Ok guys, i'm willing to bet that this has been covered before, but i just gotta ask again. Ok here goes: i have a '99 4-door 2WD. i love it. Well, i replaced the fuel pump about 2 1/2 months ago. Drove great. my cat started rattling and couldnt afford a new one do i cut it off, and just ran it without for about a month. It was really loud, but it ran just fine, then the wife complained enough that i just straight-piped it to quiet it down. Ran it one day(about 3 hours of driving) with the stalraight pipe on it. Next day i drove it about 30 minutes, then all of a sudden it just started running like crap! Sputtering and stuttering, stalling out, loss of start-off power and massive fuel consumption, with a really strong gas smell. SES light came on and started flashing. so i do have some knowledge about motors, so my firat thought

 

fuel pressure leak down test, post the results and more help will follow, until then all other responses will be just guesses and shots in the dark

 

Ok sorry, this was incomplete. Accidentally hit the submit button. Reposted with more info though. and i dont know how to do that anyway so id need some coaching on that. But check my other post though