so, should I reseal the rack and pinion on a 96 147K or buy a reman and swap them out?
Also , my cat converter does not look like most I have seen, it is solid , small and round looks like a bullet muffler almost?
So, what is your opinions?

 

the rack is best just replaced with a remaned unit or New OEM unit. As for the cat alot of newer cats look just like a small bullet muffler.

Massey

 

I think that your chances of a leak free, long term success are much better with a reman unit. Look for a ruputable brand. You don't want to do the job more than once since an alignment in necessary afterwards. At least setting the toe-in.


As for the cat, it sounds like someone has replaced it with an aftermarket part. Not a surprise with almost 150k miles.

The original cat is designed to last for a long, long, time and contains a large ceramic matrix coated with platinum, palladium, and rhodium. It was expensive and easily cost $600 and up for a like replacement when the car was new.

Virtually no one wants to spend that kind of money on a 10+ YO car since it's near the end of its service life (as far as the vast majority of owners are concerned). A service replacement cat is much smaller and contains much less precious metal so it is much cheaper. It doesn't last nearly as long as the original but it doesn't matter because the car won't be on the road much longer (usually).

 

Since you are replacing the rack anyway you might want to concider a close ratio rack that came with the Y87 cars. I think all the newer LS cars this style rack also.

 

my truck goes through cats like clockwork every 60,000 miles, had it replaced once under warranty and have done it once since then they arnt cheep either and they will throw a code once they go bad and one of mine even destroyed the sensor cause I dident replace it soon enough

 

@ Bouigha,

Probably *the* most common cause of cat failure is overheating due to overfueling. The cat can only burn off so much excess fuel without getting so hot that the ceramic matrix melts. That's HOT!

Sometimes the cause of overfueling isn't obvious. I worked on an Oldsmobile once that had a cat burn up due to a bad EGR valve. The engine had too much EGR all the time and the O2 sensor signal showed a lean condition. While that was true it was due to the bad EGR valve, not something taking place in the cylinders.

If your cat is being replaced every 60k miles there's a problem that a good tech should be able to locate.

IIRC the the 5.2 in those Daks had a problem with the underside of the intake manifold or a plate under the manifold. It would hole and cause a vacuum leak. You might want to look for that.