just bought a 99 dodge ram, bottem of the cat had many rusted out little holes, welded a strip of sheet metal along it, then used muffler cement to finish it off. reason being is I cant afford to replace the cat at the moment. At no point has the check engine light been on either before or after the"repair". my question is why has it rusted out like that? could it be so clogged allready inside that it caused it to rust out? I checked the truck today with an obd2 and it showed issues with the o2 sensors in the monitors, but had nothing come up as far as codes. the truck is extremely hard on gas and has nothing really for power to speak of. also the exhaust smells highly of gas.. so i think its burning to rich?

 

That seems like a safe bet.... pull the plugs, and see what they look like. Also, check the plenum. (see stickied thread at top of tech forum....)

 

the plugs as in the o2 sensors? or sparkplugs?

 

Check spark plugs, but prbably should pull the upstream O2 sensor and crank it up and see if it runs better.

 

The cat probably rusted from the moisture coming out the ground from wherever it was sitting before you bought it. If you can weld, gut it. And read this, https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...um-thread.html

 

rather then remove the o2 sensor to test, can I just dissconnect the wiring harness for it,to accomplish the same thing? or do I need to remove it entirely?

 

The idea is to check and see if the cat is clogged, by giving the exhaust an alternate route out of the pipe. Just disconnecting it won't accomplish that. You have to physically remove it, and see if the truck runs better. If it does, it's a pretty sure bet the cat is clogged.

 

oki'll give it a try tomorrow and post my results

 

You may want to spray some penetrating oil on it tonight and let it soak, those can be a PITA to get out...

 

I didn't get a chance to take the o2 sensor out today, I did however change the sparkplugs, starting with the 8th which was certainly in the worst shape. it actually feels alot better now, and has gained some power as far as I could notice. I'll still remove the o2 sensor to test, but has anyone ever used a gas additive called "Cataclean"? any reviews or thoughts on it?