lose more clearance w/ SLP's or MAC's?
 

Hi! My final excuse for not doing headers is now gone, so I'm gonna do it! There is a sponsor on here running a pretty good deal on the MAC catted system and the SLP catted system. There is still quite a price difference, but my concern is ground clearance. That's why I'm doing this in the first place. It's a long story and I'll spare the details. Basically which will I lose the most clearance with? I've searched and heard (an understand) that I'll lose something no matter what, but which is worse? Does anyone have any experience w/ both? Any info. would be appreciated. I wanna have this done before the Camaro/Firebird vs. Mustang race at E-Town on Saturday.

Your gonna lose more clearance with the slp headers. First off they are a longtube header compared to the mac which is a midlength header. Also slp headers are known to hang really low compared to other longtubes.

:werd:

Exactly why I never considered SLP. Are you stuck on those 2 brands specifically. You can get a good pair of LT's for probably the same price of SLP (and you wont have to sacrifice the ground clearance.)

I do think that the SLP LT's are some good quality headers...but they just hang way to low for most of us.

I have macs, they make some good power, havent had a chance to dyno yet as im waiting for my FM13 to go in, but def a seat of the pants difference when accelerating. Buddy of mine had the SLP's and unless they were redesigned recently then stay away from them as my buddy destroyed his. His car is lowered about 1 inch and he would hit his SLP's on everything. Final straw came when he they hit a raised manhole cover and were almost completely torn off the block. He now has coated pacesetters which have much better ground clearance and loves them. Id say go with coated pacesetters as they will be cheaper than the SLP's and probably the macs as well. I might switch to them myself in the future actually. Hope that helps and let us know what you decide!

The SLPs are probably some of the lowest hanging headers you can get for these cars, have seen several sets installed and :eek2: are they low, if you're thinking of lowering the car definately don't get SLPs.
If you want LTs, pacesetters (for the cheap end) or kooks or qtp (for the high dollar end)
Macs are good headers, but get the ory and add some better cats (macs cats don't flow that well)

Thanks for all the input guys! I figured the SLP's would hang lower, but I've seen that the MAC driver side cat hangs real low too. I did think about Pacesetters, but I need to retain cats for visual inspection (if I can find a shop that will overlook headers in the first place) and I've seen some posts on here that say the TSP catted Y for these is crap. I'll have to think about it some more before I order.
P.S.
Anyone know if the Kooks or QTP Y will fit w/ Pacesetters or any other catted Y for that matter?

Probably the best theing to do is once the headers are in, get a custom y made gy a local muffler shop (trailer it, or drive it if you dare) that way you can get the cats tucked up as tight as possible

A guy in the for sale section has a complete Slp set including Random Tech cats with only 2,000 miles shipped for like $900.

Here is a pic of my SLP headers, cats, and y-pipe on my 2000 T/A with Hotchkis springs. :eek2: This should make your decision easy.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Picture012.jpg

Holy Crap! You're right, that seals it! My car does have BMR springs, so I'm about an inch lower than stock. I'd be dragging the exhaust all the time! I really appreciate you posting that pic. Thanks!

So what are you gonna go with? I have macs on mine and the drivers side isnt low at all. Ill try to get a pic (im at stock ride height) but maybe the one you saw wasnt installed right or maybe the y-pipe wasnt installed tight and tucked up like it should be...because I have no ground clearance issues with mine. I take like inclined driveways and speed bumps at the same speeds as i did without headers and i havent hit mine once.

My Macs tuck up so nicely, I don't even have to think about them scraping anything. If I'm going to hit something fast enough to hit the cats, then I would have hit it hard enough to hit the bottom of the car stock anyway. Sooo......Macs fit good. :thumb:

:usa:

Thanks for all of the input everyone! I went and ordered MAC's today, I should have them on by the weekend. I'll keep you posted on the install, fit and performance. I'm going to E-Town on Saturday. Hopefully I can get a quick tune in before I go.