Actually, nearly killed my pet cat with heat stroke yesterday...but today I am looking at my CATALYTIC CONVERTER.

I was reading posts that talked about disconnecting the pipe behind the cat and then shove a pipe up into the cat and break up the fins. When I laid down to do a pre-project look over, I noticed that there is a slight turn directly behind the cat before it gets to the hanger and then the clamp where I would disconnect. I have a saw-zall and am prepared to cut and then use a sleeve and two new clamps to seal it off......but that bend had me concerned.

1) With that bend in the pipe, there is no way I will be able to break up everything in the cat

2) With that bend in the pipe, I couldn't possibly cut directly behind the cat for ease of access in breaking things up

3) With that bend in the pipe, I am guessing that a lot of the crud from the broken fins will be stuck in the cat (cat being the lowest place in the line).

Any suggestions?

 

Get as close to the cat as you can to make your cut.

Take out the front O2 sensor before you start poking around in there.

If you have a metal pipe to ram in there, use that.

Break things up as much as you can, then, start the engine (exhaust still disconnected) and rap on it a couple times to blow stuff out. Keep doing that until you have it all out of there.

Yep, can be challenging......

 

I have dual cats.

 

HeyYou, you always help me so much. Thank you. If I cut close to the cat, I just can't figure out how to clamp the pipe back together after I am done. The bend starts right at the cat. I have a 3" sleeve that I planned on using with two clamps, but there is no straight pipe behind the cat for at least 12".

 

Yeah, that is something you have to take into account...... if you have a buddy with a welder, just cut it RIGHT behind the cat, and then weld it back up when you are done.

How radical is the bend? (mine cat was already blown out when I got the truck. the weld had broken, and it was a bit loud. just had a buddy weld it back up.)

 

Yeh, I have no friends who weld. I usually take on all projects with my air tools, and brute strength and avoid weld jobs.

Gosh! About to just bite the bullet and pay the $144 for the new straight Y-pipe with no cat.

 

If you don't have emissions testing, that would be the ideal solution...... no big empty space in the cat for exhaust flow to be confused.

 

Yeh. I know. But trying to buy a house and have been trying to limp along until after the note is signed. But I am getting some very very bad mis-firing at crusing speeds (very low load) and I think it is because of the bad O2 sensor and clogged cat. I didn't want to put the new O2 sensor in until after the cat issue was solved.

Knowing that the cat is choked up, should I be concerned about the trash can size stock muffler, too? Just feels like I am chasing rabbit trails with this truck.

 

The muffler is huge, yeah...... I think you could pick up some performance simply by eliminating all that weight.

For the time being, cut the pipe as close to the bend as you can, and still get your sleeve on there.... (could you cut it between the bends?)

 

I am going to put this past you, Is there some straight pipe leading to the cat? welded or bolted? to the y pipe. I would just remove the cat from the truck to mod it or replace it. Sleeve in the front and one in the back were the pipe is straight. Better yet get a new peice of pipe made at the shop and install it yourself. Just take what ever you cut out to the shop and tell them to make a new pipe to replace what you cut out.