Cat options

[Rigrunner]

I have a 06 ranger 3.0,it is at the dealership right now and they say that the cat(s)are stopped up.The part is $989,my question is this....can i ditch the 3 cats that are on it and put 1 afermarket cat on it?

 

[rurouni20xx]

well part of the problem is the one cat is in the manifold itself if im not mistaken, hard to bypass that one. the other two you can put in a 3 inch high flow w/o too much trouble. heres my question: how the hell are your cats stopped up in 3 yrs? you burning oil or have over 120000 miles in 3 yrs?

 

[Rigrunner]

Actually 113000

 

[Jon581]

damn thats alot of miles in 3 yrs

 

[Rigrunner]

thats nothing.....my 08 GMC has 43000 and its 6 months old!

 

[Jon581]

wow i bought my 07 from my dad with 6500 in 12 months,it now has 8000

 

[rurouni20xx]

well i wont lie i went from my dad putting 100000 on in ten yrs to 280700 in 4 yrs but what im not understanding is how the cats got stopped up that soon, something caused that, mine didnt stop up til 187000 miles.

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

it can happen. we replace converters under warranty sometimes with no other symptoms.

there are two small cats in the y-pipe and one main cat behind it. the y-pipe with the cats is the spendy part because your buying essentially two cats and the y-pipe. the main cat can surely be replaced with an aftermarket (3" is far too large, go no larger than 2.5"). the smaller cats would be a problem. standard cats wont physically fit.

 

[Jon581]

how do you know if your cat is stopped up?

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

a vacuum or backpressure test, physical inspection of the cat, or evidence of substrate blowing out of the tailpipe.

 

[Rigrunner]

I found some mini cats from Jegs...let me know what you think.....the are called Magnaflow ''Spun-Cat'' Universal Catalytic Converters,not sure on the pipe size though

 

[rurouni20xx]

they are similar to the ones on the y pipe, just higher flow, not sure how they will do or if they will work. im not sure if you can on a newer model trk but can you get a regular y pipe and simply install a new cat behind the y pipe? or is there a set of o2 sensors in front of and behind the mini cats and they have to be on the trk or throw codes? ive always wondered if it was possible.

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

there arent cat efficiency monitors behind the pre-cats, just behind the main cat. i dont know if one main converter would be efficient enough by itself to keep the PCM happy.

 

[Rigrunner]

screw it....my brother said he could get me the factory part for 530....i will just get that and then I know it will work!

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

sounds good.