Gutting cats, good or bad???

[KillaZ350]

I know my cars a little different from most of yours, but they should share the same side effects to certain mods, ive asked this on my camaro board but my question never gets answered.
I had Dual Cats, that goes into one 3in pipe into the muffler, then comes out the muffler in two pipes. Then the cats went bad and came apart inside so instead of paying $100 for two cats, i took my cats off and put a piece of pipe in each of their places.

The 1st few days it was a lot louder, didnt notice any performance difference, then after a few days it got a more quiet, and rode a bit more rough. I think i may be losing a little low end torque and back pressure, would this also mess up my EGR Valve? Like i said the power band and riding isnt as smooth as it was before....


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1991 Z28 Camaro L98 5.7http://www.IROC-Z.org/3rdgen/BandetZ28-resized.jpg
http://www.IROC-Z.org/3rdgen/BandetZ28-2-resized.jpg