Catalytic Converter

[EVOrider]

My 1983 Ranger has the original catalytic converter on it. The truck has something around 500,000 miles on it.

After all the years and miles....would I get some performance back if it were replaced?

 

[kimcrwbr1]

That is a tough one to answer. It all depends on how well all the other crap is working. You can pull the codes and see what it shows. Are you blowing black smoke when you start it after the engine has run a while? The valve guide seals are probably non existent if those are original miles on that engine, if your burning oil it will destroy the new cat in short order.
Do you need to pass smog if not the duraspark conversion is the fullproof way to bring it back to life. If you get alot of codes the outlook is grim if you need to pass smog, to qualify for the waiver you need to pay a certified mechanic a bunch of money and still have performance issues. The cat will do very little for that old feedback system and some parts are impossible to find.

 

[yourdudeness]

come in car 54

with that many miles on it i would be very surprised if there where anything inside that cat,,,,,, a lot of them blow out or plug up ,, first is it glowing red when the engine running . how is the engine at highway speeds?????

 

[ab_slack]

The issue with an old cat is if it gets clogged. There is some procedure I seen that involved drilling a hole before and after and measuring the pressure differential. If it is too high the cat is hurting thing. If it is okay the cat isn't hurting things.

of course after drilling and measuring, if good it needs to be plugged. I forget where I saw that, but it makes sense.

 

[EVOrider]

The cat was partially clogged and parts of the inside were actually broken. I replaced it with an aftermarket one off the internet.

Before replacement, the truck was surging at highway speeds and had a very rough idle.

Much smoother now and it's like the truck got some life back into it. Also, at idle....the exhaust doesn't smell so gassy.