Opinion on cat delete

[David Vandercook]

I did a exhaust leak smoke test on my 86 w250 yesterday since I already had my smoke machine out for vacuum testing. I discovered several very large leaks on all the joints, the welding was a very amateur job to say the least. So I'm going to have to fix all that. I've been thinking about deleting the cat converter while I'm at it because I don't like that it puts so much load and wear on my engine and I also suspect that it is a bit fouled up which contributes to my trucks difficulty in climbing steep hills. I'm wondering if there are any downsides to deleting it that I'm overlooking or if there's a better alternative. I'm not extremely concerned with emissions test because there is no vehicle inspection in Arkansas.

 

[tron67j]

Deleting can cause the rest of the system to keep adjusting because it can't figure out what's wrong with that out of the loop. Older cats can also impact back pressure and sudden removal could cause other upstream problems in exhaust system. All of this is maybe, can never tell.

 

[Daw14]

It might make the exhaust smell terrible.

 

[Green_Manalishi]

Seems to me like the removal of the converter on a pre-CARB and pre-OBDII truck is a no-brainer...