Yep.

A few years back, I filled up on some bad gas in the boonies and one of them fried (bad emissions readings and I knew something was wrong). However, still have the same original A/F sensors. This is more common than you think down here. Often people don't know a precat has been fried until emissions time. However, even without the precats, the numbers you see above (and that is not even the best it can do, I can get into the teens on HCs) more than pass here on a voluntary basis.

The cat I got is a 3-way cat and is much more efficient than the OEM. Keep in mind, there are Toyota Solaras that have 1MZFE engines that come under Federal Emissions, not CARB, and have just one cat OEM with no precats. There was discussion of this over on www.solaraguy.org not too long ago in a discussion on a custom downpipe somebody made as a group buy.

In addition, keep in mind, my cat won't be as efficient as at sea level given my altitude (part of the reason we have smog, but the crappy gas is the big killer).

There really isn't anything that small, in fact the OEM main cat was quite small and I remember Hangar-1 mentioning how could somebody put such a tiny cat on a truck like this.

 

I talked with two muffler shops today. Both say that they won't remove precats because it is against the law to alter emission part of exhaust and a $10,000 penalty in Texas. Even with new main 3-way catalyst. And even if the car passes inspection. But they say they can weld on aftermarket converters of the same size and configuration.
I found WALKER Part# 16121 ($149) which is the big one. But still cannot find precats anywhere, I think the front one is WALKER Part# 31374, the part number for the rear bank is unknown. Where to search? I am not going with OEM.

 

They are right. Only time they can alter a cat or emissions systems is when they aren't functioning (as in my case). As I recall where you live has emissions along with El Paso, Houston as I last remember. One group that routinely does modification in this are Solara owners over at Solaraguy.org and I saw a post this morning on a discussion on this, http://www.solaraguy.org/viewtopic.php?t=33964

More than any other group I know, they modify 1MZFE engines and several have installed headers.

What is the issue with your existing cats and what did these muffler shops recommend about the precats specifically?