Well, I just realized one of the major downsides to getting bit by the "after-market bug."

After purchasing American Racing Long Tube Headers from Stage 3 Motorsports back in 2015, one of the catalytic converters in the y-pipe went bad. This normally doesn't happen to a truck, like mine, that is not super or turbo charged. When I called Stage 3 Motorsports they told me they don't sell the y-pipe and told me to call American Racing Headers. Guess what ARH told me? ... I needed to call Stage 3 Motorsports and the cats are not under warranty (of course).

Am I really going to have to scrap $1,600 worth of headers because they won't allow for a y-pipe replacement? ARH wouldn't give me a price but did give me a product number: F150-11300300YPWC. This product number does not show up in any web search.

I drive a 2013 F-150 5.0L XLT (Naturally Aspirated).

Beware the after-market bug. My truck is not drive-able until I can get a new 3" catted y-pipe but Stage 3 Motorsports isn't giving me a solution. Can anyone else help me out?

 

UPDATE: Stage 3 called me back and allowed me to order the 3" catted y-pipe. They charged me $575. I don't know if that's a fair price or not as it was originally factored into the header kit. The meantime to delivery is about 2 weeks.

The point of this post is to still make the buyer aware of all the headaches that can accompany buying after-market hardware. I did not consider this when purchasing the headers; its a giant headache and very expensive. I still owe the dealership $100 for diagnosing the problem in the first place. [my truck was throwing engine code P0302]

 

Did adding the headers back then increase performance? Or perception performance only.....lol

 

They do. More when part of other upgrades though.

 

The headers were definitely a HP improvement but you have to consider all the other mods, which complemented the headers too. I have a Boss 302R intake manifold, 85mm TB, aFe CAI, 170 degree thermostat, Borla Cat-Back S-Type, and a MPT tune. You must get your truck re-tuned when adding headers. In my case, I opted for the 1 3/4" headers because my truck is naturally aspirated.

...and then there's the sound

 

Seems to me that they would have to honor the emissions warranty that other companies/manufacturers have to, which is 8 year/80,000 miles or some that are 5 year/50,000 miles.
https://www.magnaflow.com/support/wa...ic-converters/
https://www.flowmastermufflers.com/f...rter-warranty/
https://www.catalyticconvertersonlin...ter-fact-sheet

 

P0302 = Cylinder 2 miss fire. Possibility what ever was causing the miss fire was also responsible for killing the cat. If that is not corrected there's a very good possibility of killing the new one as well.
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Followup to Rnlcomp - did the dealership just read the code or did they actually tell you that you needed a new cat? The details of the complete story don't really fit together. You can get codes read for free at any auto parts store.

#2 - are you sure that the cat is really bad? If you're basing the diagnosis off of code PO302 then it might not be bad. $575 wasted.

 

Exactly. Getting to the source of that miss fire code is going to be key information.
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My scanner gave me the P0302 code for cylinder 2 misfire. I took it to Ford for an actual diagnostic because the code could be caused by a plethora of things. They were able to remove the O2 sensor in front of the converter and it relieved the back pressure and the truck ran like normal. When they put the O2 sensor back in, the problem continued.