simplified exhaust question
 

im beginning to plan out a custom exhaust for the 3.0l 2wd to 4x4 conversion. i will need a new set of pipes coming off the headers that will clear a front driveshaft. as of now i want to do something different with the cats and possibly remove 1 or replace them with a smaller unit to keep the bulk down. what are my options for that? is it possible to remove one and still be clean enough to be legal?

Depends on your laws

I know it's illegal here to remove any of the emissions equipment, but I'm not sure how it works if you remove one but still have the others. I guess it's no different than if you were to buy an aftermarket h- or x-pipe for a Mustang or something similar where some of them have 4 or 6 cats and get replaced by two. I would imagine as long as you use good quality cats you should be fine.

I removed both my cats and replaced them with a single magnaflow high flow unit. Did wonders to the truck performance wise, and made the Gibson catback sound like it was a 5.0 stang. I think you can modify if you still keep some kind of cat on there.

your stock exhaust will clear the front driveshaft when you convert it to 4x4

i was looking at the configuration of the pipes and from what i can see online, the 4x4 and the 2wd cat configurations are slightly different, and i cant quite guess how i can get the d shaft to run through the crosmember and over the pipe and still provide enough driveshaft clearance, i thought it may need to be modified. if i need to keep the cats then i imagine i can just re-pipe the drivers cat and get it completely out of the way, but i was looking to simplify the system and possibly upgrade it with a more high flow unit if it is legal. maybe i need to find a 4x4 truck to take a look at and get measurements for clearances, and ill look into that magnaflow cat, what was the part number from them?? im sure that might make my flowmaster sound even better.