were you running it with open manifolds? just a y-pipe? what?
its possible that the lack of backpressure right before the O2 sensor was casuing the computer to read incorrect....but its much more likely due to how you had the exhaust setup. also keep in mind that the catyletic converter is there to help burn unburnt hyrdrocarbons from the combustion chambers. it could be that your truck is running a little rich ALL the time, but the cat converter is burning the excess fuel off before it comes out the pipe...so you dont notice it.
im (ashamed to say) running my 3.0 with no cats and i dont get any O2 codes, the exhaust smells fine, and i still get 24MPG on a regular basis.