My grandfather has a 97 Dakota that's more than likely going to be mine soon. It's currently in Mississippi, and we're bringing it out to where my family is in Texas. It's been having an issue with the catalytic converter. It started rattling a while back, and the truck became sluggish when accelerating past 55 mph. About two to three weeks ago, the rattle stopped and the truck became a bit sluggish getting to 55 mph. My question is, for the trip to Texas, would it hurt the truck to remove the catalytic converter and run a straight pipe in its place?

 

you wont have any problems,
its perfectly safe to straight pipe it and leave it unless there are emissions regulations where you live

 

oh, you will get a check engine light, it'll come back to the bank 2 O2 sensor,
it will have no ill effect on how the truck runs

 

Like batty said, you will trip a CEL but thats ok. Won't hurt anything. Might be annoying for a long trip running a straight pipe but it won't cause any problems.

 

Remove it especially if its the 5.2. Will sound a bit better too but it will only throw the cel(mine has been on for the past 6 months you will get used to it). You will have to check if your town tests emissions. In my old town they never did any emissions but 10 miles south(different county) I thought they tested but found out they only do a visual check so when I have time im going to cut it open and gut it then weld it back together and reinstall.

 

If you do have emissions, you can always get a high flow cat for it. It will sound better, have more power (especially over a clogged stock cat), and still pass emissions.

 

you can always take a small diameter pipe/pole that will fit into the exhaust pipe and smash it through the cat, breaking apart the honey comb internal. smash it completely apart, fire it up and lay on the throttle. blow it all out.

 

The works too. A friend of mine did that and it actually still passed emissions.