looking for a little sound on my bike i heard removing the cat is the trick

good idea ? bad idea ? pro and cons ?

thanks

 

The only con is you have to buy a tuner for the CVO's since they have free flowing air cleaners (well, mine did; SESG2). Adding free flowing headpipe (no-cat) could make your bike a little on the lean side without one especially if you ran free flowing pipes.

On a regular 103 with the stock air cleaner guys are deleting the cat only and are able to get away without a tuner if they leave the stock mufflers on as well. Most do it just to cool down the pipe though.

 

Replaced the headers and mufflers on my 2011 FLTRUSE. Added SE tuner and custom map. One of the best investments I've made. Greatly reduced the heat with the cat removed.

 

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new scoot!

Do yourself and your bike a BIG favor. Get rid of the cat in your head pipe!

If you get a chance, go over to the CVOHARLEY site and read up on "Fulsacs".
70% of the members on that site use the "Fulsac X-pipe" and CVO baffles. (3 choices of size: 1.75", 2.0", 2.25") and still use the stock head guards.

As far as turners. Yes you will need to get one. Like the statement above, most of the folks use a turner named TTS mastertuner. (maps included if you use Fulsac)

There is really no need for a new air cleaner.
The MoCo actually did something right with the stock a/c. It is already a stage 1 and is really a big improvement over the plain stock one.

Doing this "Fulsac" Stage 1 will not only Improve the preformance of the engine, make the motor from being so damn lean, and keep your right leg from burning like a marshmellow on a stick at a campfire!

Good Luck and Enjoy your new Ride!

YELLOWBIRD

 

I removed the cat on my bike and like the results. I was looking to shed a little heat and get a little deeper sound, it accomplished both. The need for a tuner comes when you open up the intake airflow. Your bike already has the open intake so its mapping is different from the non-CVO bikes. You don't need a tuner just to gut the cat on a CVO bike with a factory free flowing intake. When I did mine I wanted to richen up the mixture a bit to help cool it down so I used the Nightrider VIED-10s and set them for 14.1 AFR as I recall. I could have set them a little richer but I didn't want to destroy my fuel mileage, range is important to me.

 

I don't think it is totally necessary to add a tuner but it will run a lot hotter without one. It will cook ya quick.
I do like the sound a lot better without the cat's. Not too loud but a good deep rumble.
My throttle response had a slight hesitation without a tuner but the tuner removed it.

just a thought

dd

 

OK I have a 2011 road glide ultra CVO --I want to remove the cat -- just to stop the heat -- WILL I BE ABLE TO DO THIS IF I DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE ?

 

I cut out my cat, Fullsac 2" baffles and TTS Mastertune with MAP from Steve at Fullsac. Huge difference. Then I put in Andrews 54H cams and Cometic .0030 head gasket with new MAP fro Steve. Runs even better and I get 44mpg.

 

toptop

 

I believe the answer is yes because it seems the ECU can handle the change on the exhaust side. But, don't expect a big change in heat. It will be a little better but not a lot in my experience. If the ECU handles the change that means you'll still have a AFR of 14.6 or so in closed loop. It will take a richer AFR to get the heat reduction you're likely after.