Only if it is burning a lot of oil or has broken apart internally. Most cats last forever these days. A quick trip to a muffler shop can verify. They drill a small hole before the cat and measure back pressure then weld the hole back up. Many shops do this for free.
FYI, the turbulence caused by the shape of the converter, makes a gutted cat almost as restrictive as a good cat.

 

Well if you don't have money for a new engine, then I wouldn't push that 4.7 real far with the miles it has on it.

Full tune-up will do wonders, then you can get the thing breathing more efficiently by installing a CAI and a full cat-back exhaust, which will not only get you a better breathing muffler, but get rid of the ultra-restrictive "Y" pipe.
Then I'd get a good tuner like a Superchips and see where that left me...

 

My 02 1500 5.9 has around a 197,000 on her and she runs like a damn champ. I did have the tranny rebuilt at around 195,000 though. A good friend of mine did it for $600 so it was well worth it. Looking to do more mods to the engine soon as i can afford it since I can't afford a new one right now. Any advice from anyone would be great.

 

well i have a k and n intake on it, flowmaster 40 series exhaust, replaced all wires and plugs as well as fluids and have had the transmission rebuilt. i feel i do need to replace the cat though and plan to as soon as finances allow.

 

Anything I need to worry about with 89K miles?

 

Hottexhaust.com has the Magnaflow highflow oem cat for about 300$ and discount codes avail (google for checkout codes) with the Y pipe.

I might get one, just need wifey's approval. Then some headers & ....lol!!