Good Point!!

 

I've driven a half a million miles and have yet to plug a cat. Seems like a convenient excuse. Seems everyone seems to plug their cat. How is this?

 

I'm glad to hear that I got a little freaked out by what that one dude shared about his truck having all those problems. I just got out of an emissions strangled diesel and thinking oh no here we go again its just like a DPF!!!! I guess I have post traumatic diesel syndrome.

 

Trust me, this is my work truck. All I want is the damn thing to work right! I don't know what is causing it, but after I replaced the cats, the codes came back within a week! If anyone has some guidance I will take it. Any ideas of what is causing it? I would rather fix the problem than delete the cats.

 

Find out why it is running so rich.

 

Seems like there's a lot of leaf lickers in this thread.

I've had no cats on a 03 f350 5.4 for over eight years. Approaching 200,000miles with original motor with no major work done.

My 2011 has no cats, it's at 125,000miles. No major work done.

I lol at those that say cats don't clog/plug up.

I have a farm with lots of animals, small children and whatnot. No one has died from all the pollution I'm spewing out of my trucks.

 

Hey Squisher, have you done anything to your exhaust system to help the sound of your exhaust or added anything like a twister to maintain torque. I've been talking with Chris from 5star and he is recommending that I get his x4 tuner w/ custom tunes for o2 sensed delete and add a twister to my exhaust. I have heard people say that the exhaust sounds crappy without the cats. I'd also like to know how you did the delete. Did you just replace the cats with 3 1/2" exhaust tube sections or did you buy test tubes with the o2 bungs? I read your other post about the sct tuner that you have with stock tunes, did you ever talk to that company that put a custom tune on it? My cats are toast (as I posted above) and I really need to figure out how to get my truck running better. Any advise is welcome

 

They usually don't. If they do, there's something wrong.

As for not killing anyone with your exhaust, well, true - but which little piglet will have asthma?

Just kidding.

 

Ok I'll try this again. Had typed a big reply and this stupid *** computer dropped it. This might be a little more point form.

I did get ahold of the custom tuner. I run only the custom tune, it's done for 87 tow/economy and I run 89 marked farm gas in it. Truck runs flawlessly and really well, aggressive throttle response, awesome shifting.

Pic 1. Made up 'test pipes' bunged with the O2 sensors. I'm sure the rear o2s are just turned off in the custom tune as when I run a stock SCT tune if I don't turn off the rear o2s I get a check engine light with the cat under threshold code. I never run those tunes and with the custom tune never have had a check engine light.

Pic 2. My one and only resonator

Pic3. Looking back from that resonator to the muffler.

Personal opinion love the sound. Not overly loud but turns heads between 4-6k that's for sure. Dead quiet with no drone in the cab whatsoever. Most nice days I drive with the rear slider open so I can hear it a bit more.





Pic1





pic2





pic3

 

I will add coldstarts sound rank until the initial high idle comes down. I've gotta believe that it's a fair bit louder than factory for that initial 20seconds or whatever. I have no neighbours to PO so again I love to hear it. But again in the cab you barely notice it. I'm CC longbox too so the tailpipe is aways back there.

The truck is overall very quiet still with this setup. Far from obnoxious and I've built/got trucks with headers and full dual setup. This is nothing like that. WOT in the high Rpm's it's still not really loud but you can hear it. I almost desire a little bit more volume out of it, but not enough to frig with what I've got going.

Comparatively a friend of mine has a de-catted 5.4 with dual exhaust and it's quite a bit louder than my 6.2 setup. Of course that's mainly due to muffler difference I believe. He has dual aftermarket mufflers and his setup sounds more raspy to me than either my 5.4 decatted through a factory exhaust or my 6.2.

I've experienced rasp from decatting before and imo it's minimal to non-existent on my 6.2.

 

I too am leaning toward no cats. However, i am concerned over the comments of it being too raspy. I have both resonators off and a e-cutout before the muffler so i can make it quiet if needed. If i do not go cat-less, i may get a pair of 100 or 200 cell cats. Im imagining the stock cats are around 400 cell. I may cut them and see how it sounds without and then put the lower cell cats on if i dont like it. I will also just have the muffler shop weld the O2 bung on the new cats. otherwise i will have to get the tuner to turn the rear sensors off.

 

Krewat do catalytic converters not simply have serviceable life and then start to break down/clog even if the vehicle is running perfectly fine? I mean I've removed a lot of catalytic converters over the years and imo they definetly get plugged/clogged/restricted. Whatever you want to call it it happens.

I recently saw one that came off my buddies vw 1.8t and it was plugged. Beforehand the pipe in front of the cat would get red hot going up say a moderate hill. The car had lost tons of power and economy. Only difference was cutting out the cat and then lots of power, way better economy.

So imo cats do wear out even if the vehicle is running fine. I just choose to remove instead of replace again with a part(new catalytic) that will overtime slowly take away performance/economy until it gets bad enough to either throw codes or cause other issues.

 

I saw your pics of that cutout and I'd love to do that too, be able to flick a switch and have it dump straight out.

Opinions are like.....and everyone has one. Imo the rasp is minimal to barely noticeable. I had a 350z with test pipes and that sucker was raspy. My buddies 5.4 with no cats and duals sounds a little bit raspy to me. My 5.4 with no cats through the stock muffler has barely noticeable rasp imo, and my 6.2 even less noticeable. Now that could simply be because I still have the one resonator and factory muffler? I dunno, makes me not want to cut out my second resonator though, in case it made it raspy.

 

Yea, its going to be a trial and error kind of thing. I love the e-cutout and so does the wife! I leave sometimes at 5:00 am for work and it helps to be able to muffle it. Plus, i do tow so that helps too. When i experiment i will throw my two cents in as well (again opinions are like......). I like the sound it has now but i guess im a redneck who likes loud engines!!! I put a cutout on my nephews old 97 Ram 5.9 magnum and that thing is a monster. Mine sounds more like a racing engine (understandable). Again, to each their own.

 

That's what I love about modding trucks. It makes it your own. I lucked out with my '11, it's like someone bought a new truck modded it just for me and then sold it to me at a price I could afford. Lol. Usually it seems I end up doing that for someone else. Get a truck just right and then flog it. That's why I kept my '03 this time and said to hell with selling it off.