For some reason I have taken a liking to the Mac-Midlength headers. I am planning on buying headers, ory, and either a cutout, or a aftermarket cat back.

I dont have a large budget, so a lot of options are eliminated for me. When considering power gained and ease of installation/relialbility which of these two headers/y-pipe systems should I buy?

Pacesetter Long-tubes/ory (coated) around $500
Mac Midlength headersystem/ory (coated or emissions legal) about 700

In your opinions which will make more power, and which are better quality?

I would also appreciate comments from people who own these systems on how they have held up, and what kind of differences in power and driveability they have made!

Thanks in advance

 

The Pacesetters will make more power over the MAC, not a huge difference on a basically stock car, but the more you mod it, the more difference you will see.

I am getting MACS myself and I have done a plethora of research on them. They are just as hard to install as most LT's, but they have better ground clearance.

If you want to run an ORYP car (not legal) just get the Pacesetters. If you want to stay legal (cats) get the MACS if you are on a budget. FYI, MACS will move the cats so they technically are not legal, but you will still pass emmisions if you don't have visual in your state. Or you could just take them off for inspection and put them back on afterwards.

-Todd

 

I have Flowtech which are Hooker knockoffs, The installation on the headers andORY Pipe was extremly easy. I jacked the car up real high on my 6 ton stands, It took about 15 minutes to install from the bottom. You need to take the coil packs off and pull the plugs. I have good clearence on the LT's at stock heigth. THe Pacesetters are on GP from Speed Eng.

 

get the LT's, check the exhaust guide for the comparison.

 

I appreciate the info. I think I will go with the pacesetters. I am wondering though, if I have an ory, then do I have to completely remove the egr, or can I just put O2 sims in and call it good? Does the pacesetter ory have hookups for the egr and air tubing? The only reason I ask is because I dont have access to a shop to delete the codes If i remove egr and air. Id have to drive about 300mi.

 

your not suposed to post the sale prices you lawbreaker. I'd go pacesetter unless you need cats. FYI: mac cats are more restrictive than the stock ones.

 

I believe the EGR is on the Headers, along with the AIR connections. I removed the price thanks for the heads up...

 

i bought some macs about 30,000 mi ago and they are holding up fine. only problem i am having is with the ORY that i bought from a friend (b/c i bought the catted y with the headers). Yet, if i knew then what i knew today, I would have purchased some long tubes. Unfortunately i didnt go to forums like this to learn before i started buying when I began modding though.

Also, I would check out jrp's guides in his sig. They will be very helpful. After you get some ideas and concepts you like, just type them in the search and look at all that info

 

DO NOT USE THE MAC CATS! You would be better off using your factory cats welded in the MAC Y, which is what I did. The MACs are great, but I would buy a cheap used set. I sold mine for $300 when I went LTs, so I'm sure you could get some for around that price. The install is easier than LTs, the MAC quality is actually very good and if you do some porting and the collector mod, they will flow almost as good as LTs. On a bolt-on car, MACs are the shizit...

 

dont even bother getting coated headers, it will chip off within 18 months.
headers are my next mod and i plan on getting macs.
while i do know that long tubes will put out some more h.p, im not looking for every last h.p i can get out of the headers.
i never hear about macs banging or clearance problems.
also one of the sponsors here has macs on his 10 second car.

 

MACs with factory cats in the Y plus a LS6 intake netted me just shy of 30rwhp. Not too shabby IMO... I figure the headers were worth about 18-20 and the intake 10-12rwhp, but I'm not sure as they were both installed together.

 

Get Long tubes. Go Stainless steel Kooks. You will not be disapointed.

 

I'm also considering getting Macs, but I was planning on getting the catted Y with them; just curious why you were saying not to get the Mac cats. Thanks

 

because they flow like ****. get some carsound cats.

 

If it matters, I love my MACs. They werent that hard to install, easier than LTs I would guess. If you get the ball flanges cut off and replaced with 3" ones, it will make them all the better. I plan on doing this in the future.