I have an 85 SR5 22RE 4wd Pickup. I no longer have to go through emmision testing due to the age of the vehicle. Should I remove/gut the catalytic converter. I am not sure if it has ever been replaced or not. The truck has 194,000 miles on it. If I gut the converter what issues may crop up?

 

leave it on

 

this may be a california only rule, but isn't it 30 years? and last I heard, they passed a law that if your vehicle was developed when emission laws were enabled, they MUST stay on regardless of the age?

 

pretty sure thats a federal law. if the car came out of the factory with a cat, you have to have one.

 

If it were mine, I'd check it by removing it and looking through it, its probably getting clogged up by now. If so, take it to a cat recycler and collect lots of cash. With that cash replace it with a new universal cat and you'll probably come out ahead (or I did anyway). I got $140 for my old partly clogged 93 cat and the new one was $60 + what the muffler shop charged to weld it in.

 

Just finished a serious cylinder head/ timing chain job and I am in the process of installing a new factory style exhaust. I removed my cat and installed a test pipe on the truck to check if my cat was seriously clogged and I have to say that the truck is DOG with out the cat. It has no low end torque at all and barely makes it up hills now.

I believe these 22re's need to maintain exhaust velocity to keep their torque band where it needs to be, so I am installing a new factory style converter and a new turbo muffler from my local auto parts store as well as running new 2" piping from the manifold back.

I hope this information helps your decision in gutting your cat. I believe it is a mistake to remove or gut it.