size and beefing them significantly, thread link here - Securing Header Baffles
Mine are great at idle and cruise, loud but tolerable. The exhaust note is aggressive under normal acceleration, but at WOT they get pretty abrasive, to the point that with windows down and rpm's climbing past 5K I've wished I had ear protection a few times. I pulled the baffles and drove around the ring road at the Old Marais River Run, and they're wicked loud at all time.

Gear drive .com or car chemistry . Com has inserts for lakes

Originally Posted by Rjbeattiejrf150

Gear drive .com or car chemistry . Com has inserts for lakes

See Post #25?