it seems im about to get into a 99 lightning. Im curious about the exhaust setup factory on the truck. I was kind of surprised to see how expensive they are (magnaflow/borla/bassani). I was considering just welding in tips and mufflers to get some "noise" added to the blower whine. Is the factory exhaust a single mufflers, where the midpipe goes into a single in, dual out design, and each exhaust tip is on a seperate pipe?
mac is like a curse word for cars...no offense, but i've never liked 1 of their products...it either fits poor or the finish is awful and if your a cobra guy, ruins engines. i prefer to weld in a quality muffler and tips, then give them 1 dollar of my $
I didn't like the look or sound of the MAC catback...the best sounding mufflers I've heard personally for the L have been the dual muffler setups. The single mufflers just didn't do it for me....ended up with a Bassani BX catback which I love. For the most part the exhaust is pretty efficient on the lightnings...not many gains to be had...but you can defenitely improve on the sound. The stock muffler is a single dual in dual out I think. Check out lightningrodder.com they have tons of sound clips and vids.
I test drove a 01 Lightning with the Magnaflow 4" round race muffler. I have heard all the other brands but the 4" round race mufflers is the best sounding exhaust system I have ever heard on a Lightning. The Lightning also had LT headers. Just my 2 cents.
I saw the exhaust system on rpmoutlet.com and razoredgemotorsports.com for about $575.
Niether the Mac or flowmaster kit sounds good? I was think the flow master kit would be alright. If i had a lightning though I would definetly go with a kit that could give me true dual exhaust but with an H pipe.
i have an o3 lightning with a flowmaster cat-back which i sell for the trucks i picked up 2 tenths with just the cat back. i sell them in town for 475.00 installed it comes with 4" polished stainless tips.
I had the Magnaflow Silver Bullet cat back from JDM. Got alot of compliments on how good it sounded. Couple that with an open air filter, and that blower will really scream.
There's pretty much zero horspower to be gained with exhaust on a stock-ish truck. Even the magazines were admitting that their installs were seeing ZERO horsepower increases.
With all of the research I have done, I am highly skeptical of claims of two tenths with a cat-back.
Of course, there's always sound improvement, but almost all of the exhaust setups I have heard havebeen excessively loud.
You dont gain anything but sound from a cat back. If you want some gains then you have to do Long Tubes and high flow cats with x pipe and then catback. Even then you wont really gain much for the money unless your truck is pretty hopped up. Best bang for the buck on a stock truck is chip, filter, and pulley.
yes i did change the exhaust at the track and did pick up 2 tenths and it was on a hot day, the truck know runs in the twelves, i have a muffler shop in town and sell bassani and flowmaster, i know that exhaust helps.
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