the ford F250 we use at work for personal **** wouldn't pass emissions and the boss didn't want to pay the dealer $1200 to replace the cat so I threw in a $45 ebay cat and ran it through emissions today, dropped the CO down to half of what it was before, still not squeeky clean but passed at around 11.2 when the limit is 12 something so I'm happy.

I ended up not even clamping it, it fit tight enough I just left it hanging there

bottom line for the company
1 cat, 45 bucks
1 emissions retest, 25 bucks
2 sawzall blades, 6 bucks
2 exhaust clamps I didn't use, 25 bucks.

not a bad deal


the stock ford cat is some overpriced monstrosity ******* thing, one end is a square flange the other a round. I cut the pipe about 2" downstream from the round end and just left it in place. Cheapest direct fit I could find was like $300 online. I might take some metal screws and just screw through the pipe and the cat to make sure it doesn't shift but probably not

 

I don't know.
they took it to an independant shop and they wanted about the same.
mind boggling isn't it?

the $45 ebay cat works just great. If I really cared I'd punch out the oem cat for better flow... but I don't.

 

The 02 sensors must be on the way out too, it's running pretty rich I think.

 

you should have seen the look on their faces when I said I'd fix it for $100.

they paid ford $80 just to diagnose it, hell I could have told them a '96 with 280,000 miles on it and high CO readings had a bad cat from a 2 second look at the report.

 

it's still a little high though must be an o2 on the way out.

 

Did they offer you a raise or a promotion for saving them so much money?

 

lolz, dream on

 

nah I use it for personal stuff all the damn time.