MandAtaco
Member
The gas mileage in my truck has sucked since I got it, it's heavy but my averages were in the 11-12's with 4.56 gears. I've cleaned and tuned up everything on this rig, so I thought that I'd go ahead and replace the cat and 2 o2 sensors in hopes of squeezing a few extra MPG out of her. It'll never be a Prius but I don't care.
I ordered everything from Amazon as they had the best prices. The CAT I purchased was a WALKER brand part #53287, LINKY! It was $187.37 when I bought it, way cheaper than an OEM replacement. This specific model fit my 2000 4x4, automatic, FEDERAL EMISSION, truck.
Coming out of the box, the first thing I noticed was that some of the welds were ridiculous! since pictures are worth 1000 words....
Not even sure what happened here:
That one didn't bother me to much, but the next one I'll show you did... This is the area I'm talking about....
And this is inside the rear most pipe, sorry I thought I had the correct area in focus, but you get the idea.
The weld blew through where (I'm assuming) the gap wasn't good or the heat was to high or something.
I thought about sending it back, but figured I'd probably just get another one like it. So I decided to just fix it myself. I took a "long necked" die grinder with a grinding stone and smoothed it down. Being careful to keep crap out of the CAT itself. I shoved a rag down the o2 sensor hole and used a vacuum. Better picture:
Now I know on a N/A, 3.4L, 4Runner, it probably wouldn't make any difference having the weld in the pipe like that. It bothered me though, and that was enough to clean it up in my book.
For other references, here is all the pipe sizes and such, compared to the OEM unit. OEM on top pic, Walker on bottom:
Inlet pipe size:
Rear output pipe size:
Couple side by side comparisons:
As far as mounting it in the truck, it bolted right in with 0 issues. In fact it was easier to get in the truck just because the CAT is physically smaller. I've put 100 miles on the truck with a no check engine light. I haven't had enough time on it yet to see if my mileage is any better, but even if it did, would probably have more to do with the 2 new o2 sensors than the cat. Sure it can't hurt though. I did keep my old CAT in case I want to change it back or put a high flow cat on it or something.
Hope this helps someone make a better informed decision when shopping for a new cat.
I ordered everything from Amazon as they had the best prices. The CAT I purchased was a WALKER brand part #53287, LINKY! It was $187.37 when I bought it, way cheaper than an OEM replacement. This specific model fit my 2000 4x4, automatic, FEDERAL EMISSION, truck.
Coming out of the box, the first thing I noticed was that some of the welds were ridiculous! since pictures are worth 1000 words....
Not even sure what happened here:
That one didn't bother me to much, but the next one I'll show you did... This is the area I'm talking about....
And this is inside the rear most pipe, sorry I thought I had the correct area in focus, but you get the idea.
The weld blew through where (I'm assuming) the gap wasn't good or the heat was to high or something.
I thought about sending it back, but figured I'd probably just get another one like it. So I decided to just fix it myself. I took a "long necked" die grinder with a grinding stone and smoothed it down. Being careful to keep crap out of the CAT itself. I shoved a rag down the o2 sensor hole and used a vacuum. Better picture:
Now I know on a N/A, 3.4L, 4Runner, it probably wouldn't make any difference having the weld in the pipe like that. It bothered me though, and that was enough to clean it up in my book.
For other references, here is all the pipe sizes and such, compared to the OEM unit. OEM on top pic, Walker on bottom:
Inlet pipe size:
Rear output pipe size:
Couple side by side comparisons:
As far as mounting it in the truck, it bolted right in with 0 issues. In fact it was easier to get in the truck just because the CAT is physically smaller. I've put 100 miles on the truck with a no check engine light. I haven't had enough time on it yet to see if my mileage is any better, but even if it did, would probably have more to do with the 2 new o2 sensors than the cat. Sure it can't hurt though. I did keep my old CAT in case I want to change it back or put a high flow cat on it or something.
Hope this helps someone make a better informed decision when shopping for a new cat.
