Contamination, overheating and wear take a toll on your Dodge Ram 2500 catalytic converter. If the problem becomes serious enough, the catalytic may become clogged, making removal necessary to prevent exhaust system back pressure and engine performance drop. Here is a recommended procedure you can use to remove the catalytic converter in your Dodge 2500 without much difficulty. Let's go.
Park your vehicle in a level place the night before you intent to remove the catalytic converter. Raise the truck or van using a jack. Make sure to safely support the front on jack stands.
Soak the clamped joints that hold the head pipe to the exhaust manifold, head pipe to catalytic converter and catalytic converter to intermediate pipe with a rust dissolving solution. The solvent will loosen rusted bolts and will make your job much easier the next day.
Double check your vehicle again the next day. Make sure it is firmly supported on the jack stands right before you begin the job. You might have to force apart rusted components using heavy hammer blows.
Put on your goggles. Remove the clamp joint holding the head pipe to the exhaust manifold using a ratchet, socket or wrench. If the bolts or nuts are hard to loosen, insert a steel pipe on the ratchet handle or wrench to use as a leverage. You also may loosen the nuts or bolts with a wrench and heavy hammer blows.
Remove the clamp joint holding the head pipe to the catalytic converter. Use the methods described in Step 3.
Twist the head pipe at the joints to release it from rust and scale. If the pipe twists freely--yet won't come apart--use a pry bar or a chisel and a hammer to release it. The joint might had been crushed by the clamp. Later, you can restore crushed joints with a pipe expander if you intent to reuse the same components.
Remove the clamp joint holding the catalytic converter to the intermediate pipe. Again, use the methods described in Step 3. Twist the catalytic converter free as you did with the head pipe in Step 5. Remove it from the vehicle. On Dodge Ram 2500 light trucks, the catalytic converter may be bolted in place to a mounting bracket. Just remove the bolts to release the catalyst.
