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1987 - 1996 F150 & Larger F-Series Trucks 1987 - 1996 Ford F-150, F-250, F-350 and larger pickups - including the 1997 heavy-duty F250/F350+ trucks

cat converter diffirence?

Old Aug 18, 2008 | 11:45 AM
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cat converter diffirence?

is there a diffirence between cats that are made for vehicles prior to 96 and ones that are made after 96? If so, what is the diffirence?

Chris
 
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Old Aug 18, 2008 | 02:25 PM
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well the cats made prior to 96 are dead or getting ready to die - cats only live on average 15 years. the best time to have a cat anyways is when it is a kitten.

Oh.

was this post on something else? ;-)
 
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Old Aug 18, 2008 | 07:38 PM
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Cats vary by vehicle & by year. IIRC, '96 or '97 was the beginning of OBDII. This may or may not have required a change in the cat.

Differences in cats as they progressed included two stage cats, higher flow, more durable, and more efficient.

As the prior post says, old cats might just be dead cats. My '85s work fine, but only have 85000 miles. Later high-milers might already be dead.

This outfit advertises here, perhaps they could answer any application questions if any.

Bear River Converters - Wholesale distributors of catalytic converters


Sorry, I'd love to provide a more exact, scientific analysis of the cat function from one year to the next, but I'm just not that smart or informed...
 
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Old Aug 18, 2008 | 09:09 PM
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If you are considering putting a used cat in your exhaust, its probably not a good idea. The stock cats are pretty bad anyways, you would be doing yourself a huge favor to replace it with something better if you indeed have to replace it.
 
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Old Aug 18, 2008 | 10:16 PM
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I ask because I upgraded my 95 toa 96 setup /w obd 2.
when shopping for a new cat, it says like 88-95 or 96-01, or something like that,
There appears to be a cutoff. The same is true for headers. flowmaster sells like 88-95's and has a diffirent part # for 96's
Anyway I want better mileage and I was wondering if a new cat would help.
btw 230k miles on the stock exhaust.

Chris
 
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Old Aug 18, 2008 | 10:23 PM
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Originally Posted by camccardell
I ask because I upgraded my 95 toa 96 setup /w obd 2.
when shopping for a new cat, it says like 88-95 or 96-01, or something like that,
There appears to be a cutoff. The same is true for headers. flowmaster sells like 88-95's and has a diffirent part # for 96's
Anyway I want better mileage and I was wondering if a new cat would help.
btw 230k miles on the stock exhaust.

Chris
stick a universal high flow maggie in it
 
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Old Aug 20, 2008 | 07:47 PM
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rodger on that, I;ll let you know how it works out. Wanna keep the factory Y though, so I guess I'll be haveing to keep the first stock one where the pipes come together. I guess I could break it up though.

Chris
 
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Old Aug 22, 2008 | 09:08 PM
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cat replacement

i just replaced the 2 cats on my 95 with one magnaflow cat. it was a dual 2 1/4 inlet w/ an o2 sensor plug and 3" outlet. it cost me 85.00 at a local exhaust shop and did the rest of the eshaust in 3" . the truck failed emissions w/ the factory cats at 10 times the legal limit here in colorado and passed like a new car with the exhaust repaired. My truck is an old delivery truck from wyoming and has just over 500,000 miles on it but it runs great now.

carlie
 
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Old Aug 22, 2008 | 10:41 PM
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Here's what i got works great.

MagnaFlow 93324 - MagnaFlow Direct-Fit Catalytic Converters - summitracing.com
 
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