ss4ever

Has anyone else bought this exhaust?

http://www.madvet.com/shop?frame=4.36.1267

Part number 603-790 is what I bought.

The quality of the exhaust was OK, some of the bends really necked the size of the pipe down but the front part of the exhaust fit great. The rear portion of the exhuast was a different story.

I removed the remains of the factory exhaust and bolted up the front half of the pipes and the hanger for dual exhaust that bolts to the trans mount, but when it came to the rear portion of the exhaust this is where I ran into problems.

On the passenger side I had to cut about 6" off the pipe to get the muffler(MAM Turbo mufflers) to fit under the car close to the original location. On the drivers side of the rear section of the pipe it was about 6" short! I ended up putting the muffler on wrong to get it to fit so I could drive the car home. The muffler fits and doesn't leak but the offset is backwards which means I have bailing wire holding up the drivers side exhaust for now until I get some pipe welded in to the exhaust.

This week I was calling in an order to MAM and mentioned the exhaust and told the guy on the phone my problem and asked if there was anything they could do. He said that since i fired the car up that they won't do anything like replace the pipe with one that FITS CORRECTLY! :

Has anyone else ran into this problem with this exhaust setup? I know every car is different and whatnot but this exhaust should fit better than this IMO.

Thanks for listening to me rant!

Randy

Oldguard 7

I bought their chambered exhaust system (for headers) I have a 79 and I had it installed in June of last year. It sounds pretty good but for the money I could have had a custom system bent for the price they paid. I found out MAD bought the design from Walker. Yes they will not replace your system because you installed it on your vehicle. For the price you paid I'm sure that you could have had a shop bend you a system at a reasonable (and I'm sure cheaper) than these MAD pre fabbed systems which do not fit in most cases. Btw Randy, my name is Sandy. (male)

7T9Shark

I have a MAD set installed on my '79 and on both sides I had to install a 6" extender to fit the old mufflers. Also, the clearance between the left pipe and the trans linkage is extremely close.

MAD oughta know better.

Get yourself a custom set up by a local shop. That way you'll have it done right.

rpoL98

I bought a MAD 2.5" set a few years back. I was indeed disappointed at how the bends neck down, especially since I was l looking for performance.

Since I was hooking up to headers, the front bends didn't matter that much, but the bend around the auto trans pan was pretty tight, too close for comfort. Also, since I used Flowmasters out back, major surgery was required. I ended up replacing all the bends with separately-purchased mandrel bends and ended up welding the whole jig-saw together. There were a few places where the MAD bends didn't make the right angles, like under the differential to hit the muffler inlet. I figured the poor fit was just because of the headers & Flowmasters.

In retrospect, I would've been better off just buying some straight pipe and the mandrel bends.

MN80Vette

I briefly had a MAM exhaust on my '80. The fit was pretty bad. They were hitting the ground a lot near the back. My local exhaust shop said it was going to be easier to just put on custom bent pipes. I went an extra step and modified my front cross member when I put on full length headers too.

desi

Like everyone said, MAD quality/fit is very poor. And they won't do anything about it.

Another dissatisfied customer here. I would NEVER buy their product again.

This is nothing new. I wonder how long it takes a vendor to correct quality issues. Hopefully, before they go out of business...

79vetter

FWIW- I bought my 2.5 dual exhaust system from Volunteer Vette and it was a perfect fit.

fauxrs2

I ran a MAD stainless dual system for awhile (that I got from a fellow forum member for $100) - fit was poor as has been reported by others..

wjsullivan

Man, you guys have me worried now. I just ordered a SS one for my '75 from them. Hope I get the one that does fit the first time.

desi

Cancel the order if you can. Not worth the headaches, IMO. I had to pay a muffler shop 160 bucks just to correct the angles. Had to be cut and welded in 5 places.

guitarcrazy02

Cancel your order. It'll probably take 2 months to come, anyway, like mine did. I got the 2 1/2 chambered system for my 81. I was really all around disappointed

1. It doesn't really sound that great....kinda like a broken muffler until you really open it up.

2. It took FOREVER to come. I believe something like 2 months

3. The fit was terrible. The pipe on the passenger side was 8 INCHES TOO LONG!!! Luckily, my dad restores corvettes for a living and has a professional exhaust man at his shop. He cut it and expanded the end to fit. Even after that, the tips exit in contact with the rear bumper, don't use the stock hangars, completely contrary to the catalog's description, and are only a few inches off the ground. Luckily again, we took it to my dad's exhaust man and he did his best to fix it, but said I really should have just had him build me one.

4. I'm still waiting on parts from MidAmerica that I ordered in MARCH!!!! almost 5 months for fricking Sill Plates that say CORVETTE on them.

5. I wrote an e-mail to MidAmerica saying how disappointed I was with the exhaust and I was just letting them know of the poor quality of it, and in a bunch of fancy words they basically said that I bought it, now it's mine, too bad.

I'm never buying anything from them again. ever. Zip is my new parts company : )

ss4ever

Wow I wish I had joined earlier before I ordered the exhaust! I had talked to the only shop local to me about building me an exhaust but the guy told me he had done one a few years ago on a mid seventies Vette and that he would prefer not to do another. My problem is that this car is not licensed and I don't have a trailer. I don't mind driving it across town but I will not get out on the hwy with a non-licensed car so it was either buy a mailorder exhaust or replace the stock catback($500 for Walker) so this is what I have.

I have bought from ZIP before(powersteering renew kit and didn't have any problems with them.

My exhaust took about a week and a half to get here from Mid American, not too bad but it came direct from the manufacturer.

Randy

guitarcrazy02

Just to re-enforce the awesomeness of Zip, I just got a call from them a half hour ago making sure I recieved an order I placed for a sunvisor elbow, some weatherstripping, and a catalot. The guy was real friendly. I've spend well over a grand at MidAmerica, and never once did I get a phone call asking if I was satisfied with their product.

hemorrhage22

zip are superfast ... I was a midamerica customer once untill I recieved a poor packaged box with a missing item. Their responce was that they could not do anything now after I opened the box (the shipping company will not take the blame) !!!!

How the hell would I know that there is a missing item without opening the box !!!

FRSTR90

I'd like to also say I 'm not to happy with them as well... I've spent probably more than a grand with them and I am trying to remember, if I had ever been satisfied with any of the stuff that I have bought from them!

I think they are getting a little too cocky... maybe its time for us to start boycotting them. Atleast, until they get a representative for this forum. They need to know what they are doing wrong!!!!!

Cootertech

Mid America has known about the poor fitting exhaust system for several years now, there have been many posts about this. I tried to fit the exhaust system on my 78 several years ago and it would not fit. When a similar post went up years ago, I chimed in with my problem and they offered me a 10 percent discount on my next purchase. It cost me 75.00 to return the system. I see that they do not really care about improving a known defective product.

ss4ever

I sent them a nice email stating my problems with their exhaust and mentioned I am not alone in feeling this exhaust fitting poorly and even included a link to this post. Hopefully they will either pull the exhaust off the market or make the exhaust start fitting our cars better than this.

Randy

78anniversary

I too had the same problem with the 2.5" mid america system within the last two weeks, I got as far as one side bolted in and could see the angle that turn and connects with the muffler was way wrong and too long also, I did not run the car so boxed it up and shipped it back.

Corvette Central offers a real nice system and it is cheaper to boot.

Buffalo Dude

My exhaust is pretty old, but I think I might look for a local shop based on these responses.

jd1a

This post saved me some money, I was going to order their exhaust for my 75.