PoPo 751

Ok my daily driver, 2003 Avalanche has been great to me for almost two years. But the other day it started to run bad. First it was just under load near second gear when I noticed it. I drive like a grandma so I wasnt out beating on it.

Started to run crappy at idle. I took it home and then up to autozone to have them run the codes for the SES light. They said a miss in a cylinder and a bad MAF(dirty MAF). I changed the wires and plugs I had to the new ones I had waiting to go for the 5.3L for my 1949 Chevy truck.

Still the same problem. I decided to go to a guy I know who runs a Tuffy and see what he said. His guy got under and checked it all out. He found the odd side cat was plugged, it was significantly (i believe he said 200*) hotter than the opposite side.

I worked out a deal that If I removed the cats he would put a new pipe it. I know that will leave the SES light on.

Can anyone give me a suggestion. One option we talked about was an offroad pipe with no cats at all and the "fake" O2 sensors after the cats.

Any info will help, thanks and I'm trying to keep it an inexpensive but reliable as possible, and I dont want a new exhaust, I like it being quiet since I drive it all the time.

JC

Zzzzz

iTrader: (2)

How many miles on it? The cats may still be covered under the emissions warranty. Off the top of my head, I want to say it was 8 years/80k miles.

PoPo 751

112K miles so not covered.

Zzzzz

iTrader: (2)

Well, in that case.. cheapest way out would be to replace with straight piping and use rear 02 sims. Won't be as quiet as with cats in place, but shouldn't be too bad. (Also factor in emissions test issues, if that applies)

Price that against having a shop replace with universal cats and decide from there.