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Catalytic Converter Replacement

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Old Aug 8, 2010 | 07:18 PM
  #31  
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Originally Posted by thomastl
You can get high flow magnaflow cats that are weld in for $89.00 each from JC Whitney.

Universal Catalytic Converters for 49 States - JCWhitney

States that it is made of stainless steel. Magnaflow brand. High Flow. Weld in. Designed for 2002 F150.

Keep searching around. shopping.google.com will help you find stuff cheap.

Question on these, anyone know if one of these replaces both to the exsiting ones on the OEM pipe?
 
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Old Aug 8, 2010 | 10:44 PM
  #32  
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From: Winnipeg
Originally Posted by Robwif150
You'd be surprised I think. I'd challenge you to find OEM Cats for my truck for under $1200 a piece. (those above are $600 a piece) I had a quote before I started to do this myself, and they would have got a universal cat and welded it in. But now that I have it apart I know both cats are junk not just the one he was going to do. My thought process was - I'm not afraid to do the work myself, and maybe with the money saved I could do a few extra things (like headers and a better sounding muffler), get a direct fit. I didn't want to get into welding and stuff. But maybe I can see if I can have a shop just do that for me. my stock pipes are in pretty decent condition.

Got the exhaust manifolds off today. I had about 3 screws that broke off at the manifold top and about 3 others that the nut came off and the screw was left in tack.
I know the oem converters are super expensive as I had priced them for an 07 Expedition. At the time there were no oem available so we bought aftermarket from Rock Auto. Although they fit OK I was disappointed not by the pipes being non-stainless but non-mandrel bent. You only get what you pay for. I'm not blaming Rock Auto by the way, they only sell what a company makes.

As for the exhaust manifolds, a mechanic I know just did head gaskets on a 5.4 and also had problems with broken manifold studs as he removed the heads. We have lots of salt use on the roads here in the winter. Corrosion is just a fact.
 
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Old Aug 8, 2010 | 11:22 PM
  #33  
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Originally Posted by Lime1GT
As for the exhaust manifolds, a mechanic I know just did head gaskets on a 5.4 and also had problems with broken manifold studs as he removed the heads. We have lots of salt use on the roads here in the winter. Corrosion is just a fact.
Yep, I was prepared for that. Two nuts just snapped right off without hardly a nudge. I have some stud extractors I picked up. I'm going to give the penetrating oil a chance to work it's way in before I go after it again. I actually think by doing this now may have saved me a headache not to far down the road.

Winter does suck, but that's one reason I got my truck. Starting to see the typical bottom of the doors rust issues. Wondering if I should get it cleaned up, or just let it go.

I guess I'm lucky I can take this slow. I still have a lot to think about.
 
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Old Aug 9, 2010 | 10:05 AM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by thomastl
You can get high flow magnaflow cats that are weld in for $89.00 each from JC Whitney.

Universal Catalytic Converters for 49 States - JCWhitney

States that it is made of stainless steel. Magnaflow brand. High Flow. Weld in. Designed for 2002 F150.

Keep searching around. shopping.google.com will help you find stuff cheap.
Those are not high flow cats. High flow cats are expensive, you are not going to find any good high flow cats under $150. If I were you, I would leave the stock converter y-pipe in place and just cut the cats out and weld new ones in. A muffler shop will be needed for this, but I bet you will spend a lot less than buying the y-pipe. If the shop is any good, you will end up with better results too.

Item Details

You would need one on each bank, and you would need to replace the front pre-cat with a piece of pipe. Also just some advise, stay well away from Magnaflow. They do not make good cats. In fact, partly because of their low quality and partly because they were selling stuff under the table, they just lost their largest distributor network, Allied Exhaust.
 
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Old Aug 9, 2010 | 03:42 PM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by KhanTyranitar
If I were you, I would leave the stock converter y-pipe in place and just cut the cats out and weld new ones in. A muffler shop will be needed for this, but I bet you will spend a lot less than buying the y-pipe. If the shop is any good, you will end up with better results too.
Does a muffler shop weld while the exhaust is on the vehicle? Or can I just bring in my OEM set up and tell them to cut and weld in the cats bring it home and put it on? My concern here is that they probably will end up not fitting good if I they do it without the vehicle. I suppose I could put headers on and reconnect my OEM set up and bring it in.
 
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Old Aug 9, 2010 | 04:50 PM
  #36  
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Best to take the truck to them for the cats. Put the headers on. Cut the old cat out. Install the pipes to the headers. Slip the new cats on and install the new y pipe and muffler and rest of system. Then drive down and have them weld it up. It will leak some but not enough to hurt anything other than some extra noise. New cat should slip over or inside pipe. Should not be a but joint.
 
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Old Aug 10, 2010 | 10:28 AM
  #37  
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I found another source for the JBA headers. Anyone ever use SuperExhaust.com?

SuperExhaust.com - Shopping Cart

it's a savings of $50 over Summit for the same product.

I think I'm ready to order these at least. Like to hear if anyone knows of them first.

I'm thinking about the individual BearRiver high flow cat replacement option. I'm worried it's going to add a level of frustration for me. Had to cut off the EGR tube last night to get it off the manifold and that was about as much hack saw cutting I could handle. I don't have serious cutting tools. I suppose I could sit there with my dremel and eventully cut the pipes. Or I just bring it into a shop and have them do it. I really wanted to do this project myself. But, I do think it would accomplish what I want to accomplish.
 
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Old Aug 10, 2010 | 10:32 AM
  #38  
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Go buy you a saws all. Good excuse to buy one. Harbor Freight has them cheap. Just get you a good blade from Lowes or somewhere (the harbor freight ones are junk).
 
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Old Aug 10, 2010 | 10:35 AM
  #39  
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A sawzall makes quick work of that, but since you do not already have one, I'd let the shop do the cutting, you just bring the parts you want them to install.
 
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Old Aug 10, 2010 | 07:19 PM
  #40  
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Ok, I will consider my options. I'll have to find some time to call some local shops and see how this will work with them.

Ordered the JBA Headers today. I'm in the process of ordering a new EGR tube (ended up cutting it off the manifold to get it off), and my O2 sensors. Looking at partsgeek as suggested. Will be a better deal to get the Motorcraft ones from them. Didn't know that Bosch made those too, so these should be good. I read in some other threads that you really don't need to get the rear o2 sensors replace until they fail. So for now I may just skip those. Sound ok?
 
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Old Aug 11, 2010 | 11:01 PM
  #41  
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Kind of late to ask, but will I need to do any tuning for any of this to work good? The headers? I was thinking it would just be plug and play.
 
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Old Aug 12, 2010 | 07:06 AM
  #42  
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It is plug and play. Tuning could optimize it some but I doubt it would be worth the cost.
 
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