My muffler shop quoted me $850 for two cats, installed, Ebay has a set up for $365, and do the work myself. Which route should I go? Whats the difficulty level of replacing part of the exhaust?

 

https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...e2/#post807650

Maybe you missed this one.

 

Thanks, Ahab, I did read that. However, due to my physical condition, I'm not too sure if I can handle the brute force of knuckle bustin'. So, having that said, it's a toss up

 

Buy a cheapie set of 2.25" eBay converters yourself, then take them to the exhaust shop and have them install them. That'll be cheaper than either of the other two options.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-Universa...-127632-2357-0

 

I’ve seen some threads on here about deleting the cats entirely.

that’s tempting - the price of original cats is around $1000, and welding in some straight tube and putting the O2’s into simulators (or spark plug non foulers) seems to prevent the SES from appearing.

If anyone reading this has experience I’d love to hear more, might be a potential option for the OP as well.

It seems like everyone has been going with replacement cats recently, which is better for emissions (duh) and also a simple job. But getting rid of the cats gets rid of the heat that kills the front driveshaft and helps you pocket some cash for future maintenance and projects…

 

Unfortunately, "I live in the state of Oregon. I need cats forever. I think a cat is a cat, regardless of price. So I have decided on buying cats from Ebay, and do it myself. It's gonna take "tons" of PB Blaster. Hope my heart keeps me going

 

I forgot............it is "illegal" for any shop in Oregon to remove cats, and go straight pipe. Violation of clean air act.

 

Yep, that's federal. Actually up to a $10,000 fine if you're caught without them, and I *think* up to $250,000 for the shop that removed them.

 

I’m in Alabama, no emissions testing, but didn’t realize there were federal penalties.

It would certainly affect the resale of the truck if I went that way, but not planning on selling anytime soon.

Interesting to see the $100 eBay cats. Would like to hear how they work out, I might opt to go that route as well.

 

I do my own exhaust work and have installed cheapie $100 DEC replacement cats in my 535. They last about 3 or 4 years and then emissions issues start. As a 34 year old car it's now in the "visual only" category so there's no more actual smog test and the last one has been on there for almost 10 years and 150k miles. Based on the smell when the sunroof is open, I'm pretty sure it's doing nothing. As a 34 year old car there's only a single pre-cat O2 sensor for fueling feedback so there's no OBDII or CEL either. Given how much fuel goes through these engines, I would not expect a cheap cat to last much longer unless it's a weekend-only type vehicle. I'm not saying they're not worth it, just that it's a bit of a bandaid. I certainly wouldn't put down the money to buy a factory cat unless you see hundreds of thousands of miles in your future and don't want to revisit the issue.

I much prefer using wrenches over sawzalls and a welder, and would go the replacement Y pipe avenue. Tomzsix, if I were in your shoes I would try to remove the crossbar under the engine before buying anything. Four little diabolical M8 bolts with M6 heads on them. As an added bones there's a nice moisture and debris collecting pocket where the remaining threads of these bolts are exposed to the elements. You'd do well to spray them for a day or two first. Make sure you spray the threads as well, and really well. If that simple job turns into a disaster then I'd recommend buying the replacement cats and heading off to a muffler shop. Depending on how much they whack you for, the cost may be about the same as buying a Y-pipe and doing the job yourself. Even if that route ends up costing a little more, spending hours dealing with rusted bolts, or worse, broken manifold studs, isn't worth any savings. If the bar comes off without too much drama then do the same thing to the manifold outlet studs. Worse case is one of those breaks and you're probably off to the muffler shop anyway, unless you're up for that challenge too. No point in buying the Y pipe or the replacement cats unless you know what the best path is.