need cat help

having to replace bank 1 cat/manifold. I bought walker replacement and installed only to find that it was leaking were the cat was welded. since have returned and ordered oem, got email that part is backordered until further notice. Should I try walker again or is there another brand that exceeds walkers reputation?

 

Unfortunately, on these trucks aftermarket cats are extremely hit or miss, with a lot of them failing QUICKLY compared to OEM even if they do fit correctly and don't have immediate issues (like bad welds!).

You may want to consider hitting up car-parts.com and looking for low mileage takeoffs, but as I have discovered, unless it specifically says "w/ cat" you'll be getting chopped manifolds - lots of places don't, or can't, sell used cats, and scrap them immediately.

 

I'm pretty sure salvage yards can't sell used converters due to EPA regs.

We've had decent luck with Cataran branded converters where I work on most vehicles but aftermarket converters in general are hit or miss on whether or not they will fit properly/without modification and/or set a code again soon after.

 

update, still having po420 code. Have used cataclean, have removed manifold/cat and soaked in dawn dish soap. Water in bucket afterwards was totally clean. I have used lacquer thinner, 1 gal, to half tank of gas. Replaced upstream o2 sensor. I reset code, but it is showing in pending on scanner, so quite certain it will come back on. Manifold/cat are on nationwide backorder from oem. Could this be the downstream cat that is bad? How can a person tell which one is throwing the code??

 

The downstream cat doesn't have a far side sensor.

That code can be a bad cat or it can be a bad sensor.

 

Remove the upstream and downstream sensors.

Spray a whole can of non chlorinated brake cleaner into the honeycomb.

Spray the sensors off with carb cleaner

(Obviously, the pipes should be cold before you do this)

Most of the time, tha cats are not ruined, the honeycomb is just fouled. Putting fuel additives in your tank will not clean the cat.