I've got a 2001 with the 5.4. I took it in for inspection last week, knowing from the rumble that I also needed exhaust work. The good news was it passed inspection as is. The bad news was pretty bad: The exhaust was rotten from the cats back. The previous owner of the truck had put a dual exhaust on, and the shop had cut in real close to the cats. It's rotten to the point where my shop has nothing to weld onto, and they need to replace the entire exhaust. They quoted me like $1500 for the job, and most of that was for the 4-cat OEM exhaust from Ford. I thought about just selling the truck and buying something newer when they told me that, but then I saw what used trucks were selling for! I'm in NY and going catless isn't really an option for me, so I'm just wondering what a sensible fix it option is here, if there is one.
Thanks.

 

Can you run high flow cats there? If so do one high flow per side. I don't believe they are that expensive and you can sell your cats for scrap (precious metal) to make up for money lost.

 

What part of NY? I commute to Elmira area almost daily. No emissions i'm pretty sure there, so I would say you should be able to get by with 2 aftermarket hi-flow cats inplace of the 4 catted OEM Y pipe assembly.

 

Not too far away...I'm closer to Binghamton. Yeah they don't use sniffers here, but I just didn't want something throwing my CEL all the time and making inspection a PITA. If high flow cats would work that would be fine by me. I did take a better look tonight - the drivers side pipe after the cat is still OK:

Pass side pipe after cat is busted:

I'm sure the drivers side won't be too far behind.

Anybody care to take a stab on what two high flow cats and the rest of the pipes would run?