Can anyone recommend catalytic converters?

[Duke Silver]

Hey everybody,
just as the title says I am looking to replace my cats on my 05 suburban. I was looking to see if anyone has good recommendations for what cats to go with that aren't garbage?
I think I have to replace my injectors as well, I think that may be what caused the cats to go bad in the first place. Any recommendations for injectors as well?
I have an 05 Suburban as I mentioned above, LT trim with the Z VIN. I have had issues with a misfire since I bought it a few months ago, thinking the misfire was just plugs I changed the plugs, coils, and wires and still had the misfire. I've tested the compression as well, the numbers came back good. Cleaned the throttle body and MAF sensor. This is the last thing I can think of because my acceleration is horrible, the car is very sluggish, I have the cat rattling noise that has gotten worse, and I can smell sulfur occasionally. I had a friend of mine hook up his OBD scanner it showed the misfire on 3 and slightly on 1. The misfire does go away while driving.

Eventually, I would like to put a magnaflow on this vehicle or anything similar to get that deeper sound, recommendations here are welcome as well.

 

[swathdiver]

Almost 80K miles ago I replaced my cats and y-pipe with a Magnaflow set. Cheap Chicom cats last less than a year and often much less.

Walker are also well thought of. GM OE for the injectors.

 

[gooffeyguy]

@Doubeleive has been through a few of them. He might be able to recommend ones not to get, but he's also in a very restrictive/regulated state and options are limited

 

[Doubeleive]

If you can get the EPA cat's then I would go with the magnaflow, the CARB cat's are not cheap.
if money is a issue there is a company in Canada that sells some very cheap EPA cat's but no idea how long they will last
the cheapest CARB cat's are catco they have not been lasting me very long but I am not your average driver, my foot is in it all the time.
Eastern makes some for the 5.3l that are comparable in price to the magnaflow but I have never used them since they don't make any for the 6.2l

the magnaflow can be very pricey for the CARB ones, they appear to have a price lock with anybody that sells them, some companys have that ability to influence the price.
no one is allowed to (publicly) sell them cheaper than the price set by the manufacturer, otherwise they get blacklisted and can no longer purchase them.
that's why when you see a price for something/anything online and it if say's "see price in cart" that is there workaround, once you have it in the cart then you can see whatever discount they may offer and the publicly displayed price still meets the guidelines required because any discount is hidden.
Technically a price lock (resale price maintenance) enforced like that is illegal, but nobody does anything about it.
The Federal law and State laws can conflict so doing anything about it takes money.......
kind of like weed being legal in some state's but still illegal at a federal level.

 

[swathdiver]

Back around 2019 or so I realized that I had put federal cats on my California car. I tried unsuccessfully to ask Magnaflow, Walker and GM what the difference was and nobody would answer. They all looked EXACTLY the same at the time. Now, the Magnaflow CARB cats look like GM OE and there is a big price difference. I was looking to see if the different cats would necessitate tweaking the engine's tune for best results. Well, after 80k miles, no, the Federal cats work just fine on my California car!

My truck was originally ordered and shipped to a Pennsylvania dealer and that is why she has California emissions.

 

[Doubeleive]

Back around 2019 or so I realized that I had put federal cats on my California car. I tried unsuccessfully to ask Magnaflow, Walker and GM what the difference was and nobody would answer. They all looked EXACTLY the same at the time. Now, the Magnaflow CARB cats look like GM OE and there is a big price difference. I was looking to see if the different cats would necessitate tweaking the engine's tune for best results. Well, after 80k miles, no, the Federal cats work just fine on my California car!

My truck was originally ordered and shipped to a Pennsylvania dealer and that is why she has California emissions.

the only difference is pretty much the number stamped on it, carb certification can cost over a million dollars, big money grab by California.
and if they change the specifications in the law at all they have to do the cerification again....

 

[Trey Hardy]

Hey everybody,
just as the title says I am looking to replace my cats on my 05 suburban. I was looking to see if anyone has good recommendations for what cats to go with that aren't garbage?
I think I have to replace my injectors as well, I think that may be what caused the cats to go bad in the first place. Any recommendations for injectors as well?
I have an 05 Suburban as I mentioned above, LT trim with the Z VIN. I have had issues with a misfire since I bought it a few months ago, thinking the misfire was just plugs I changed the plugs, coils, and wires and still had the misfire. I've tested the compression as well, the numbers came back good. Cleaned the throttle body and MAF sensor. This is the last thing I can think of because my acceleration is horrible, the car is very sluggish, I have the cat rattling noise that has gotten worse, and I can smell sulfur occasionally. I had a friend of mine hook up his OBD scanner it showed the misfire on 3 and slightly on 1. The misfire does go away while driving.

Eventually, I would like to put a magnaflow on this vehicle or anything similar to get that deeper sound, recommendations here are welcome as well.

In my experience magnaflow cats tend to blow out quickly and not last no time but I’ve had good luck with flowmaster cats they were the only ones that held up

 

[swathdiver]

the only difference is pretty much the number stamped on it, carb certification can cost over a million dollars, big money grab by California.
and if they change the specifications in the law at all they have to do the cerification again....

That's exactly the conclusion I came to with you back then, the CARB number adds to the cost increase and the hardware performs the same.

 

[gooffeyguy]

And yet California has some of the smogiest cities in the US

 

[Duke Silver]

Almost 80K miles ago I replaced my cats and y-pipe with a Magnaflow set. Cheap Chicom cats last less than a year and often much less.

Walker are also well thought of. GM OE for the injectors.

Yeah that's where I figured. Everybody's telling me to stay away from the cheap stuff and if I'm going to do it I'd rather do it right than run into a problem down the line and just waste money.