2002 Monte Carlo has a confirmed clogged cat. I’m in CO and the solution is expensive. Has anyone done a cat delete? If so what all do I need to get to complete it? Thank you in advance!

 

How expensive are they talking? Id just go to a 3rd party exhaust shop and have them slap in a universal cat. Shouldn't be more than a few hundred bucks.

The problem with deleting it with straight pipe or breaking the guts out of it is you're going to throw a check engine light. If youre in an emissions check area, that's going to be a no go. There's 3 ways around that:

-Tune (could be tough to find someone willing to do it these days and buying a tuner will cost more than fixing the cat). EPA has been cracking down super hard on this kind of thing lately.

-O2 emulator (havent been made in years - could be tough to find a functional one these days). Maybe there are still some Temu knockoffs getting made?

-Spark Plug Antifouler (probably the cheapest solution and are still available, but can take some trial and error to get the hole size right)


The other thing to keep in mind is it'll smell. If you're in an emissiom area where they only care about the obd reading, then that won't be an issue. But if you're in a more picky area, they'll know instantly it has no cat as the smell is unmistakable.