Ill prolly take my cats off eventually anyways. Gotta love conservative states.

 

Your MPG is litteraly going to be 8 mpg if you remove your cats.
There is only so much Jerry rigging that you can do.
Just replace your O2's and be done with it. You only have two.

 

I thought removing the cats would increase MPG, since it gives a freer flowing exhasut, espcially since O2 sensors are in front of cats?

 

Sorry, my mistake. I was thinking that your O2's were behind the cats.
If you have O2's behind the cats then removing the ctas will reduce your MPG.
If your O2's are in front of the cats then yes, you can remove the cats, you still need your O2's though, and you need them in good working order.
The O2's tell your ECU how much gas the engine is actually using compared to what it is supposed to be using.
The ECU takes readings from the MAF, TPS and ICV and compares that to readings from ther O2's, either is to far out of wack and it screws things up.

 

Thank you for all your input Spike555, i do appreciate the time and input you gave me. I will begin with the cheapest fixes that you have recommended and work my way up from there. I will let yall know how it went.

 

how does the o2 sensor "talk" to the ecu

if everything is running properly does it simply run a voltage across a wire, or is it actually sending a digital signal?

 

Pre cat O2 sensors are basically nothing more than temp sensors. Buy the tempature of the exhaust gas the ECU knows how much gas the engine is using.
Post cat O2's do the same thing but they tell the ECU how well the cats are working.
That is why your MPG drops when your O2's go bad, the ECU is getting the wrong signal.

All fuel injected cars run "open loop" when the engine is cold. Meaning that the ECU dumps more fuel into the engine than is needed to bring the cats up to temp as fast as possible. Cold cats are ineffeficent, that is why the exhaust smells funny when your engine is cold. No emissions control until the cats are up to temp.

 

I may be mistaken but I really don't think that any performance or MPG will be gained by removing the cats. The pipe thru the cats is the same size as the rest of the system so just removing the cats isn't going to net much if any. I also think that part of being a responsible off-roader is protecting the environment and that includes the air which is the point of the cats.

 

My cats are shot and that is why i want to remove them, they arent doing anything for the environment at the moment. I can not afford to replace them, if the environmentalist want to pay for me to have cats then ill put some on when i receive them in the mail.

An update for my problem, i took out stepper motor, it was all nasty, i wire brushed it and cleaned with carb cleaner and wd40 and a nylon brush. Ran seafoam, and ran gunk through oil. Problem solved. Im looking foward to another 200k miles off of this engine. I also went with some NGK spark plugs and some borg werner 8mm wires just because i figured they were cheap and i might as well replace them. I cant believe that a lil stepper motor runs for that much money.

 

Yeah the stepper motor is over priced, but man, it does its job.
Glad to hear that you got your truuck up and running good again.