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Also, the effect of a properly functioning catalytic converter will be negligible to the fuel economy. Why are you having to replace an O2 sensor again? Is there other problems with the engine? O2 sensors should last ~50-100,000 miles and become "lazy" (slow to respond or minimal crosscounts) with age, thereby affecting fuel economy. It they fail completely, they tend to go toward the rich side, also affecting economy. In a way, O2 sensors are alot like spark plugs....they wear out slowly and usually go unnoticed, until a DTC is generated. On cats., if everything is working as it should, your cat. should last indefinitely. Any contamination.....oil, water, solvents, RTV sealants, etc. cycling through the combustion tract can, and will cause problems with both the O2's and the cats. I monitor the O2's and cats. on both my vehicles using a DashHawk. I just got back from a 2000 mile trip and noticed my 2/1 (bank 2, precat.) O2 sensor is lazy, and the vehicle only has 53K on it. It'll get changed next week.
I'd also recommend reinstalling the cat., as suggested above, and also because the powertrain is designed so everything works together to achieve the best performance and economy, and the lowest emissions possible. Newer vehicles are even worse than some of the 90's vehicles, as the computer(s) keep track of everything, and if anything is detected to be out of tolerance, a DTC is generated. On mine almost any DTC will cause the Multi-Displacement System (MDS) to stop functioning, and really kill the economy.
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