I'd say not man. I hate cold weather. When it gets cold I move like Frankenstien's monster due to old nagging injuries. My 85 yearold Grandmother can get around better than I can and I turn 35 in July.

 

Why would you have costly repairs to contend with from triggering a P0420 with no converter? Like I've been saying, the P0420 just means the average amplitude of rear H02 voltage is too close (or equal too) that of the primary H02. OBD2s are programmed with a logarithm that compares the two under closed loop conditions. Considering the said-converter was removed, there is nothing to replace in order to eliminate the code.

Oxygen sensors will go bad if exposed to long term rich mixtures, leaded fuel or other "fun" fuels. If your adjusting mixtures or playing with "fun" fuels (E.G., how I use methanol) then you probably know enough to know you shouldn't have any catalysts in the exhaust stream. I've seen cases where a ECU was set for open-loop only and this has caused this as well (track conditions) If your running your daily driver in forced full-open loop mode you would see a HUGE decrease in fuel economy anyways.

Not to sound offensive, but I'm "pretty sure" you have alot to learn about OBD2.

 

Removing a catalyst on a road driven vehicle in the USA is a federal crime, and no authorized dealer of any kind will do this in their right mind.

Hollowing out the catalyst will make a negligible difference on even a vehicle that is tuned specifically to work optimally without a catalyst. The reduction in backpressure that everyone thinks is "magic" will only result in a better flowing exhaust system at high rpm when the catalyst is working the way it is designed. If your driving your vehicle in this RPM range (past the peak of the torque curve) you'd get much better economy by easing your foot up a bit.

I've got a friend with a Ford Escape 3.0. All 3 catalysts became ruined when the ECU failed and stopped signaling random coils in different cylinders. I scanned the OBD2 and found DTCs P0300, P0301, P0303, P0304, P0305 & P0306. I checked all the plugs, and coils myself to verify all were working correctly - he needed a new ECU, and 3 catalysts. Estimated repairs were ~4000$. After replacing the ECU I hollowed out the existing destroyed catalysts to allow for exhaust flow. After using 10$ in defoulers the vehicle was working perfect, and only cost abou 1000$-1200$ to repair, instead of 4000$. Fuel economy stayed the same, and there was no noticeable increase in performance other than the vehicle would actually go faster than 20mph where the backpressure before was limiting it to that.

 

No, limp mode is what prevents it from emptying your bank account. Retarded timing, generous fuel and low rpm prevent catastrophic failures when something is wrong.