Technical Balance tube on lakes pipes?

Idea originally popped into my head as a joke but the more I think about it the more I question if it wouldn't be a viable idea with benefits. My car is a 53 Chevy with SBC running 55 Chevy 265 exhaust manifolds that I'm now working on connecting to 70" lakes pipes as my sole exhaust. The balance tube would actually simplify connection. But would it not also help power and equalize exhaust tone? I should have plenty of room under there to run one. I'm at the point where I have the temporary flex pipe I had on it off one side with a few odd pieces to weld in place tomorrow. So I have at least a day for opinions to run by me. I included a very high definition to perfect scale sketch of what I'm talking about. In case my standards of scale and definition are off I labeled all the components lol. Regardless of whether I plumb them separately or connected with a balance tube the lakes pipes themselves with be connected with band clamps so I can remove and replace a damaged one easily if needed with just a 9/16" wrench.

 

If it's hair brained I won't be surprised. At this moment it falls into the category of viable hair brained idea lol

 

If the pipes come back into the balance pipe as you depicted, I would think it would cause a lot of exhaust reversion from the exhaust hitting the back wall and bouncing back against the flow. Perhaps if it flowed straight to the lakes and the balance tube made the 90 degree connection. It potentially could allow any back pressure to flow to the other side.

 

Make the pipes curve outward to the side-pipes for flow [volume]
A balance pipe is needed to get rid of that "farm tractor" sound that Chevy's with side-pipes make [with the windows down]
The balance pipe is only for pressure difference not flow

 

a balance tube will quiet the exhaust

as I recall, the early V-8 Corvettes had a balance tube across the front cross member ..

 

I’d be inclined to agree with snoc653. Having runs cut outs (both 90* an Y’s) is surprising how much pulse comes out the tailpipe even at idle with the cutouts open. If it can’t go thru there’s got to be a lot of turbulence.

Now if you want a distinctive sound, you’ll need the right firing order. Jerk that sbc out and put a Yblock in.

 

So not as hair brained as I thought? Toning it down a bit would be nice as it's going to be a daily. And yeah while it sounds mean under throttle under load(did a short burnout the other day and it caught me off guard how cliche 50/60s hot rod movie it sounded lol) but yeah at idle and cruise it does sound a bit like the 1970s international harvester I built last year lol

 

Bout the only way id do a y block is if I got a 30/31 model a roadster. Possibly a shoebox-53 ford. 54-56 Ford would get an fe. Otherwise I don't do Ford engines lol

 

The way you have it drawn you might find there will be a whole lotta transmission in the way......

 

With the 2 lake pipes separate you get 4 pulses from each side per going through the firing order. With a crossover, you get it chopped a little finer with 8 pulses blended together from each side. It's not twice as loud but it's different.
Basically, people like what they like. Some people like chunky peanut ****er. Some like smooth and creamy.
You could try it both ways and pick a winner.

 

I do like it smoother. Especially as this engine has a stock cam and the way it idles with the current pipes I keep thinking I have a miss lol

 

Pipes fall well below engine and transmission

 

No , youll loose the OG dual exhaust sound.

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/BnPBRCUwSns?si=yobTb23OtCIyGYjS basically how it sounds only with a higher idle

 

One of the reasons guys put duals on their cars, is the sound. Yes performance is one, but the sound is just as important. Putting an "H" pipe on duals ruins the cl***ic 50's sound of duals!

 

Idea of a limbo bar under the car is definitely a mark against it

 

Saw one where balance pipe curved forward to run under shallow part of oil pan.

 

H pipe also takes the raspy sound out. Had to put one on the avatar 56. Who would have thought 2 1/2” duals and Flowmasters with pipes all the way out the back would sound like a 235 with split manifold with 12” packs on deceleration!?

 

You can dive into the X pipe, H pipe and boom tube crossover in NASCAR to get into exhaust tuning. There are benefits, both in sound and flow, but it's like aerodynamics, what you may think is great might not work. It cut and test, repeat many times. You could also look at 180 degree headers and header tuning, since a lakes pipe isn't the best to begin with. Anything downstream is going to be affected by the initial piping.

Here's a start. This guy knows more than the average bear. He's done the testing and has the results to prove it going back decades. He's also pretty opinionated. But he isn't selling the product of the latest Co. that gave him some money. Here's one of his talking headers. I haven't watched this one, but have spent time watching some of his other videos.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f72BMpmoGMY

 

Here's a sale that has pics that might help your illustration.
https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/pts/d/casa-grande-complete-hot-rod-lake-style/7784855043.html

 

Guess another advantage of a balance tube would be if I smashed or otherwise blocked one of the lakes pipes by accident id still have exhaust flow till I got somewhere to fix it

 

Run an X-pipe.

 

Now that is hard core! I would’ve never thought that heat riser would change the sound. Long live loud pipes!
Dan

 

Change or delete one little p***age and it's going to change the sound!

 

I’ve blocked the heat riser more than once but because I thought the manifold would run cooler and make more power, guess I never did the before/after sound test. The last SBC I built I did block the p***age, had cam 4 bbl and duals with gl*** packs that thing really barked. Never did know if blocking the heat riser port made more power or not but I guess I made it sound better anyhow.
Dan

 

I’m going to build some headers that look kind of like that someday
Dan

 

I'm only going to paste the link, not the picture.


https://www.tbucketplans.com/t-bucket-headers-history/

 

I think some guys are missing what's going on here lol. I'm connecting lakes pipes to 55 Chevy manifolds. Period. No modification to the lakes pipes. No swap to headers etc. If I was going to do anything it would be the balance tube where I showed as that's as far back as I can go without hacking on the lakes pipes. Honestly most of what people said about it changing the sound appealed to me. While it sounds mean under load and throttle I could definitely live with a mellower smoother idle. But looks like I won't be doing the balance tube because that would not only be the lowest point on the car it'd be out in the middle. It's possible I'll work a better designed balance tube into my other car....more likely a reworked factory style y pipe modified for dual outlet going to lakes pipes. The other car is getting easier to work with manifolds that'll allow a crossover pipe to tuck close to the pan. I'll probably stick to my original plan of true dual lakes pipes with baffles