baddkarmaracing

Mod (Ret.)

Smog is a problem everywhere. If you remove the cats, you are breaking a FEDERAL law. No doubt your state does not allow it either, but even if you assume that your local law inforcement would not check, other areas can.

A dealership cannot take a vehicle on trade if the cats are missing. You are not legally allowed to sell the vehicle with the cats removed.

Large fine. Plus all you'll gain is noise. It's been discussed here before. Not worth removing unless you want to add noise. To me, this is an "attention bell" for the police having a bad day.

bambo2888

you probably wont gain much performance or mileage, just a bunch of noise. i like it =)

djjr50

The way that I see it, you lose backpressure which almost always increases performance (and maybe fuel mileage). But these engines are program to adjust the running parameters by reading the O2 sensors, which are before and after the cat. If you remove them, then you will probably have to reprogram the engine to ignore the lack of readings from these sensors.

baddkarmaracing

they dont smog test here and they dont check cats around here at all, even though they should. and you can legally sell a vehicle with the cats removed but you have to disclose that info to the buyer. a dealer can take a vehicle in on trade, they however cant sell the vehicle with no cats.

the performance part is what im looking for in all of this, i dont care about the noise but if my truck will run better i will tolerate it. i think i have a clogged cat and dont have the money to spend on replacing it so i wanna just gut it, but if its going to hurt perfomance and milage i will just find another one to use for a while.

pittsm

i'm in your same boat. i've been contemplating doing this exact thing to my truck. Let me know if you go through with it and tell me how it goes.

bucko: his area sounds alot like mine. yes its illegal, but NO ONE AROUND HERE CARES including the cops. they just don't. hell, some of the cops probably have done the same thing to their trucks as well.

truck4546969

i removed only the rear two on mine, i still have the ones before. its does get louder. i didnt notice anything performance or mpg wise, and i dont think you will since they are unmonitored parts.

philbosaurusrex

You'll be breaking the law, but it sounds like you won't get in trouble for it. It will definitely make your truck louder but you won't see much of a performance gain. If you have free flowing mufflers, gutting the cats will drop your backpressure to a point where you'll probably be losing performance.

Fords also have a tendency to pop and crack when you gut the cats. A true dual install with no X-pipe will also cause the same cracking. If you don't mind your truck sounding like firecrackers at 4500 rpm, go ahead and gut the cat. The fastest way to do it is to run the engine up and get the exhaust hot, then fill the exhaust up with cold water from a hose (don't use too much water or it will end BADLY). Once the hot cat is full of cold water, the ceramic will crack up. Start the truck immediately, and rev it until water and ceramic honeycomb stops coming out of the pipe. You might have to do this a few times to get it all cleared out.

If you want good sound, leave the cat alone and get a name brand muffler. If you want great sound (and a little performance gain), pay the money for a name brand complete exhaust kit. If you want redneck sounding exhaust with no performance gain, gut the cat.