Anybody out there running a MAC cat-back exhaust system on their lightning. If so how does it sound? I found them on ebay for about 250.00 bucks which is about half the price of a JDM or Bassani. thanks

 

a bunch of guys run it, i have heard them and they sound good and the tips look good, but the quality of the rest of it is not so great and it will rust our after some years, but for the price its a very decent catback.

 

Skelly454, a few years back (01) I made the mistake of buying a Mac cat-back thinking I could save a few bucks for the next mod, as a matter of fact it was my first mod purchase.

I had a few members at the time tell me I was making a mistake but me being my stubborn self went ahead anyhoo thinking I could find a way to make it work. Here’s the deal, the cheap metal they are constructed with creates rust - quickly. When the rust first showed up (and that only took a week in GA humidity) I tried sanding then coating with high temp paint, the rust was back in another week. Next round I tried a metal coating and prolong (a coating used for underwater cabling) again no luck. At the end of the experience it hit the dump looking like my red hair. I’m sure I could have sold it off but there was no way in hell that I was going to give another brother the headache. Please do yourself a favor, save the extra $$$ to do it right the first time...

Tom

 

I live in the Chicago area. I have had the MAC CB on my truck for the last 4 Yrs. and there is no rust. Now I will admit that the truck is stored for the winter and it rarely goes out in the rain. The truck is garaged. As far as the sound, I like it. It does have a slight drone at around 45-50 MPH so I just drive a little faster

 

I've been wondering about the MAC exhaust too since that is what is stocked at my local speed shop. Bump for some more opnions and pics. Does anyone have a sound clip?

 

I have Bassani headers, custom mid pipes w/ hi flow cats and baffles and MAC catback.

Sounds incredible. It is starting to rust (tips clean up nice) but I've had it installed for over 4 years, so I definitely got my money out of it.

 

I have a Magnaflow cat back system with high flow cats that I have had on my truck for about 2 years now in good shape I'm take 250. for them with cats.

God Bless,

Suavy

 

I've had the MAC catback on my '01 for 4.5 years. The truck is garaged, and has only seen rain a few times. While I'm in Toronto, it's only seen snow once (2500ft round trip to get emissions tested). There is some rust that's showing on the inside of the tips (which I've since paited black). Other than that, the catback has served me very well.

IMO, the MAC sounds great! Here's a clip of an otherwise stock Lightning (well I had a K&N panel filter at the time) on start up and driving by.

There was a slight power loss documented on the dyno, but no feeling of loss (may just have been due to different weather conditions). From what I understand, virtually any catback on a stock Lightning will have the same effect.

I've since added some more to the truck, including Bassani hi-flow cats and mid pipes, and it's louder and meaner but much the same tone. I've noticed the tips hang a little lower, so I'll have to fix that when I get a chance, but otherwise it was all plug and play.

If I had to do it again, I would - it's worked out well for me.

 

Here's my experiance with the MAC catback.
I live in So Cal at the beach but my truck never sleeps outside so rust was never an issue. It looked the same the day I took it off as the day I put it on.

It sounded good at idle and at cruising rpm but under a load at wide open throttle (where I tend to be most of the time ) it sounded like crap.
Someone descibed it perfect, "like a wet ragg hung outside your window fluttering in the breeze".

I liked the oversized tips, so I kept those and bought two 3" in/out Magnaflows and a 3" X pipe and welded up my own catback that sounds awesome at idle and even better when I'm smokin some Dodge.

I'd have to say, avoid it.

If you want to save some money and you can weld or know someone who can, go my route.

 

i LOVE my mac catback its so badass and sounds pretty damn good