just leave it place and work around it it is there for a reason.
It's there because the all-knowing and infinitely wise government regulators know that choking an engine on its own waste is the best thing to make it run better. Same with catalytic converters, "let's make this thing that restricts airflow, gets dangerously hot, and is retarded expensive, just so that ALL the gas gets burned before it exits the tailpipe". If the governement truly wanted cars to get better economy with fewer emissions, the EPA would have told manufacturers to make these emissions and this fuel economy, by this date, on your own, or get fined, BIG. My dad used to run a tune-up shop where about all he would do is take cars that came in making next to no power and 10 mpgs, swap the 2bbl chokerator for a 4bbl, delete all the emissions stuff, advance the timing, and send it out the door able to burn its tires for a block and get 25 mpgs. It's the same story with diesels right now.