Opinions Please - Mac Catted H

[snowman23]

Hi all,

I am WELL AWARE that this is a highly discussed topic and YES i have searched. That being said, I have the opportunity to buy one of the discontinued Mac Catted H pipes.

I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with the fit or the quality of the cats (will I pass emissions).
I also am looking for opinions on whether or not it is worth the money to switch from the stock H to a catted hi flow one.

I am mainly concerned with the sound but do not want to lose torque (and in my experience losing the cats or changing them does seem to cause this). I am running the Steeda cat back.

Any opinions or feedback is welcome.

Thanks

 

[sweet tooth]

my personal opinion. dont get catted mac. i would go with hi-flow cats from mangnaflow and a nice x- pipe you will gain a little more power and wont hurt the low end.

 

[snowman23]

my personal opinion. dont get catted mac. i would go with hi-flow cats from mangnaflow and a nice x- pipe you will gain a little more power and wont hurt the low end.

I appreciate the response. That is another option I was tossing around. The main reason that I have not yet is that a friend of mine has the Borla cat back that is a bit quieter than the Steeda (but the same general design) wth an off road X and his car sounds higher pitched and less deep to me. It is really not any louder either. That is why I kind of wanted an H rather than an X or may just leave well enough alone. The opportunity for the Mac H just popped up today thus my interest now.

Thanks

 

[sweet tooth]

no problem.if you are looking for a good x-pipe check out dr. gas x-pipes they are nasty thats what i have if you are interested.

 

[scupking]

no problem.if you are looking for a good x-pipe check out dr. gas x-pipes they are nasty thats what i have if you are interested.

Or a VRS X pipe. VRS is the same design as DR. Gas being that they are both true X pipes and great quality.

 

[sweet tooth]

this is true.

 

[EPIK]

Don't go with a catted Mac midpipe. I am not bashing Mac, I run their midpipes (non catted) & headers on both of my stangs, but the cats they use are very low quality. I recently installed 1 of there catted midpipes on my 03 Mach when it was time to smog my car. Even with it being brand new, it barely passed the sniffer test.

 

[Jacob_Royer]

I have catted magnaflow X sounds great! fit great! i have no emissions here so once it warms up im cutting the cats off and welding pipes in. Only reason i went with it was bought it and headers for $50

 

[sneaky98gt]

I don't know about the actual pipe, but concerning the torque. I went from a 6 cat h-pipe to a offroad Prochamber, and I didn't notice any torque loss. As a matter of fact, I noticed quite a gain. I went from a 2.20 60' on a warm night to a 2.05 60' on a cold night, same tires, just offroad midpipe and a tune. My granddad's 01 GT has just an offroad h-pipe, and it feels extremely similar to mine. I didn't at all notice the torque loss that many others claim.

 

[Twista]

I have a mac catted h sitting in my basement =] Great piece of work i say. Get it..

If you want to be legal get the Mac catted h. I DID

but then i got the o/r prochamber and my car woke up so much.

then i got the off-road H and wow its loud!

So in the end i wasted money on the catted H, but its worth it because i use it on my every 2 year exhaust emission test.

 

[snowman23]

Thanks all for the opinions. I think I am going to pass on the MAC and wait to see what turns up. I am not unhappy with the sound of the car with the stock H, but I have to assume that a hi-flow would improve it, I am just not sure I want to change the sound to that of an X. I also would love to find a good deal (even a used one) on the Magnaflow or VRS before shelling out $400+.

Anyway, thanks again and happy holidays.

 

[sneaky98gt]

Look into a Prochamber. Seriously. I absolutely love mine. It's quite a bit quieter than an offroad H, yet is still pretty audible. I love the way it sounds.

If passing inspection is your only problem, and you have the ability to change it out yourself, just keep the stocker and swap it back on when inspection time comes around. It took me 3 hours the very first time to swap on the Prochamber, completely by myself. When I had to take it back off (exhaust leak), I took it completely off and put it back on, ready to go, in under an hour. It really isn't all that hard.

 

[snowman23]

Look into a Prochamber. Seriously. I absolutely love mine. It's quite a bit quieter than an offroad H, yet is still pretty audible. I love the way it sounds.

If passing inspection is your only problem, and you have the ability to change it out yourself, just keep the stocker and swap it back on when inspection time comes around. It took me 3 hours the very first time to swap on the Prochamber, completely by myself. When I had to take it back off (exhaust leak), I took it completely off and put it back on, ready to go, in under an hour. It really isn't all that hard.

I have thought of this option as a friend had the prochamber on his 00 GT and it sounded nice, but I really do not want to have to keep changing for emissions. I want to stay legal, thus the need for a catted pipe.