My friend and I went driving today..

He told me when I downshifted, a puff of black smoke came out... Also,
that I was choking him whenever I was in front. He thinks that my new
catalytic is already bad (maybe from running too rich from the RH inline+FPR
solution).

Is this the case, and does it matter if my cat is bad (no emissions in Austin,TX)?

 

If there's no emissions in San Antonio I would imagine there's not in Austin either. . .black smoke. . .check your plugs you could be running rich.

 

Black smoke= fuel, you're ok just as long as you're not too rich

 

You are probably running a little on the rich side. Its perfectly fine. What is your exact setup on your car, fuel wise and engine wise? Check your plugs to determine how rich you are running. If you are really paranoid about it, just save up some money and do a couple of dyno runs with the wideband 02 hooked up. Then you can do your fuel tunning from there.
But dont' be worried turbo cars will blow a little black smoke out under full throttle even if tunned for perfection.
EVIL