I'm running full length functional lake pipes on my 58 Buick, just flexible exhaust from the headers joined onto the lakes. To say it's loud is an understatement, it's insane. I'm trying to set up a 4bbl I've just installed and am running the engine on my driveway, but it's starting to cause problems with my next door neighbours. What's the best way to silence them? The exhausts that is, not the neighbours. As much as I'd like to do the latter. I could get a motorbike baffle in the end where the flexi exhaust joins the start of the lakes, would this work? Or has the baffles got to go at the outlet end? Problem with that is the outlets are curved, so I'd need some sort of flexible baffle. The obvious answer is to cut the pipes just before the outlet, insert some homade baffles and weld the ends back on. Not too keen on this idea. Any help on this?
I don't know how much this will help you but I baffled my headers on my flathead in <<<< advitar pic. I cut washers then bent the to look like fliting on a auger tacked in then a slightly smaller do tube in front of them it's not quiet but I can sang in the garage and not have to use ear plugs! Or if you could get a perforated tube crimp the end and stuff it in. Both ways would help but can't say how quiet they'll be.
Look for mufflers for a '70 Dodge T/A Challenger. Inlet & outlet on the same end. Sound good. Made for side exhaust.
Are "Chore Girl" type metal mesh pot scrubbers still being made ? A wad of them gets it done. Your side pipes don't have any bolt-on caps, though, so keeping the packing in will make you clever.
Even if the bike baffles are in the end nearest the headers, will this still help? I was wondering if I could buy some of that corregated flexible aluminium tubing like for heating ducts, but just under 2" diameter, then put loads of holes in, and some of those metal wool pot scrubbers stuffed in the end, if I could slide this into the exit ends of the pipe, would it that do anything?
Those nail heads really crack with open exhaust! A sound all their own. The muffler suggestion is the best way to go.
This roadster had long straight custom pipes that were made with custom baffles inside to keep the noise at excellent levels. It passed the CHP inspection and my ears when I went for a ride in the roadster. So baffles can work Hey H4H, No need to mess around with baffles in the pipes. But, some will work if you can keep them inside of the tubes. If you want to keep your long side exhaust lakes pipes, there is a simple solution. There have been many hot rod sedans/coupes with side exhaust cut outs placed under the bend of the header connection. For your application, it connects to the tube that goes to the side pipes. When you want it open, push a button and everything routes through your side pipes. When it is too noisy, push a button and everything goes out of the mufflers like normal driving. That certainly would have saved many minutes/total hours of crawling under our 58 Impala to uncork the downward exhaust cut outs or cap them up. We had the cut outs custom made to fit 2 sets of dual scavenger pipes that ran back to the rear axle. When we did not use the scavengers and wanted the straight through exhaust, we uncapped the cut outs. If we had these modern cut out systems, that would have kept our clothes clean for sure. Jnaki It may not be traditional in the roadster sense, but it certainly would have helped with the constant crawling under the car to cap or uncap other hot rod/cruiser situations. It was a traditional thing to do for most cars that had the similar down header exhaust cut outs. Cruising near some police? We learned a certain rpm makes the loud exhaust mellow out to pass the sound test, while still an open system. But, those cut out system would have solved our problem easily…
Baffles are most successful when you have 8 of them in individual pipes. You can try it, however I don't think one on each side in those small diameter pipes is going to do a whole lot to quiet down that Buick mill. As suggested, run it through mufflers and utilize cutouts for pipe rapping time. Best to keep the neighbors off your ass so you can continue to enjoy your hobby.
If you want the look of lake pipes but they’re too noisy the easiest way to get that is to disconnect them and run a good undercar exhaust system. If you really wanted to you could tie into the lake pipes a foot or so in front of the rear outlet and after blocking off the front part just use that last foot for the exhaust exit point. Either that or just run them non functional for appearance.
I'm not sure how that muffler would work with my set up. I'm guessing From the header into the muffler input then out the muffler exit and hooked up to the start of the lakes? that's an idea I suppose, but there would be quite a lot of unsilenced tube from the muffler exit to the pipe outlets. Would this still work? Or ideally does the silencing need to occour halfway down the actual lake pipes?
Hey H4H, Here is a simple drawing from your motor to the lakes pipes to the real exhaust muffler system out of the back. Of course, using the NEW exhaust cut outs that hook up to the front of your lakes pipes. Cut Outs open: out it comes through your lakes pipes, closed: out through the regular mufflers and tail pipes. The on/off switch is where ever you want it placed inside of the car. Your neighbors and the police will like the look of your car without the obnoxious loud sounds. Jnaki If these exhaust cut outs were around in the 50s- 60s, they would have been the first thing on our 58 Impala. We had to get our muffler guy to custom make the welded on cut outs straight down from the headers. Then, they were capped up until the drags or street use. But it was a hassle crawling underneath to uncap or recap them.
FWIW, I ran lakes with a full length exhaust like Jnaki shows above. Worked fine with electric cut outs. I’ve run two types of electric cutouts, the butterfly style and the sliding gate. The gates sealed completely, the butterfly type leaked a bit. Summer, with the top off, it was fine, but in the winter with the hardtop on the bird I put the block off plates on the lakes outlet. Just a little too much noise with the car closed up.
Look into (company name) Spiral Stainless Turbo inserts. High quality, all heavy gauge stainless, available in several sizes for different ID pipes and have a great sound. They'll knock down the blatty rap sound yet still give you a healthy sound. I use them at the end of a front to rear open stainless system. Excellent.
I am in the process of capping the front of the lake pipes and welding an inlet about 18 inches down from the front of the pipe. Hoping to squeeze a muffler under the front floor pans. I already have hearing damage but im not risking it with my 3 year old that loves to ride in dads old car!!
The sound will change some if the muffler is closer or further from the engine but it’s probably negligible in this situation. Put some Mufflers on it as shown and call it good. It’s less complicated than you think. Motor. Pipe. Muffler. Pipe Does it fit that description? It’ll do the job
I would put a full dual exhaust system under the car. Then run 1/4 of the exhaust through the side pipes and 3/4 through the mufflers under the car.
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