If i took off the cat and just replaced it with a piece of exhaust pipe, would it cause any engine problems. I know it wouldn't be emissions legal but my state doesn't do emissions tests. I also realize there may be some environmentalists who might flame me for asking this but i was just wondering.

Loss of low end power, increased pollution, illegal in all 50 states, etc.

Yeah, I understand it would be illegal and I'm not going to do it. But since I was having problems with the car missing and if replacing the plugs, wires and coil packs didn't fix it, I thought maybe my cat could be bad and figured i would try to take it off to see if it ran right. then if so I would get a new cat. But if taking the cat off would create other problems then i wouldn't be able to "test" anything by taking it off. I should have explained that in my first post.

Yeah man, just remember that I could get around 250 bucks for reporting a cat-less car.. It'* not worth it at all. The hp gains aren't worth the lack of low end. If you ran a turbo or had a high-rpm torque curve, a straight-pipe might be a consideration.. But you lose critical back pressure which loses you a ton of down-low power. Just my two cents... If you want to mod your exhaust starting with your cat, get a high-flow...

http://www.performancepeddler.com/de...CT_ID=MAG94806

going against what is in this thread, I ran my 00 with no cat for almost six months after I had my headers installed. I just had my magnaflow hi-flow cat installed and noticed absolutely no performance difference.

I appreciate the help. I'm not really looking for performance gains. I just want to use my car as a good dependable daily driver. I made another thread explaining what it is doing and the way it misses. I'm just trying to find ways to solve that problem. I don't have a lot of money and buying high performance cats aren't in my budget. I just figured if the new plugs, wires and coils didn't stop it from missing them maybe the cat was plugged and i'd take it off until i could get a new one installed. But I didn't know if the computer would act different when it noticed the cat was missing or anything like that.

to answer your question, no, it wouldnt hurt anything or cause any other problems. just dont plan on running it for very long without it, as it is illegal.

p.*. iirc hi flow cats are cheaper than a regular cat

Thanks for the advice guys. I appreciate it. I'm not planning on leaving the cat off for very long if I even do it in the first place. I did just check some prices of cats and they aren't as bad as I assumed. I thought they'd be a few hundered bucks but found several for around a hundred. That'* not bad.

you should be able to find one on ebay for $50, and the installation should be about the same...

Cool, thanks.