Exhaust time, but what about the cat?

[ab_slack]

My 87 BII has had some visible rust-thru at the very end of the tailpipe for some time now and I suspected some leaks further forward.

There has been no sudden change, but a couple weeks ago it got to that point where it very definitely seemed louder. Got a look today and found that the intake side as well as exhaust side of the muffler is rusted thru so looks like time to replace from the muffler back.

First obstacle was the muffler being "discontinued" according to my local parts store. I found a Walker Sound FX is available however. I am a bit wary of that as it sounds like one intended to provide some different sound and I always was quite happy with the stock sound. In fact drove a B2 a couple years ago and the most irritating thing to me about it was that it had an exhaust that, while not loud, produced a note very different.

Curious if anyone has had any experience with that muffler.

Anyways, my big question is the catalytic converter. I have nothing to tell me if this is good or bad. Emissions tested okay 18 months ago, but it is an old vehicle, with high miles (lowest it could be is 114K miles). No idea if it ever has been replaced.

So I am wondering if I should do anything about that. Looks like "universal fit" ones are fairly affordable while the OEM fit get a bit pricey. Any opinions on this? If the vehicle has just sat (in a garage) for a long time as I suspect it has, can that significantly degrade it? Any quick/easy check that might give some idea of the health?

 

[kcm1582]

A quick search on rockauto shows that they should have all the parts for your exhaust, including a "quiet-flow" which I'll assume is closer to a stock replacement. Cats dont usually just go bad, even from sitting, not sure if there is a catalyst efficiency monitor in a truck that old but I'm sure you could probably have it tested at a local inspection station.