Weird luck with an exhaust issue

[Agentlongwood]

Took the car to the track on Friday night.  I wanted to get one last set of timeslips before installing the Catless downpipes and Intercooler, I have sitting in my garage.  I was bummed out though, because the car was running slow.  I got 3 runs and all 3 were between 13.8 and 14.0.  I'm thinking maybe I broke something.  Then on Saturday I got a check engine light.  I though, oh crap, I really did break something... Plugged in my scanner and it's a PO430.  A problem with a catalytic converter, lol.  My guess is that it's blocked up, which caused the slow 1/4 mile times.  How crazy is it that my car hung on, until I had the catless pipes waiting in the garage, before the cat died.  Just thought it was pretty funny.  The pipes are getting installed Tuesday, but just out of curiosity, its ok to drive the car like this, right?  I'm taking my son to the zoo tomorrow. 

 

[SHOdded]

As long as you are not dumping fuel into the exhaust, you should be ok till Tuesday.  Just no stomping on the wa wa pedal prior.  Change at least the front O2s at the same time, and seriously think of doing the plugs soon.

 

[Agentlongwood]

Thanks for the input.  I'm running the sp534 plugs at the moment, so I was thinking of swapping to sp542s anyway.  But our of curiosity, why do you say to change out the upstream O2 sensors?  the PO430 code is the cat performing below threshold, and is picked up by the downstream O2s.  So what's the rationale for swapping the sensor?

 

[SHOdded]

Even if the front sensors are ok, they tend to get damaged during downpipe removal/reinstall.  Good opportunity to get fresh O2s in there.