UPDATE;
I dropped it off at the dealer monday and they confirmed that the cat had indeed replugged up, and that they needed to replace the cat and egr valve and take some readings. No charge so far…so i said go for it. I also told them that in the research that i had done, that it was suggested that a possible thing for them to check would be the oriface in the EVR. He thanked me for this advice and said he would check everythign and find the problem.
I got a call tonight and he said that in a 2001 escape the EVR valve that i mentioned was actually inside the fuel pump. He also said he found the problem…he suspects it is the fuel pump because the fuel pressure reading he took was at 70 and it he said it should never be above 30. He quoted me $380 for a replacment fuel pump, and offered to throw the 2 hours of required labor in for free. Again i thinked him for his findings and that i would discuss it with my wife tonight.
So since my wife knows nothign about cars…i am throwing this out to you fine gentleman…what do you guys think?