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My uncle, who is fimiliar with the cats on the F-150's, says I can unbolt the cats from my truck, and knock out the "honey comb" junk out of the pre-cats, and bolt them back up. I just wondered what your opinions were, and any other input. Has anyone done this? It is possible to do this way? How?

I want to do this because for the first 5000 mi., my rear O2 sensor harness was JAMMED on backwards and was running WAAAAY too rich. Constantly had CEL's and a bad O2. Stunk to high heaven. They finaly fixed it, and I wonder what it may have done to my cats / pre-cats, as I am running straight 3" pipe and it's still really quiet. My V6 with FM 40 was louder. I have an O2 sensor right before the pre-cats, and an O2 inside the middle of the cats. Would this effect the O2's? Couldn't I just clear out the very middle of the pre-cat rather than all of the stuff? It would be nice to get it louder and maybe pick up some performance.

Please check my setup, and tell me what you think. Thanks!!!

-AR

 

I have cleared out the cats on a 95 ford
before with so-so results. I didn't even
take them off. I just cut the pipe behind
it and used a hammer and carpenters
crowbar to bust the honeycomb out. It
took several trips around the block after
busting them to get rid of the debris, but
it worked. It did sound better after that,
but it ALWAYS ran much rougher after I
did it. No lights ever came on though.

I don't understand why your truck is quiet
with straight pipes on it. I have true duals
with two 18" glasspacks, and my ride is
plenty loud. You truck should be pretty
loud with just straight pipes.

I wouldn't recommend clearing out the cats
on anything over a 96 model. I've heard
many horror stories about idling problems
and reduced gas mileage. I only personally
know two people who cleaned them out and
replaced them, and both ended up with
problems. One of them ended up selling his
ride (which he does every six months, moron)
and the other had his replaced from a wrecked
truck.

 

Your cat may be clogged up or unefficient since it was running rich for so long. It may be already burnt out from getting excess fuel down there.
The emission laws where you live might convince you to get a performance cat set-up. Warrentee might get you a new one.

 

Yeah, but how do they know if my cats are bad? They said that if they pull them off and their not bad, I have to pay them for the labor...

-AR

 

Your truck (all 96 and up ) are outfitted with a double O2 system. The 1st o2 tells the computer how to adjust fuel. The 2nd O2 tells the computer whether or not the cat(s) are working. If you haven't had a check engine light on recently, your cats are working within "Ford" engineered peramiters.

I work on Saturns and have had a few "L" series cars come in with bad cats after a rich &/or misfire condition