So, reviving and updating this thread. Ive let the truck get worse and worse. Apperently it was in my head that it runs like poo. Until last week. It died. Its been seriously lacking power and will not take any kind of heavy throttle input without sputering and misfiring. Finally it wouldnt get passed 35 mph. No CEL. The only codes I extracted out of it w/ a handheld were misfires on no. 5 and then one on no. 7, but again, it never threw a CEL. So the truck went into Brandon Ford (Large Roush Dealer) this past Monday. Got it back Wednesday night. Got it off the lot, stomped it, it ran great, made a U-turn to get heading the correct direction to go home, stomped it, hesitated, stumbled and the CEL came on. Unfortunately this was at 7:30pm so not many bodies were on site. I left the keys and went on the 40 minute ride back home. Next morning I arrived at 7:45am and a Service Manager was out in my truck. They had already "fixed" it and he was testing it. He came in and said "Nope, threw another CEL." They put in on the computer to watch what they could, which I asked to do in the first place, and immediately noticed that the rear O2's were following the front 02's (meaning the graph wave pattern) and said, "Wow, your Cats are shot!" SO.....

This is the 2nd set of cats on the truck. the first set, one went out very shortly after I got it... Id say w/ in the first 2 months. The other about a week or two later. It was found that one of the Injectors was bad. Even w/ the new cats back then, the truck still hesitated and seemed to miss at WOT.

So with another set being bad, the truck now has 83k on it, After an almost thousand dollar bill in getting all 8 plugs, and a couple coils replaced, I opted to, for the time being, go to a custom exhaust shop and remove the issue. They filled the gaps w/ pipe and O2 bungs, I did the sensor CEL trick today, so far so good, and happily, for the last 3 days, the truck has run flawless for the first time EVER, and Im the original owner. Its never had instant power while passing or getting onto the interstate.

Ive been reading and reading and reading all about pros and cons of removed cats and everyone has a different opinion about cats vs no cats vs high flows vs no such thing as high flow etc etc....

Heres what Ive gathered, other than the law stuff Id suffer a loss of torque, Ive been told I have more of a chance of damaging valves....
Ive also read that if a cat clogs, its not normal and something else is causing it. Misfires etc. What else may cause one to clog? Ford also said the reason I was fouling plugs and damaging coils recently was because of the amount of backpressure being caused by the clogged cats. So Im gathering one causes the other, either way? A mis or bad ignition can cause a cat to go bad and a bad cat can cause an ignition failure? Im on the edge of ordering the Magnaflow 94306 cats. Good idea? Bad idea? Leave them off? I cant make a decision so Im reaching out to those who have experience in this, hoping someone who has had a cat issue has something to say. While taking them off, I also had to get a new exhaust (went from a Magnaflow 18" to a 30" muffler) because it sounded like a top fuel car. It is a little quieter but still louder and raspier than Id like it.



Sorry this was so long, and thank you to those who read it all...

-Scott