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Originally Posted by vegaman
I finally got a good read on my '06 Tundra AC V8 gas mileage on the highway -- 22.8 mpg. This was achieved at a steady - and I mean steady -- 65 mph on flat road. My only mods are a Flowmaster y-pipe, Magnaflow muffler and 3 inch single exhaust, K&N air filter (leaving in the factory emissions filter in air the box), and Undercover bed cover.
As for removing the cats for better mileage:
There was a newer Ford pickup in front of our van pool the other morning in stop-n-go traffic. It had a modified exhaust system that was quite loud. The big bust was that it stunk, I mean really stunk, like cars from the sixties -- obviously, no cats. I tried to get the licence plate to call him into the CA Air Resouce Board but got ahead of us in traffic. If we all have to comply for very good reasons to have cleaner air to breath, why should one person be allowed to ruin the air for everyone else? (kind of like a heavy smoker lighting up on the bus.) I'm running a hi-po cat on my 1971 chevy just to do my part for cleaner air. Wouldn't removing the factory cats screw-up the ECU's ability to properly run the engine?
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The only problems you're going to run into when removing cats are catalytic converter inefficiency CELS, which is easily fixed with mechanical, electrical, or engine management fixes. It shouldn't cause any problems with how your engine runs because they're just part of the engine's exhaust system.
I used a high flow cat in the downpipe of my old ~300whp WRX. It would have passed emissions and gave me a noticeable increase in fuel mileage when the other cats were removed. In a turbo'd car though, you do lose some spool if you leave the cats in.