besides being pretty cool, how do they stack up performance wise? compared to say a decent set of ram horns, or to full length headers. thanks, pkj
They probably perform as well as a set of rams horns but no one is going to run rams horns open. No comparison to a set of well built full length headers, your dealing with 60+ year old technology on a set of lakesters.
My buddy said a set of Lakes headers makes 50 less horsepower than a set of regular full tube headers. I don't know where he got that figure, but I'm going to trust him. He builds crazy race ****. Something about exhaust pulses not scavenging effectively and having to push the exhaust out vs. using a set of long tubes and valve timing to have the exhaust "pull" itself out. Similar reasoning behind the poor performance of "block hugger" headers, and I know that block hugger headers **** compared to long tubes, because I've had them on the same engine and could feel the difference in the way the car pulled, so I'm building a set of 1 7/8 primary long tubes for my car.
My lakes look way kool, sound like a harley on steroids and prolly give up 40 hp over long headers, Ill just build more motor...
40hp... 50hp... are you guys serious? That's a real question, not some sort dig. I haven't heard anything like this before.
I been driving mine for years, and with the exhaust having to run into a wall, then find it's way back and down through to the gl*** packs.....well, it's killing HP. Uncap 'em ? .....it really wakes things up, including the neiborhood. I would guess that a real set of tuned under ch***is headers would be worth 30+HP over what I have now. But, the car only weighs 1980 lbs. so it still runs just fine.
When K-MEMBER did his on the 460 Ford, ran like **** when capped. He welded a stud on the inside of the cap and added a curved piece that directed the exhuast down into the system. Made a world of difference. Easy to do and works..........OLDBEET
I am running these pipes with header wrap and they work just fine capped. run under bucket into a set of Hollywood gl*** packs and exits the rear.
Lakes style headers are not much more than tubing manifolds so I would guess they give up a lot performance-wise when compared to a well engineered set of 4 tube headers. It would be interesting to see someone put them on a dyno and do an A vs B test. Like they've done with 3x2s vs single 4bbl intakes. I could see how some sort of deflector in the collector helping smooth the flow into the muffler system would help. Good idea.
Would be an interesting comparison. Some tuning could be done on them perhaps with cone length. I know that cone length and diameter makes a world of difference over just straight pipes on a bike. But I have not seen a proper equation for tuning so for someone like me (or the most of the rest of you bone heads) it would just be trial and error. By the way, Rams horns straight out of the manifold sound a lot like an old John Deer. LOL Lakes plugs ( dumps) don't sound too bad though.
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