Bad Catalytic Converters

I need some feed back on this, will bad cats cause the engine to act like like it is starving for fuel at hiway speeds, "ie" when trying to pass someone it hesitates when you step on the gas but will recover when you let up? I a more and more leaning towards the cats, because if it was the fuel pump it would'nt start, and if was the injectors it would'nt run at all, and since I bought the truck new in california in 96, it has all the stuff for being smog legal in that state and since I have'nt lived in that state since 97 I was wondering if I should rod out the cats and see what happens from there, any input will help.

I opened up the exaust(removed cats and went with 3in exaust and glass packs) on my 92 and it made a huge differance in the way it performed. I highly recomend it

clogged cats should give you an SES light and a trouble code. With the symptoms you are describing,I would suspect a fuel pump that is going bad, clogged fuel filter, injectors, etc.

Try this out:

Get a can of fuel injector cleaner.
With the engine running pull the power brake vacuum hose off and allow the vacuum to suck in the cleaner.
Once all the cleaner is sucked in, shut the truck off.
Leave it off for approximately 15 minutes.
Turn the truck on.
It will smoke for a while until all the cleaner and whatever it dissolved burns away.

I've done this to my 96 k1500 5.7L and it smoothed out some rough idle and sluggish performance it was having at the time.

Hope this helps.