[V8] A few questions/Update

[NIck Miller]

         I have a couple of questions to start off.  I'm thinking my
Catalytic converters are in need of replacement, but not 100% sure.  I don't
have the cat light come on, and I don't really hear a lot of rattling or
anything upon hitting them with a rubber mallet.  I hear a bit of knocking
or something, but I'm not sure if it is the Cat core, or it its the
heatshield stuff.  Any way to test them other than this?
          I also have a hissing sound come from underneath the car while
running.  I can't really tell if this is a cat problem or just an exhaust
leak, but it sounds like it comes from about rear passenger side door area,
so that is near where the forward coupler to the cats are.

      Also, I was wondering if anyone here has taken apart an S6 instrument
cluster and knows which parts are similar.  I've seen some people swap in
the S// gauge faces, but I was interested if anyone had taken apart one and
compared what swaps, or is similar, if anything.  I'm fairly certain the
board on the rear of my cluster has one of the senders broken for the fuel
gauge.  Its the circuit board that comes off seperate of everything else and
is about 4 x 2in, and has about 15 long pins on it.  One of the transformers
doesn't seem to activate at all.

       Well, other than that, I've been slightly bored being indoors for a
while, like the rest of the city here, so I finally got my Oxygen sensor
issue fixed.  I redid all my wiring and soldered the connections this time,
and rewired the signal line wire, as the plug was broken, and some other
parts of that wire were broken.  All appears well, as it idles dead on, and
drives fairly well.  Still feels down on power, though.  I still would like
to pull codes on it to verify all is well.

        And, the Red has crested, and all seems to be well now.  A levy
broke in Oak Grove center, and took out that neighborhood and the highschool
there, so that is most unfortunate.  The secondary levy stopped it after
that.  Its incredible, the water broke through this levy underground,
because the footings were apprently sub-par when it was installed years
ago.  It came underneath and blew a gyser some 4ft into the air 10ft on the
other side of the levy.  Scary stuff.  We did just get some 10-15in of snow
the last few days again, so the river is expected to re-peak after it goes
down some in mid-april.  not as high, though.  So this sure was a long
message.  Thanks for listening and appreciate the help if anyone can offer
it.