Hey everyone,

So I had my truck in at the dealership all day yesterday to try and find out where my engine tick and slight knock are coming from. Well it turns out (and apparently the service manager and shop foreman verified this) my cats are making all the retarded sounds. So my questions are as follows:

1) Does that even make sense? Can my cats be the ones causing all this stuff?

2) I talked with my local muffler shop on changing out my cats, and they wanna charge me $600 to do it. So, should I just cut out my cats? Or go for high-flow cats? If I cut out my cats, will I throw a CEL (1997 f-150 5.4L). And if I get high-flows, will it affect backpressure, and thus reduce power?

3) If I leave everything as it is, what BAD things can happen?
Thanks in advance

 

If you leave it as is your cats will stop working thus throwing a cel. This is a common problem where I live in western new york. The platinum inside the cats breaks up and get loose and rattles around. eventually carbon deposits and the broken platiunum will plug the cats entirely and the truck will run like crap. The problem on our trucks is that theres 4 cats all in line in the Y pipe which makes things a pain. High flow cats by magna flow are an option but any non OE cat has the potential to not work like factory and throw a code for catylist inefficiency and give you a cel. especially universal cats. So here is my reccomendation. Go to NAPA not autozone and buy "spark plug anti foulers" they rarely sell them anymore so you gotta find an old timer. get the ones that share the 02 sensor thread. 18mm if i recall. theres two in a pack so you will need two packs. one has a small hole one has a bigger hole. drill the smaller hole to 1/2" thread them both on to your two rear o2 sensors. thats right put two anti foulers on each of your REAR o2 sensors. Cut out your cats and straight pipe the Y pipe. The antifoulers move your rear o2 sensors back away from the exhaust flow and fool the computer into thinking the cats are working. in turn not throwing a light. the end. look up anti foulers and you will see that it works.