I have a '29 Model A coupster that currently has lake headers. Although they look and sound great, in reality the driving experience is not so pleasant...I end up reeking of exhaust and it puts a fair amount of blow-by on the doors. However, I don't like the look of most lake headers with dump tubes I've seen and would rather not go with undercar exhaust unless I have to. The car has a Model A frame and it will be hard to hide the exhaust/mufflers. So I'm wondering what others have done...any tips/pics of creative turnouts w/lake headers and/or undercar exhaust systems w/Model A frames that look good would be appreciated. Also, do turnouts really make much of a difference? Thanks in advance!
I don't know how much of a difference it would make, but you could angle the ends away from the car... might help with blow-by?
Add a drop at the tail of the header going under the car to mufflers and tailpipes and cap the end of the headers. It was a common early style solution to the problem.
**Yes, but as I mentioned, I'm not sure I can hide the exhaust system very well w/'29 rails...if I had '32 rails it would be no problem.
Since you seem to have mufflers in the lake headers already, you could ad dump tubes that drop down into lake pipes. That keeps everything on the outside and gets the exhaust out of your face. I know you said you really didn't like dump tubes, but you've only got so many options!
I had a full exhaust on my A roadster and still got exhaust fumes inside. There is a low pressure area created when you ddrive that sucks it back in. When someone was in the rumble seat thier hair would be blown into thier face. Are fumes the main issue? How is the noise level witht he baffles. I am building a highboy A sedan thta came with Limefires an I am too debating on what to do with the exhaust.
Are fumes the main issue? How is the noise level witht he baffles. **Yeah, it's the fumes that I can do without. I have baffles in the headers and it takes the edge off, but not much. I have tried wrapping the baffles with motorcycle exhaust packing and that works well but only for a short time; it eventually burns off. Anyway, just wondering about others' experiences with lake headers on roadsters/coupes...I guess some just aren't that bothered by the fumes?
We made these (custom mandrel-bent, on our in-house mandrel bender ) lake-style headers for a customer's Chevy, and added auger-style muffler inserts and Speedway turnouts. Not sure how much the turnouts would help, just an idea. Hank
On a kool early style hot rod like yours a nicely built exhaust system does not have to be hidden. I'll look for some pics later on this weekend. Smokey
WOW - that's a nice ride, clean and simple. Good luck on the exhaust solutions, I like the idea of adding turnouts to the end's of the headers, it would seem to solve most of your problems without running it under the car. What's the chance's of posting some more pic's of that car? Mike
If the fumes are the problem (as opposed to the CO) you could try some of the fuel fragrances. Not having tried them myself I don't know how effective they are, I just see them advertised all the time. If the motorcycle 'Glass packing keeps burning out how about steel wool? Stainless wool would be best I'm sure but other than calling Borla I have no Idea where you could get it. I just wouldn't recommend a pot scrubber as alot of them have soap in them (like an SOS pad for example) as that would smell even worse burning off.
Rockinbones, can you post a shot of the underside of yours? I can get some images of what we did to my father-in-laws 32 to hide his larger mufflers. Nexrussian, I can tell you where to get the st. st. material. But, it is a poor sound dissipater/absorber. What you can do is use some ceramic fiber as the main material but wrap the pipe first with the st. st. material to keep the ceramic from blowing out. You can use the sleeving material (I call them "stainless steel socks") like I use in the mufflers I am playing with. With this setup, you get a filtered, locked in dual stage sound reduction system that is quieter and smooths some of the crackle in the exhaust sound. Tom
A guy with a kit Cobra said he used fiberglass mat, been in there for years, but, side pipes are farther from the valves, hence cooler.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I don't have a pic of the underside right now; will try to get one though. I've attached a few more pics of my car. The headers were painted with VHT hi-temp header paint. Anyone else have pics of your Model A's (on A bones)exhaust system? And has anyone used Patriot's Tight Tuck headers? I have very little room with a 327 in there...
Mr. Bones, I took some quick shots under my father-in-law's 32. It has an X-frame sort of setup but not sure it is the same as yours. Please note we used 18" long, oval XLERATOR mufflers. We did this for several reasons. They flow tons of exhaust, they do not resonate, they sound sweet, they fit nice and when combined with the NASCAR oval shaped long tips, they provide a nice rumble out the back without any of the noise and annoying resonance inside. I will post these and then offer a few explanations.
We used mid-80s four cylinder Chrysler hangers to hold the tips while letting them float. These hangers, being triangulated, do a great job and are easy to work with. To hang the mufflers,we used the four cylinder pipe insulators and again, hung the mufflers using two to let them float side to side to avoid transmission of the vibration inside. We drilled one small hole through the muffler inlets and outlets and ran screws in them to lock them rotationally since the muffler sits inside the frame supports up front and we did not want it to rattle. This does the trick and by not welding the mufflers, like most shops have to do now, we can always take it all apart in a matter of mintues. We use Walker's Acousti-Seal non hardening sealer to seal the mufflers and prevent the need to crank them down like OEMs and some amateur muffler shops. Hope these help. Tom
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