Fuel Smell Inside Car

First off I'd like to say I'm a bit of a newbie at this so go easy on me. I've had my 01 GT for 8 months now and until today I've had no problems with it. Today, however, on three different occasions I got a real heavy fuel smell inside the car following heavy acceleration in 2nd gear. The car also stalled once on me when I was coming to a stop. The only difference between today and yesterday is that last night I removed the air silencer after reading about it on here. Could my problems be linked to the removal of the silencer, and should I even be concerned about the smell? Thanks in advance for any advice you all can give me. Mike

Well, I'm an idiot. I should have figured it out when I mentioned "fuel smell". SES light came on tonight and the first thing I thought was to check the gas cap. (Girlfriend was so kind to fill it up for me yesterday) Low and behold, it was just sitting inside the fuel door, unscrewed. I guess my next question is how long will it take for the SES light to go off? Thanks for the help. Mike