can I strip the cats without engine problems??

Haven't tried this, but wouldn't stripping the cats result in the same kind of power loss we get when putting on a "too open" exhaust system? (aka Flowmaster)

In that case high flow cats are a real bargain!

prohibitively

NO.

I hollowed 'em out on an old '80 Dodge slant 6. Much more power, mean noise. Of course there were also no emissions test to deal with back then.

All the extra noise made you THINK there was "much more power". Dyno tests have shown very little gains from removing the cats.

LJH

I'll share what happened to me. 96 GTS, I put MAC off road h pipe on the GTS and lost low end torque, I could acually feel it. The car did'nt set me back in the seat quite as hard as is used to. I also went from about 270 miles per tank of gas down to 240 per tank. It sounded great, but not good enough for the loss in mileage or torque. Needless to say the OEM H pipe went back on.

It may not reduce the pressure to 0, but it will change the air/fuel ratio because it flows better which will result in a richer idle/off idle mix and cause a loss of bottom end torque and loss of gas mileage.