I have a 1990 E-150 5.8L. EEC-IV. One HEGO located at the inlet to the cat. My cat clogged up and was cherry red when I stopped to investigate the smell.

When shopping for a new cat, the auto parts salesman stated I could just remove the cat and run the exhaust pipe straight to the muffler. He stated the cat did not affect anything since it was not monitored by a second O2 sensor at the outlet. He stated my van would run much better. I live in Tennessee, where emissions testing is not done.

However, I am curious, and would like a second opinion before doing anything. Maybe someone has done this before, or knows someone that has, or could advise as to the pros, cons.

 

Generally a cat removal ( although illegal to remove an emission device ;-) won't be a problem as long as the O2 is upstream. Might be a visually better option to rod out the cats core already in place. Problem with altering/eliminating components is a seller can be held responsible for it to pass Emmisions if sold in a compliance state..

May affect or delay loop status a tad since loop is temp/s related. Probably a non issue....

 

you might want to fix the actual problem not the symptom. cats do not die, they are murdered. a glowing red cat is probably getting raw fuel dumped into it from a leaking injector or some type of fuel metering problem. Would suck if you were to replace the cat and smoke the new one.

 

Thank you for the info. Originally I had a leaking injector. Rebuilt all 8, new plugs, wires, cap. Etc. A friend was helping me to replace all the vacuum hoses, after that it ran horrible. Traced it down to where he had hooked the canister solenoid purge valve vacuum hose to the throttle body instead of the intake manifold.