Pros & Cons of cat gutting.....

[DZEE'S LX]

And not neccesarily the feline variety......

I already know that I should be doing a offroad pipe or new high flow cat h-pipe, but I'm wondering if this will work for now until I have the money.

While fixing one of my cracked pipes, the guy at the muffler shop was doing his best to convince me that they could build a custom 2.5 X-pipe behind the cats and then go 2.5 mandrel-bent to the bumper. So now I'm thinking about gutting the two rear cats assuming that they start the new pipe right at the back of each cat. I think the shop will look the other way if I do this myself.

I'm trying to achieve three things.
1. Just a little louder sound out of my Race Magnum mufflers.
2. Passing the visual part of the emissions test.
3. Hoping that the two front cats are enough to help pass the sniff test.

Has anyone done this? How much does it change sound and did you still pass smog?

Oh, if you work for the EPA this is only an idea and I will never actually do it!!!