I just picked up a '29 ford sedan with a 350 chevy and lakester type headers. The headers have baffles, but they are still very loud. Anyone know of a way to quite them down, so that I don't have to purchase a complete exhaust system. The baffles are attached to down tubes. I don't know if they can be taken off. They looked like they are pressed in.
First see for sure the baffles aren't removable. If they are, I have bought a 18 in glass pack, cut it in half and stole the glass packing out of it. I then rapped my baffles in it. Just make sure you don't add too much, your engine needs to breath.
Mine were too loud with the baffles, as well. Here's what I ended up doing, without affecting the back pressure. You're probably not going to like it, but it works. I routed pipes under the car, with glass pack mufflers. Quiet, but good for a long trip. I then got a couple of those plumbing flanges from Home Depot with 1" holes & mounted them on the header openings. It is the perfect loudness. And, if you want to quiet things down, just screw the plugs in.
Hey Don I have heard wrapping the baffles in copper mesh or wool would queit it down. Just google those items for a place to buy them, Hope your enjoying the new ride, Hey did you say you have some other rear end gears? pm me and let me know Thanks, Gary
The sellers of the Laker Header kits offer the Stainless Wool material for their kits. Here's one link for you: http://www.carchemistry.com/shop/index.php?l=product_list&c=64
Are you saying your baffle is permanetly attatched to the header cone? What you need to do is pull the baffles out of your headers and wrap them with stainless steel mesh. (use a wire to secure the mesh in place) Slide them back in the header and see if that is to your satisfaction. If you want to further reduce the noise then wrap over the stainless mesh with fiberglass wrap. I think you can get both fiberglass wrap and stainless mesh at the hardware store. If not, Car Chemistry can hook you up. (they make baffles for numerous lake style headers) Note, the first time you drive your car you may notice a small amount of stainless mesh and fiberglass blowing out your headers. This is normal. You will also notice a slight burning odor...no biggie. If you cannot remove your baffles from your headers, then I'm not sure how you will go about wrapping them and reducing the noise. As a side note... I understand why you want to wrap your baffles. I have been wearing ear plugs when driving my car. I actually just wrapped by baffles last week. I have a new 350 crate engine and I'm using the ceramic coated lake style headers with turnours (from Speedway Motors). I also installed Car Chemistry baffles. I ran the car with just the baffles up until last week. As Don's48 stated, with just baffles it was quite loud inside the car. I used both the stainless mesh as well as the fiberglass wrap supplied in the kit. The reduction in noise was significant and I was happy with the results. -Not highjacking your thread here...but I think this is important!!!! As Fleetside66 suggested you could run full length exhaust. It's actually not a bad idea to do so. This past Sunday I went for a ride in my Model A. For the hell of it I brought a Carbon Monoxide detector along. Approx. 15 minutes into my cruise the detector activated! I believe there was around 100 PPM (Parts Per Million) of CO in the car. Obviously this is very detrimental to one's health. CO attaches to your red blood cells and displaces the Hemaglobin, (oxygen rich blood) thus robbing your blood of oxygen and making you hypoxic. I brought the Model A to an exhaust shop today and I am now running full length exhaust. What a difference!!! I am so happy with the results. No more loud exhaust blasting my ears and more importantly...no exhaust fumes in my car. Dons48, I appologize for my 10 minute disertation on exhuast. I just want people to consider all the variables and most importantly be cognicent of their safety. -Speedon
Part of your noise problem is the roof over your head. In an open roadster loud lakes headers aren't as bad as they are in a coupe, sedan, or even a roadster with the top up. The sound bounces around inside there and is magnified. There is no real way to make lakes headers super quiet, all you can do is tone them down somewhat. If you start muffling them too much you create other problems, like excessive backpressure and overheating the engine. I made some baffles for the Limefire headers on my 23 and it cut the sound in half, in conjunction with turnouts, which directed the noise a little away from my head. Here are the ones I made: On the 455 Olds in my Son's rpu we tried a lot of things like SS scrub pads fastened to the Car Chemistry baffles, screen, large washers welded inside to add some chambers, etc. The SS pads blew out after a short while, as did the screen. Now he just lives with the noise, there is only so much you can do to quiet down a big motor dumping it's exhaust right in front of your face. It also helps if the headers aim down at the ground somewhat. I drive my 27 (which has a full exhaust system off of the lakes headers) uncorked a lot of times, even on a 5 hour trip down the interstate from Billetproof, and the noise doesn't bother me because I am in an open car and the headers point down somewhat. All you can do is keep experimenting with the stuff everyone has suggested until you hit a happy medium between getting them as quiet as possible and not choking the motor. Don
I wrapped my baffles with this stuff, works great, has held up perfect so far. http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/118/3523/=ik6cm3 I used part # 93435K16
Here's what you need; https://www.doghouserepair.com/stor...gers-36834-3658-3687-fiberglass-wrapped-empi/ They're cheap, easy and will quiet your lakesters. All you need to do is remove the old baffles and tap these in firmly with a rubber mallet.
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