When installing a Magnaflow on a 2006 MCS, do you need to remove (unbolt) any of the exhaust hangers? I ask since the rear part of the Magnaflow is all one piece. Is there is enough "wiggle room" to install it without unbolting the hangers? Also, the hanger studs are really rusted. I'd hate to break one off as it looks like they would be close to impossible to replace.

 

I don't think you'll be able to do it without removing the hangars. Just doing this myself recently, with a Stratmosphere exhaust which is also one piece for the rear section, it's way too tight. Not to mention I had to remove the hangers to put washers underneath them to drop the exhaust down. It sat way too high when installed. I had to put about a 1/2 inch of washer underneath each of the 4 hangers in order to drop it down so it wasn't touching the bumper.

 

I have an '03 with magnaflow, and I fight with it each time I have put it back in. I have found that I did not want to take the hangers off. I tried just a few days ago, thinking it would make my life easier...and when trying to get one of the nuts off, the bolt started tilting and pulling out of the sheetmetal it was in. I tightened it back up and left it.

Here is the trick when installing:
Leave the rubber hangers on the outside mounts of the car, remove the rubber hangers on the inside mounts(use any kind of household cleaner like 409 or fantastik as lube, to slide the inside rubber hangers off the mounts)
Put the muffler section in first, with the single pipe towards the front of the car pointed down, and a little too far forward. Then a buddy of yours can guide the pins on the sides of the mufflers into the rubber hangers, as you push the section up, and back, at the same time to get around the battery box. Once that is in, you can then lube up the inside rubber hangers and slip them on the inside mounts on the muffler, and the car, at the same time. Then piece the pipes together going from back of car to front.

 

Raven9mn. Thanks for the install tips but I believe the hangers on an '06 are different from an '03 so your install would be different than mine.

One question though " ...and I fight with it each time I have put it back in". Why do you have to mess with it? I've had to mess way to much with my current exhaust, so I was looking for something that I could install and forget about ... and would last without problems.

 

Sorry about that, I did not realize the hangers were different, I looked on the magnaflow page, and see the difference. They look harder to work with than mine!

Nothing for issues with the magnaflow itself. If you do not take the entire cat back out, it is a fight to get the hangers on after the pipes are connected and clamped.
I had an OBX header that kept blowing out the doughnut ring, and then I had a flex joint welded in, then i blew that apart, then I put a better one in, and then I had bad motor mounts, and it kept shaking till it killed that flex joint. inbetween all of this, I never got the clamps really seated and tight, so I had a slight leak, and I had to take it out to clean up the pipe, to get the rust off it to seat correctly, then I got the alta header and race cat in, and I had flipped the mounting plate around to get the flex joint to fit on the OBX, and so I had to flip it back to the correct way when the alta went in. So pieces of it have been in and out alot, but not because of issues with the magnaflow itself.

The only issue I have had, was that the welds on the front of resonator rusted, and were leaking. I just cleaned it up, and had it welded. Was probably from the bad motor mounts braeking the welds, then it rusted. I did not see it as a magnaflow issue. I love the system.

 

I just ordered a Magnaflow for my 03

 

Just installed magnaflow on my 02 and was relatively easy install and sounds good!!