Drone pipes

[jcotews]

Hi, recently my check engine light has come on with codes p2099, p2097, and p0430. The catalytic converters had been replaced recently but now the p0430 is back. Took it to the shop and once they got it on the lift they brought me out and showed me that the previous owner of my truck installed their own "drone pipes", and the techs claim that is what caused my relatively new cats to go bad. My question is will replacing the exhaust system in full be the correct fix, of may there still be something going on the harm the cats? Thanks

[Snowcamo]

Pics of said drone pipes? That name can be a few different things. 

[jcotews]

That's what the tech described it as, I've never heard of such a thing 

[Snowcamo]

Ah yep just what I thought.

 

Do you have Flowmasters?

 

Those pipes help cancel 2k up drone, by way of sound deadening those frequencies. Old trick. Likely not the cause of your issue.

 

Do you have headers?

[jcotews]

No aftermarket headers, in November I had a Jasper reman. engine put in, it's a afm delete model, meaning it's just a simple pushrod gen 5 Lt 5.3 with absolutely no afm bullshit. Factory headers, muffler is a magnaflow magnapack.

[jcotews]

No aftermarket headers, in November I had a Jasper reman. engine put in, it's a afm delete model, meaning it's just a simple pushrod gen 5 Lt 5.3 with absolutely no afm bullshit. Factory headers, muffler is a magnaflow magnapack. Also no crazy tune. Jasper flashes their own just to make sure the computer doesn't try to put it in v4 mode.

[newdude]

1 hour ago, jcotews said:

Hi, recently my check engine light has come on with codes p2099, p2097, and p0430. The catalytic converters had been replaced recently but now the p0430 is back. Took it to the shop and once they got it on the lift they brought me out and showed me that the previous owner of my truck installed their own "drone pipes", and the techs claim that is what caused my relatively new cats to go bad. My question is will replacing the exhaust system in full be the correct fix, of may there still be something going on the harm the cats? Thanks

 

 

Did they use the correct OE converter y pipe assembly?  Did they install new OE oxygen sensors?  

Edited April 19, 2023 by newdude

[jcotews]

It looks like they used magnaflows 50 state compliant system. When the light first came on for me I replaced all o2 sensors with acdelco's

[CamGTP]

After market cats usually always set the check engine light sooner or later. That doesn't mean they are bad, it's just that they are not as good as the OEM.

 

You can try spacing the rear o2 sensor out of the exhaust stream to try and stop the code from coming back, it's a popular trick to do.

 

Past that you could get someone to tune it and turn off all of that garbage. If you lived close to me I'd only charge the cost of the vehicle license for such a simple thing.

[Snowcamo]

Cam is spot on. 

 

Side note once you get your o2 sensor issue squared away try a different exhaust setup and scrap the drone pipe. It is in the wrong place anyhow. It is supposed to be more over the axle.

[jcotews]

Okay, thank you all for the help, it's much appreciated!