no you don't need a tune. when you reach 4500 to 5k miles, your bike will run cooler, have better gas mileage, run smoother and feel like it has more power. this has been the case with my past 4+ harleys i bought new. after you reach those miles would be the time to tune it, and by then you will perhaps made other mods. your ecm along with your 02 sensors will compensate for minor tweaks here and there as long as they aren't too severe.

 

Thank you all for the responses.

 

Sounds logical to me...I would think that most of the heat would get trapped by or in the cat location as it ws trying to get out w/the gases and exhaust. Isn't that the purpose of the cat?

 

A catalytic converter is a device used to reduce the array of emissions from an internal combustion engine. A catalytic converter works by using a catalyst to stimulate a chemical reaction in which the by-products of combustion are converted to produce less harmful and/or inert substances, such as the very poisonous carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide. In automobiles, this typically results in 90% conversion of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides into less harmful gases.

 

I doubt if removing the cat will have any harmful effect on the motor.
You will only hurt the feelings of Tree Huggers and the EPA.

But if you are worried, why not just wait the couple of weeks when you do the dyno?

 

Any bike with the stock ECM programming will benefit from a quality tune. It may not need it, but there will be benefits from it.

 

Hell no man, I aint no rocket scientist, it took me an extra year to get through public high school in WV. Its always been my unsubstantiated theory that removing the cat in the OEM headpipe would not necessarily contribute to enhanced flow and performance, but it would definately reduce radiant temperatue. That sounds like exactly what you are saying, and you have sucessfully done the mod .I know a little about the 2:1 cause I worked with it, but I have no experience with the 2:1:2. Not to split hairs but the enhanced sound you experienced is one thing that you noticed that we discussed earlier. I do a lot of different modifications on a lot of stuff and the one thing that is consistient is the significant difference between theory and practice. Actual observed results are usually way off from anticipated results and expectations. You say 13K and no problems, How do you know the effects of the change you made? Did you hook it up to some type of exhaust gas analyzer or dyno, or did you just take a chance and run it, and now that you have gone 13K without catastrophic failure your calling it no problem. I'm glad it worked for you without any noticable ill effects.

 

mine is a 2:1, so i also have no experience with the 2-1-2 on these bikes. but yes, it did reduce radiant temp. a lot.

based on the number of people who said that you could change pipes only without a fuel management device (which included head pipes w/o cats) i didn't really consider it 'taking a chance'. but yeah, i just kinda went for it. but afterwards, i monitored the plugs (nice color, definitely no blistering or other lean effects), oil temp, (i had a digital thermometer that i would stick in there when i wanted to check temps, never saw above 235*), and just general operating behavior. bike ran and behaved flawlessly. i now have the powervision and a se ac, but that was more of an ' i want' vs an 'i need' sort of thing.....