Catalytic converter crapped the bed...

[SrBernelli]

96 2wd with the 318. It seemed to happen pretty suddenly... over the course of a few days, I went from "normal" to "wouldn't even start, it was so clogged"! Sawzalled it off and I'm running great... albeit a bit loud... LOL

So... is there an aftermarket cat that's better then the others? I'm in a non inspection state... so the "cat delete" Y pipe Jegs sells is looking kinda nice... but I'd like to EVENTUALLY run without a check engine light sometime.

What say y'all?

 

[Yeret]

I'm currently running a single inlet/outlet Magnaflow cat. 3" diameter on both ends. You'll need to weld a 2-1 adapter to the y-pipe to make it work (factory cat is a two inlet/one outlet design). The Maggy came with bungs for the O2 sensors and the setup fits fine.

I think it was around $160 for it. Been running it for ~three years now and no problems. I got tired of cheap mufflers rotting out every six months so I just had a pipe welded in place and let the cat handle the "muffling" duties. Exhaust is loud and raw but no more so (actually less) than folks running around with small diameter dual straight pipes. Must not be too bad because a couple weeks back, I gassed up the truck, went inside to pay and nab a sandwich, came back out and saw a state trooper gassing up his Charger at the pump right next to me. The dude was literally standing in front of my tail pipe, LOL. Well, I fired the engine (which was still cold, so it was extra loud), drove off and he didn't follow me or apparently alert anyone else. Then again, do state troopers even bother with noise ordinance stuff?

 

[dapepper9]

Not in iowa they don't Yeret lol ive only heard of one ever here and it was ME lol with factory cat and Carven R series muffler.

Honestly any cat is plenty. You can also eliminate the code by taking the downstream 02 out of the pipe and putting it in free air

 

[SrBernelli]

Ended up saying "screw it" and ordered Jegs' stainless "off road" pipe. $150 shipped to my door!

Going to install sometime this week.

 

[SrBernelli]

. You can also eliminate the code by taking the downstream 02 out of the pipe and putting it in free air

Can you elaborate?

Thanks brother...

 

[dapepper9]

Unscrew the downstream 02 from the exhaust pipe, plug the hole, ziptie the 02 up above the trans somewhere and leave the connector plugged in

 

[dapepper9]

The downstream 02 is looking for a drop in emissions after the cat. It compares the reading of the front 02 with what it is seeing. If you put it in open oxygen it thinks your cat is highly efficient

 

[SrBernelli]

The downstream 02 is looking for a drop in emissions after the cat. It compares the reading of the front 02 with what it is seeing. If you put it in open oxygen it thinks your cat is highly efficient

Awesome! Thanks brother!

 

[meistermash]

You can also buy "spark plug non foulers", and put the two of them under the 02sensor. One of them will need to be drilled out to clearance the tail of the sensor. One wasn't enough to get the sensor away from the exhaust flow on my 01. I didn't want the sensor just hanging around somewhere.

 

[dapepper9]

I live in rust belt iowa and have zero issues with the ******* sensor. I wouldn't mud bog with it like that but i also wouldn't mud bog in the first place