Howdy all!

Been some time since my last post.

Since my purchase of a beautiful '90 GL Weekender (Blackbeard) back in
November of '06, I've hauled it (along with my dog, Jack and all of my
worldly possessions)
cross-country from Chicago to Vegas.

Yep. Dry, hot Vegas.

Almost immediately upon arrival I was made brutally aware (smoke, smell,
mess on the garage floor) that I was due to replace some valve gaskets.
Not a huge surprise, since I was planning on a fairly major tune-up, anyway.
. . especially given that ol' Blackbeard has recently crossed the
quarter-million mile mark!

I had a feeling that the catalytic converter was bad (broken, bouncing
pieces of ceramic have a very distinct sound), but what I was not expecting
(and should have been, given that this is after-all a Vanagon) was that the
rear O2 sensor was in need of replacement.

So bottom line...

I have been going back and forth on whether or not to completely bypass both
of them.

I've known of people who've had their cats completely removed and had the
resulting missing section replaced by a simple connecting pipe (in one case,
glass).

There's also the old "To O2 sensor, or NOT to O2 sensor (if I can find
someone willing to remove it)".
The purist in me is saying "It's there for a reason. Keep it stock and just
replace it."
But the paying way-too-much for gas part of me is saying "It's always gonna
run too rich with that thing in place, so just yank it."

Further, it would seem that bypassing the cat and yanking the O2 sensor
would do great things for fuel economy . . . but not being any type of
mechanic, I'm wondering if it would have negative impacts on other systems
that I'm not considering.

So before I do ANYTHING, I felt it necessary to call upon the mechanical
expertise of the list and get some of your thoughts on the best way to
proceed.

Thanks in advance!

-Drew