Re: Cost of replacement Catalytic Converters
If the emission system used on boats is anything like the emission system used on cars, there will be plenty of ways to circumvent it.
I participate in the BMW community and it is a fairly common mod on the 3-series to replace the headers (stock headers have the cats integrated) with after-market headers that do not have cats. The 3-series have two headers/exhaust pipes and 4 O2 sensors (2 pre-cat and 2 post-cat). If all you do is replace the headers and nothing else, the car just throws a check engine light but runs fine otherwise. Post-cat O2 sensors are there to verify that the cats are working, nothing else. If you don't like the check engine light, you can cut the O2 sensor cable and splice in an O2 emulator. With many states (including Wisconsin) doing away with sniffers to check for emissions, as long as your check engine light isn't on you are good to go. I can't see it being much different with boats, assuming they even check them for emissions.
