Just curious if I'm wasting me time waiting for over two and a half months for a set of MAC mid length headers through Jet-Hot. The money factor got me there and the crap going on in NJ-land with the long tubes was not something I wanted to test. So I researched here and it seemed like MAC mids were a good compromise. That is until I have been on a "in a week or two" since May. Just asking if they are worth the wait and **** poor customer service or is there something else that is comparable? The headers, with high flow cats and Y-pipe with Jet-hot coating is just under a grand. Thanks....

 

Wow, those must be some expensive cats. I got my MAC's for around $550 shipped IIRC. You might try to switch to the 94-95 style single cat setup and avoid the wait, if they have thse in stock.

You could also easily get into a set of AS&M's with a decent cat off ebay for under a $1000. The wait is probably not Jet-Hot's fault, I think I read earlier that they are back ordered from MAC.

 

Yes, they are worth the wait. Since you are not going with LT, MAC's or ASM's are a toss up. But since you decided on MAC's, stick with them, you'll thank yourself down the road if you ever have to change the plugs or wires. They have great plug clearance, and ASM's have horrible clearance. But if they keep messing around with you and you get fed up go with what ya can get. I say hold out just a little longer. Just my .02

 

Which part number did you get? Are you sure they are midlengths, and not shorties? I'm not aware of dual cat MAC mids, just dual cat MAC shorties.

Dan

 

sorry to say, i had a terrible experience with mac. i tried to order them through jet hot also a while back for my 93. apparenlty they were on back order, and would be ready in 2 weeks. 2 weeks comes by, i call up jet hot and ask whats going on... they started complaining about mac, and said they always have problems with them...they tried to get in touch with mac quite a few times over the next couple of weeks, and then i waited for another month. after that, i got really pissed, and told jet hot to cancel the order. he said i wasn't the first person to do that, and he was sorry for my experience. he said he had no idea when they would ship..and that just wasnt going to cut it for me.

jet hot did the best they could do for me..i dont blame them at all.
i went with AS&M instead. more expensive, but a helluva nice header.

 

Dan,

This is not the first time I've heard you say before that the dual cat '96'-'97 Mac's were shorties instead of mid-lengths? Is the design that different from the single cat '93-'95's like we have?

Only asking since all of the dual cat '98-'02 Mac's for the LS1 motor are *mid-lengths* Were they re-designed as mid-lengths again after the switch from the LT1 to LS1?

Thanks,

Mike

P.S. And to the thread starter, yeah, they're definitely worth the wait if you get the right ones!

 

94-95 MAC Midlengths

96-97 MAC Mids/Shorties

Looks to me like the 96-97 models are functionally shorties on the driver's side to accomodate the closer cat and midlengths on the passenger's side.

Now I see why everyone converts to the 94-95 style.

 

Ah...Thanks for that info (glad I have the single cat version; although I don't think there would be that much difference on a car making under 350rwhp). Must have redesigned them to be full mids again for the LS1 starting in '98...

 

Thanks all for the feedback. I'm glad to see that it isn't "personal", just MACs way of doing business.

The 96-97 heades that I think are "mid-lengths" can be found here: TF3597.

I did not order these from MAC themselves, but rather through Jet-Hot as I was getting their coating. They gave a discount on the sum of the parts if their Sterling coating was selected. The end result was a decent amount of savings in personal shipping cost of obtaining all the pieces and then turning around and have them shipped to Jet-Hot. The guy that I have been in contact with at Jet-Hot has been great. Unfotunately, they are at the mercy of MAC. All in all, if I was told or known that it would be three months for the headers I would have been fine with that. It's the "next week they'll ship" crap that drags on and on that friggin pisses me off.

I do enjoy doing some of the work on the car. Plugs and wires being one of them. Many have stated that MACs made that chore easier than other headers. It was one of the reasons on chosing them. Since the car won't be a full time "racer", long tubes didn't make sense for me at this time. But I did want some performance rwhp increase than shorties provided. Then again, since the whole exhaust system is stock at the moment, almost anything will improve that situation.

Again I appreciate all the feedback. I guess I'll try for another "two weeks".

thanks,
ron

 

. that is exactly the same BS i had to put up with! drove me nuts. i bet i would STILL be waiting for my 93 headers. But Jet Hot was very reasonable the whole time. I would definatly do business with them if i was getting long tubes.

i ended up going with AS&M. they have bigger primarys then mac 1 3/4 as opposed to 1 5/8. for my single cat car..the headers + y pipe were i think $700 bucks. I got a carsound cat off ebay for like $60 bucks. might want to give them a try..actually did get them within 2 weeks.

 

The only gripe I've had with my MACs is the fact that if they are removed and reinstalled, it can be a total bitch to chase down leaks. They can leak when this is done because they have individual flanges welded to each primary, and this permits minor warping. I took a set of cardboard gaskets, soaked them in water for several hours, and installed the gaskets wet and tightened the holy hell out of the header bolts. Drove the car for a few minutes to dry everything out, then tightened them again. I probably still have a couple very minor leaks, but its nothing I can see or hear.

Just something I learned from experience here, if you ever have to remove and reinstall the headers, they are less likely to warp during this process if you remove the Y pipe before attempting to loosen the header bolts.

FWIW, I have the 96-97 style MACs (no cats) and they dont really seem to hurt performance in any tangible way...buy both the off road and catted Y pipes and its a simple 20 minute endeavor to remove the O/R pipe and swap in the catted one at inspection time if you are concerned with the cats being a restriction.

 

Im in Jersey also. I was going to go with the macs also but even 2 vendors on here stopped selling Macs because of their crap service to us and the vendors. I might get longtubes and take a drive up to Mufflex in Trenton and see if i can pass with one of there custom set ups.