catalytic converter removal
 

i have an 03 silverado 1500 with the 4.8 in it....my lil check engine light comes on from time to time and i had it coded...it said something about low catalytic emission.....
so my question is.....can i remove these without having to re program the truck? whats the cheapest redneck engineering way to take care of it?

Yes you can remove them assuming a couple things:

1) it is legal to run a vehicle without catalytic converter(s) in your area.
2) You want to look at the SES light at all times

I don't believe it will screw up anything fuel/air wise... your downstream O2 sensors may throw codes thinking your cats aren't working.
I've heard however that throwing a Spark plug non-fouler in with the O2 sensor can cure that problem, haven't tried it myself however.

What I have done in the past is I end up cutting the cat off with a Sawzall (b/c of welds) and ramming a rod through it until there is nothing inside of it. Then taking a few exhaust adapters and bolting it back up.

I do this because here you have to have cats on your vehicles... so they atleast think my vehicles have cats on them. If it were legal not to have them you could just bolt on a piece of pipe I guess.

What was the exact code that you pulled?

im not sure viper...i just swung in an advanced auto parts store one day and let him throw the reader on it...he didnt tell me the exact code...but i think the reader said low catalytic emission

most of your newer trucks ( engines) run better with the back pressure on them. the factory did this for environmental reasons. i think your best bet would be to put some high flow cats on it.

Take the cats off or put new ones on and retune it.

thanks for the responses guys....but hi flow cats or even replacing the oem cats is a bit out of my budget....no....WAY out of my budget....i see that my 03 has no o2 censor after the cats.....so if i just cut the old ones out...and straight pipe the gap.....will it cause the engine to run too lean?

It should run fine with no cats, mine does with gutted cats and nonfoulers on the downstream 02 sensors. As long as it is legal to run without cats, or you don't have inspections you should be alright I would assume.