Y pipe back install

dna9656 · August 17, 2022

I just installed a Walker Y pipe cat cat assembly on my '04 SR 5. I kept the muffler and tail pipe as they are ok. I bought several so called "Factory Service Manuals" on Ebay, they were ALL the SAME, even had the same miss spelled Folder names and the same MISSING information. I got my money back on all of them too. Missing info: NOTHING on the exhaust system, no chapter titled "Emissions"; I'm sure other info is missing too.

I have owned several 1st gen S trucks, 2 door pickups, 2 and 4 door Blazers, even an Astro Van. The 1st gen is by far my preferred truck, the 2nd gens are a PIA to work on; everything is shrunk down to the point you can't get your hands to the work or you just can find any direct line of sight to the work; you GOT to have a light of some kind to see what your doing. They made it smaller yet it weighs in at over 2 tons!

I had to raise the truck and lower the tranny cross member to be able to snake\screw in the y pipe assembly. I need a rubber hanger on the cat and I'll replace both of them because the intermediate one is damaged.

Where I got delayed was the "Exhaust Flange Gasket" or "donut"; we called them donuts back in the day. It has a metal insert I had never seen before; I didn't know what it was for. They weren't made like this the last time I fooled around with exhaust (back in the day it was more affordable to pay a muffler shop nowadays; I just don't see the value in paying $1,000.00 for this kind of maintenance) replacement the donuts had no such thing. I called around; NAPA, Auto Zone, they didn't know. NAPA says it goes in ONE WAY.... Fel-Pro the maker is on Central time (I'm on the US West Coast; Pacific Time) so they had gone home for the day. There were no instructions on the package or the web site. I figured it out when I tried to install the new ones... the old ones fell out! Up there in that dark they sure blended in, I never saw them before they hit the ground. I thought the PO (if for any reason you wanted to require a license for some one to own a wrench this guy would be the poster child for such an effort) just left them out, he would be too cheap to buy the parts. This is the guy that just couldn't tell me he removed the cat and that was why the CE light was on; he just allowed me to believe the O2 sensor(s) were bad. You could tell it was very recent work, the welds were new and the smoke from the welding was still on the shiny, new pipe.

I felt I had to replace/reinstall the cat as I am moving back to a county that has a emissions test every year but more than that the CE light was on all the time and I'd never know (unless I checked it all the time) If I had a new code to deal with. Besides I like things the way they were meant to be, reliability is higher, it tends to run smoother; for me it's just less trouble. I used to "fix up" my cars, and that starts a process of more adjustments, more this, more that and I just don't have time for that anymore. More power to those that enjoy it, it's just not for me any more.

As I mentioned we're moving soon (less than 3 weeks) and I'll be able to change out the T chain and gear, install a Hi Volume oil pump, replace some seeping seals, put slotted and drilled brake s on it all in the heated comfort of my new shop (2.5 car) separate from the house, it even has a rest room! Over the winter I hope to get the truck to the point I can trust it. I'll clean all the grimy, greasy crap off the front undersides. I need some obscure dash (the filler panel to the left of the radio) parts, tires, the Armor All on the leather seats makes them squeak like a 1000 mice. The carpet has curled away from the firewall. The stereo (a Dual) install was so fouled up it has to be re-accomplished. There were lights on the roof; they were held in place on an after market roof rack that's attached to the OEM luggage rack. The cabling for these lights passed though the driver's door!

Edited August 18, 2022 by dna9656

Niners 365 · August 18, 2022

Sounds like the PO was trying to restore some lost power by removing that cats. It definitely sounds like a Jerry rigged truck. Seriously ran light wires thru drivers door. Bet that was a pain to open and close all the time. So did the y split allow you to run dual pipe out? Or are you still running single exhaust?