Was wondering how difficult this job is? Have not even looked at mine as yet, thought I would get some answers here first (hopefully). Will doing this cause the bike to throw codes or not? Any difference in performance or sound, would think so; good or bad? Will doing this have any issues with warranty other than the emissions aspect? Appreciate any responses I might be able to wrangle out of you.

 

Search on the forum here, its been talked about plenty with pics.
Can't remember who but there is a company that you can ship your old pipes
to in exchange for new ones without it.

 

Not worth the trouble in my opinion..The looks and performance gains with the newer pipes and fuel management with an open a/c are considerable.

 

well, that would be your opinion. in my case i had an extra 2010 headpipe that i got when i bought a used nightstick so i felt the experiment was worth the trouble.

the first thing i would do differently if i had to do it over would be to cut the pipe in half through the middle of the catalyst. i did it at the end and had to dig the whole thing out one side. i can tell you, this catalyst is not like one that you have ever messed with. it is not ceramic.... took about 2 hrs to dig it all out of the collector. someone else made shorter work of it using an air hammer, but i didn't have one.

after digging it out and welding the pipe back together. i am not noticing any negative effects. my bike is not throwing any codes. the nightstick has a nice rumble to it, still barks when you hammer the throttle, but is not obnoxious. this bike stock will outperform my 07 that had a pciii, se ac, and rinehart 2-1 pipe. no issues with listening to the radio at any volume. i even ran it with the stock muffler on it for a little while. not a bad sound, but is still very quiet, though not as much so as with the cc.

as far as heat goes, yes, it is still hot. but i am running the epa approved stock setup. stock a/c, stock download in the ecm, and epa approved nightstick muffler. it is nut unbearably hot, as in, get off the bike at a red light hot. but you can feel the heat radiating off the exhaust.

we went on a long ride today, when we pulled back in the garage, i quickly took the oil temp with a digital thermometer. now granted, this was a couple of minutes after the engine was shut down, but my oil temps were 205* i wish i had a ir thermometer to measure the heat off the exhaust, but i didn't. so cant tell you about that one.

with the current trend in politics, i wouldn't do it if it were my only headpipe. but since i had an extra, i figured what the hey.... but if you don't have one, check ebay, your local dealer for throwaways, or get a new one from fuelmoto.... but keep one on hand for just in case.

 

In my defense, I did state "In my opinion"...So as long as we are plaing MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS..What you have done, in effect, is spend some hours and no doubt frustration in making a poor performing V&H Power Duals head pipe? Only yours has the stock 1/2 smashed pipe crossing underneath. I am sorry Scratch, in my opinion, some, maybe even most people don't have an extra pipe laying around or the time to mess with the thing.
I'm not sure why you took issue with me directly but I am happy you are happy.

Mark

 

I have thought about the same thing and don't have an extra headpipe laying around either. Has anyone done the DEI exhaust wrap on them under the chrome heat shields? Or maybe done the ceramic or Jet Hot coating on them to try and drop the ambient heat?

 

When the 09's first came out critics/reviewers alike raved about the stock 2-1-2 head pipe and how it matched the stock engine and worked very well. Having had D&D fatcat(s), V&H pro pipe, Rinehart True duals, klockwerks double back true duals and various other head pipes I can tell you in my experience that the factory head pipe is comparable and works very well....especially without a Cat in it. Note that the only benefit in removing the Cat is the heat because you'll gain little (and may actually loose a little) performance depending on who you talk to.

So...."in my opinion" it's worth the time for 2010+ owners to remove the Cat if they feel the need. Match it up with a A/C and tuner and you've got 99% the performance and good running bike that others have with aftermarket exhaust systems.

I actually believe what I'm selling. I bought an 09 2-1-2 that I will be replacing my current Pro Pipe with...

"Just my opinion"

lp

 

I went the route of purchasing a Fuelmoto SS 2-1-2 head pipe. I wanted to keep the stock header and pipes, just in case. I ran stock for about 3 weeks, then added slip-ons, stage 1 a/c, and PCV tuner ran that for 2 weeks and finally got my head pipe in and have been running that for the last 2 days. Stock the bike literally felt like it lost pull @ about 3500 rpms, but pulled ok below that. Adding the slip-ons, a/c, and tuner made a difference, bike ran better, pulled better, and didn't make as much heat. Adding the headpipe was also noticable. It defintely changed the note on the exhaust and I can tell the engine is breathing better. Heat is much less on right foot area also. It pulls better through ~4K rpms now also. Thing is, when I get on it or decel quick it really gets loud compared to the way it was with the cat headpipe. All my opinion and seat of the pants and subjective observations of course. I kept all my stock stuff for more then one reason. Would I cut up my stock header. no.

Edit: You would not believe what the head pipe chrome looked like between the heat shield and cat area. Burnt. That thing makes some heat.

 

Just removed mine!!! 2-1-2 headpipe from fuel motto!! with the power package !!
bike runs excellent, lot more power and sounds awesome!

 

I removed the cat on my 2010 Ultra added the PCV and pipes. It made a huge difference in reducing the radiant heat coming off the rightside headpipe.
A observation I did make prior to removing the cat from the headpipe was during the changing of my tranny fluid(redline shockproof). The fluid was a little different color than usual. Ive used redline for about 10 yrs and have never seen it come out of the draia plug this color. I would assume the heat from the cat radianting in the tranny area is putting most tranny fluids to the test with the cat intact.
My cat material was not real difficult to remove, I used a bandsaw to cut the headpipe in half right in the middle of the cat, then I drilled small 1/4" hole around the perimiter of the headpipe, then I used a 1/2 bit and drilled in and around the body of the cat and removed the cat material.