This is probably a dumb question to most of you but I don't know a lot about lake pipes other than they look cool. I have a set that I want to put on my 56 Chevy but I am wondering since I read in a few old posts that guys run them with the lakes closed sometimes. Does that mean that you run a normal exhaust as well and then you are able to open the lakes sometimes? If you run just lakes, how do you run with them closed? I may put them on for looks only because I know for a fact that my wife would burn her leg everytime she got out of the car and I would never hear the end of it.
Back in the 50s when they were popular you could not get away with open pipes and open zoomies that have become the rage lately. You had to have a complete exhaust system to run around town but you opened the "lakers" when you went to the salt lakes to go racing. We get away with murder today compared to what was over looked back in the day. Loud pipes attracted the cops attention and led to all the other infractions like blue dots etc. With all the Harley's making noise it's often over looked today. I keep mine capped until I get to the show and then open them up. Then cap them for the return home. I worry about the local yokels trying to justify their existence. They eventually became a dress up item and never were connected. I think it was rare for the customs with full length lakers to have them functional.
Flowmaster makes a muffler with the in and out on the same end. Sort of like the arrangement on a C5 corvette but with one big outlet instead of two little ones. You can mount the muffler in the usual place, then turn the outlet (which faces forward) 90 degrees into the start of the lake pipes. Then you have actual functioning lakes.
My brother's 57 Pontiac has functioning lake pipes. The header pipe y's into the lake pipe and into the standard exuast out the back. He just takes the lake pipe caps off and drives, it looks cool and sounds great. I personally like to see functional lake pipes on a car.
Running fake anything is just plain bad. take it to your local muffler shop and they will make you a y pipe for both sides.
Had home made lakes on my chopped '51 Shoebox project with 302 and sounded like ****. Plus, they get pretty damn hot. I cut them off at the fender, where they exited, and put lakes caps on them so can run open pipes when I want. Have mild dual exhaust sytem now with pipes dumping before the rear end at slight angle.
hey low -lincoln have any more shots of that pontiac like maybe a front 3/4? cool car my dad had a 57 poncho when i was young ... i think i found it in a junkyard a couple weeks ago
Well.... on certain other cars that's called rice. On a hamb car maybe it's grits? You could throw a triple decker aluminum skateboard on the trunk too for good measure.
I got functioning lakes for my exhaust and they are a little loud which is cool to me ,but there is a long list of folks that have the scars to prove how hot they get.
not to bad cost wise,have you set them under the car and made sure you like the look??........some of the ones Ive heard with stock motors sounded like a 45hp Johnson outboard motor.I still wanna see the chromes on there,maybe with shannon caps???
Guys have been running non hooked up lakes pipes since the 50's. Nothing new there, in fact you could call it Traditional, Right up there with non operational Appleton's.
So I guess I should **** can my chrome valve covers because they don't do anything that the stock ones can't do except look pretty. The long ones have been decoration for 50 years and were rarely hooked up. I ran a muffler shop for almost 25 years and I can't remember ever hooking up any traditional long lakes pipes. Lots of side pipes from Thrush and others but never a long lakes pipe. Lot's of cut outs. (my personal favorite) They were mounted on customs where performance was not a top priority. I've run many a slit 6 dual exhaust system with tail pipes all the way to the bumper so that they would rap like a ***** with fake long lakers on the side. I can only speak to my experience in the Wash. DC. area.
Back in the day, when the law clamped down on loud exhaust, we used to slip washers under the caps of the lake pipes and dumps running out the fender wells. I guess we thought that sounded cool (nasty??)..., while idling through the high school or local drive-in parking lot. Actually it just sounded like an exhaust leak now that I think back on it. LOL! If you are going to weld them to the exhaust pipes and hard mount them under the rockers, they will resonate and vibrate though out the body. Cool if you like your hula girl vibrating away on the dash. If you dont like that, then you will have to use rubber bushings to try to isolate the pipes from the body like exhaust hanger do. Now that Im in a high school recall mode, I remember ordering a cutout from J.C. Whitney that I put on my 59 Ford. We would idle through the drive-in parking lot with it open and the choke pulled out on the dash. Sounded ba-a-ad, but smoked like hell from the too rich fuel after a while. When the thing was closed the plate that closed it off used to rattle around which added to the sound of all the other junk that was loose and rattling. I didnt have a welder then so just used the muffler clamps or something but it kept coming loose from the pipe. Finally with a group of guys in the car, I stopped at a local muffler shop and had them weld it to the pipe. Only trouble was that a spark got up where my Hurst shifter went up through the floor and set the coco insulation under the rubber floor mat on fire. It was like the 3 stooges running around and bumping into each other trying to splash water up into the shifter hole to put the fire out. But then thats a story for another post! As far as not hooking the lakes up, hey, if it's Custom, it doen't have to function, just LOOK good. At least that's my take on my 51 Ford Custom Convertible made from a Victora. Fake convertible, fake lake pipes, fake appletons, fake lancers. But it looks good! Just like the old customs I remember in the Little Pages! John
Just my opinion ... but I don't care much for lakes pipes (fake or real) or fake spots on a custom ... IMO, most (there are exceptions) customs would look better without these "accessories" ... but then again, what do I know? ... I'd never take a pic of my car with my shadow in the frame: ... or if I did, I'd at least take 5 seconds to crop it:
... Kerry67 ... you know, you may be right ... I take back my "joke" about MERC 55's photography skills ... and maybe I do like the lakes pipes on your '56!
I forgot. Fake flames! Real flames are cool? Actually I think it's all about having fun with our cars. What ever flips your lid. J.
They are functionally a visual problem solver on a car that has a frame that hangs down lower than the rocker panels. You can only lower the car so far without s****ing (or being flagrantly "illegal" and that should matter on a daily driver,) so the pipe fills in the area below the rocker that is higher than the frame/drive train. This on;y works on a long full size car though, on compacts it just makes the car look taller and stubbier than it already is. Remember, Customs are long, low and cruise slow...
i ran open lakes on my custom , but thru mufflers . just bent the pipe to come back up to the front to hook up . no biggy ! ................ steve
I posted a question like this a while back. It all depends on whose advice you take.Me ,I took it from guys like these,people who lived it way back when.I run dummy lakes,they look fine,and my gl*** packs sound just how i like 'em.Dummy lakes on kustoms rock just fine IMHO.Just make sure its not screamingly obvious they're not hooked up
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