hello everyone. Im hoping that there might be a mechanic or an exhaust guy out there getting this who can help me on this. I havent been on here in a while due to the fact that my truck wasnt having any problems till now.

I have a 2000 dodge ram 1500 quad cab 4x4 5.9, and im wondering something about the exhaust on it because i have a trouble code showing up with P0443.. But i have a couple dodge mechanics telling me a couple different things about this. 1 claims that my catalytic converter is all screwed up, the other one is saying that my o2 sensors are bad but my cat is fine.

But what i am looking to find out, is my converter bad or are my o2 sensors bad? also, can i convert the exhaust on my truck to a 99 exhaust system where its a single converter instead of the three that are running on my truck now. i would like to know the differences between this. and if i can convert this over what is needed, is it hard, and will my onboard computer read this properly, will it pass inspections? all the general questions that go a long with this. if anyone can help me or at least give me some advice, i would be grateful.

shannon

 

In CA you'll need all 3 cats to pass smog. I have the same truck and the best way to test the cat is to have someone in the cab rev the motor to about 2000 or 2500 rpm's and put a temp gun on the input and output of the cat. the output should be around 50 deg hotter than the input for proper cat operation. if the temps are the same, the cat is not working, if the input temp is high and the output temp is low, you have a plugged cat and you should have it swapped out immediately.

I had the plugged cat problem and the heat took out my exhaust seat on the #8 cylinder which is right next to the cat...

hope this helps...

btw, welcome to DF...

 

if you don't live in CA and that you can make the switch to just the single cat try summit racing for one from catco. i just replaced mine 3 weeks ago with a direct replacement from catco for my 98 ram and it bolted up perfectly to the stock manifolds. But of course I didn't stop there I got the direct replacement headers that they offered at summit from edelbrock and they still fell right inline with those. Good luck.