OK, I'm not much of a mechanic these days so I'm going out on a limb here and saying I think my Cat converter is going bad. I'm hearing something rattling around like marbles and it sounds like it's coming from the exhaust system.

My 98 F150 has the 4.6 V-8 and has 86,000 miles on it. Before I start calling around to see what this is going to cost me I'd like to know is this something a shade tree mechanic can fix, and if so, where do I buy the parts? A quick online check showed over $600 bucks list for one, and I think mine has two of em.

Any tried and true resources you'd care to share?

Ron

 

Get some magnaflow universal cats. Much cheaper!

 

OK great. How do I know how many I need? I see on here where some have up to 4 converters. I've Googled and can't find out how many my 4.6L truck has.

Ron

 

You only need 2.

 

Remove all 4 cats, take them to the scrap yard. Your old Ford cats fetch from $160 -$200. Purchase two high flows for replacement (Magnaflows). An exhaust shop will need to bend you up two new down pipes and install the new cats.

Or, there is a way to do it yourself cheaper. Keep and gut your forward converters. Replace rears w/HF's.