Morning,
I have a 2002 Ford Ranger 3.0 V6 2wd. I previously was having issues with misfires, was stuck 2 hours away from home in the middle of nowhere when it misfired. Had to drive home at about 45, look under the truck and the cat was glowing.

I got the misfires stopped by replacing the wires and coil pack. Check engine light is off but still no power and can only go around 45. Figured my cat was plugged.

Took to muffler shop guy said the cats are plugged, all of them not just the big one. I'm trying to figure out if this is true or if I can just replace the big one.

Is there any process of elimination that you guys know of to figure out if it is actually all of them or just the main big one?

If you haven't figured out by now, I'm car stupid.

Thanks.

 

Welcome to the forum


Cats were glowing HOT because they are there to burn off excess gasoline, misfires were dumping unburned gasoline into the exhaust pipes, so you cooked them on the long drive.

Engines are basically self powered air pumps, if you restrict the incoming air they have no power(throttle plate), if you restrict the out going air they have no power.

So partially blocked exhaust would act the same as blocking your throttle plate at 1/4 or 1/2, so engine can't power up past that point because of limited flow.
i.e. put a block of wood under your gas pedal, so it can't be pushed down all the way, see how your power is

Anyway you could unbolt the Cat farthest from the engine and go for a drive, see if you have ALL the power back, yes it will be loud.

If not then unbolt the next Cat and see.

A shop would have to replace all the Cats or get a $25,000 fine, not sure if they can replace just 1, it's a Federal thing not State.

You can replace just 1 Cat, shops have different rules

But because of what happened I would see if you can find a deal on the Cats, and do it yourself or find a shop that will install Cats that you provide
You may find replacing 1 just gets some power back not all the power.

Wrecking yards can't sell Cats
But maybe you could find someone parting out a Ranger or similar vehicle, they can sell the Cats, not suppose to but can

 

Thanks for the reply Ron!

I think I will try taking off the last (larger) one, like you said, and try it out. I know I can get one of those cats decently priced. But everything else behind that is much too complicated for me to handle.

If it comes down to that, may just get rid of it. Shop priced me at $1100 for all new cats.

Again, thanks.

 

$1,100 installed is not to bad considering the "Y" pipe cats are $350-$400 even on ebay
But they are plug 'n play so just wrench work.

There were a few different Cat converter setups for the 2002 Ranger 3.0l depending on what state it was originally sold in.
i.e. a Ranger sold in California probably had 10 or 20 Cat Converters, lol, yes exaggeration but not by much.
Most rangers are rated as 1/2 ton load, in Calif. it's 1/4 ton load because of the extra emissions add-ons :)