My wife bought me a 2013 Ultra Limited Anniversary back a couple for months ago (I know, she is a keeper). My 4th Harley.

Anyways, My brother gave me the SE mufflers from his 2010 Ultra and they seem to sound better but I'm going for more sound. What is the scoop on these fleabay pipes where the cat is removed and then rewelded back up? I saw one where they cut the middle out and run 2 pipes where the cat was to give more of a true dual effect. For not much more money I can buy actual true duals, but I hear about the performance loses. Is the V&H pipe with the crossover section a good compromise?

I will be adding a performance air filter too.

At what point does retuning need/have to be done and does it have to be dyno?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

I'm certainly no tuning or exhaust expert here but you have to be careful with the fleabay stuff especially on these head pipes where the crossover chamber was cut open, decatted, then rewelded. I'm sure a lot of these folks know what they're doing but I'd be afraid of bad welds coming apart under stress then you will probably have no type of warranty. There are varying opinions (from much smarter people than me) but I was warned away from true duals with a stock setup. If you're going to add cams or other high performance options then you compensate for the low end you lose with true duals.

IMO, find something like an xpipe from fullsac or fuel moto's headpipe and run the SE slipons you already have. You'll be surprised at the sound change by having a decatted headpipe and a "seat o the pants" performance increase. If you're not happy with the sound there are manufacturers out there that make baffles for the SE slipons

As for tuning, well again many varying opinions out there on this but rule of thumb is if you change to high performance air intake or exhaust then you don't have to tune as the ECM will compensate to some extent. But if you change both then you should tune. As for the dyno, no not at all but it's certainly best to have it properly tuned on a dyno by someone who knows what they're doing with the specific tuning device you choose to use. Again, rule of thumb is find a good/reputable tuner first and ask what they are more confortable tuning with. Make sure the tuner you find does more than wide open throttle runs for his/her tuning process. You want someone that will modify your Lambda tables, EGR tables, Timing tables, etc.