Could my cat be clogged?

[spakack]

I have been chasing a ghost in my ranger for some time now. Recently I had some time off to look back into my truck and I went through it and checked some of the issues people had with the same symptoms. My truck developed a ruff idol at lights and had a huge lack of power. I have tried various fixes including Plugs,Wires,Coil,MAF sensor and even New heads. Several people have asked me if I had a clogged cat or pre-cat. Is this a possibility? I do take it in the mud every winter and I'm sure thats not good for the hot exhaust system. Or any system for that matter...

 

[Bryan22]

If you explained the symptoms more you might be able to get help norrowing it down some. but if others have allready talked to you in depth and said it might be the cat, you might wanna check it out...

 

[spakack]

It began with a rough idol and lack of power that became a check engine light with a P0306 cylinder 6 misfire. I could clear the code and keep driving a few days without the code coming back. It soon became bad enough to keep throwing the same code all the time and the lack of power started to get worse. After basic fixes like the plugs,wires and coil pack It got benched because I needed something to drive. I have been taking whacks at it every couple of weeks when me and my buddy get time but its been no luck from the beginning.

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

cats do not fail as often as people would like to think they do.

mudding with your truck isnt going to hurt the cats as long as you arent banging them against large rocks and denting the housings.

being that your truck is OBDII, it has a sensor after the cat converters that will usually trip a CEL if the cats arent doing their job. they CAN fail in such a way as to plug the exhuast and not trip a CEL, but the chances of that happening arent large.

there are a number of things you can do to test the can converters for cheap:

take a backpressure reading from one of the pre-cat O2 bungs. ford claims anything over 6-7 PSI is "broke"....but ive seen 3-4 PSI cause driveability issues.

hold a peice of clean, white paper in front of the tailpipe while someone revs the engine. a failing cat will sometimes spit its guts out the tailpipe...speckling the paper with little silver flakes.

unbolt the cats and do a visual inspection. looking down the pipe, check for melted, broken or carbon fouled substrate.

 

[spakack]

Ever since I replaced the heads about a few months ago the engine will not throw any codes. I even checked the grounds and looked to make sure the computer had a good clean connection free of moisture and dirt. I haven't been driving it to get it to throw a code because I cant get it to hit 40mph fast enough and not get ran over by the other drivers on the road. It sux. I'm waiting for a friend with a NGIS scanner to do some more in depth look at whats going on but that has no time frame. Thanks for the info Wicked. You seem to be one of the Sages of the forum.

 

[almostclueless]

Did you use new head bolts?

 

[spakack]

Brand new Fel-Pro bolts went in.

 

[almostclueless]

Have you checked the DPFE hoses, and the PCV plumbing?

Running a top shelf scantool on it is a great idea to save time and money....ur on the right track.