I ran no muffler with just a cat, no problems, then the cat started rattling and drove me nuts, so I cut the tail pipe off, took a screwdriver and broke up the rattling peices of cat and threw them out, ordered a muffler, installed it, with an empty cat and had no problems.
never once after emptying the cat did I through an engine code, nor did I notice it adding any power, or losing any power.
Muffler was a flowmaster 40 series.
If there is nothing wrong with the cat I wouldnt mess with it.