[mbumgua]

Several of you guys are getting a little testy over the cat issue. When I lived in the Peoples Republik of California I had a 1981 Chevy 1 ton dually with a gas 350 which did not have a cat on it from factory. When I got it it would not pass California emissions-- too high HC level. I asked the test station if it would be permissible to put a cat on it to reduce HC levels. His reply was that it would immediately fail because it was not original equipment and that it did not matter that it would meet all emissions requirements. What I am trying to say is that government does not really care about the environment. I moved very soon after that to Arizona where my truck was fine. It is not illegal for you to take off the cat on your own vehicle as some posters would like you to believe. It is illegal for anyone else to do it for you. I have removed cats from several of my vehicles and realized a gain of from one to three miles per gallon. If you live in an area that does not require annual emissions tests then its a personal decision ; not one that anyone here on the forum should castigate you for making. It does not make you a bad person; It just means that you don't buy into all the government propaganda about global warming etc. (Despite all of Al Gore's hot air the overall global average temp has dropped over the past seven years; and the period from Jan 2007 to now has seen a drop in av. global temp equal to the rise in temp since 1930's)