Hey all, This is my first diesel. I just bought the truck and the cat was plugged, I removed the exhaust just in front of the cat to drive it home, Now today I put the exhaust back on with the cat hollowed out and its a pooch. Please help me. 1997 F250

 

on the drivers side of the fuel filter bowl there is a screen that probably needs cleaned out. To get to it you have to remove the two bolts on that is holding a block looking thing about half the size of a cell phone that has a hose coming off the bottom of it to the side of the filter canister. When you remove those two bolts pull that block straight out of the canister, but be careful not to drop the "o" ring or the screen. You might also have to loosen the hose clamp on the hose under it to get it to move enough to get to the screen. The screen is about the size of your thumbnail and is a bitch to find if you drop it into the valley. Luckly it is steel so you use a magnet to help slide the screen out of the canister with out dropping it. The screen will probably be gummed up with a bunch of black crap, clean it off with brake cleaner and reinstall everything.

 

I have not done whta HighPlainsDrifter is talking about but i willl my 97 had a large power problem to dont know about the cat. get a can of diesel change the fuel filter(if yours is stock i recomend a purolater it allows you to use a 1/2 inch extension to remove/install it) look for the yellow lever nxt to the fuel bowl to drain it there is a hose that goes blow the truck drain it fill it drain fill it . my filter was brown and i drained it and the 2nd water bottle full looked like an unfiltered beer. ran great then 2 wkks later (now) its brown again so nxt is fuel tank

hope this helps

 

if you havnt ever cleaned that screen, you will be amazed that any fuel was flowing through it at all it will be so dirty. My 97 was down to about 12 mpg and felt really sluggish then cleaned that and it was back up to 18-19mpg and felt like a brand new truck. Its a really simple thing to do, I clean them on both my obs 7.3s once a year now. As far as the cat is concerned thats usually the first thing to go on my trucks. If you have ever seen inside the cat on a powerstroke you will see how restrictive it is and how easy it is for it to clog.