OK hello everybody im petar and ive had my toyota corolla 4afe 1.6 for quite a while now (3) years. its got 162xxx miles on it, and about a month ago I chopped the exhaust pipe off right before the cat, and welded on a Cherry Bomb Muffler, and i've been running it like that for about a month. Also i've got the stock intake tube converted to a short-ram Intake.

Anyway to the point --- Just about 3 weeks ago, the car started to idle rough and occassionally sputter, and now (2 weeks later) when taking off from a complete stop it will just sputter and half-die on me all the way up to 3000 RPM - past that it smooths out. It's a very weird problem to explain, as i've never had any problems like this. The car does run but i have to baby it and take my time even getting up to 30 miles per hour. I also just replaced the Valve Cover gasket set because one of my spark plug tube seal was blown to shreds and was leeking oil.. Could it be backpressure messing with my valves? Coils? Maybe a vacuum leak? ANY help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!!

ps: as soon as i get ahold of a videocam i will record my car running and post it up here for you guys to check out.

Thank you!!