I want to kill the cat !

[bowelder]

Just finished reading the thread on after market exhaust and now my Brain is completely fried! I like the sound of the stock exhaust on my Tri Glide but want to reduce some of the heat by going cat less, maybe true duels. Can I do this without having to do anything else, and will I lose anything besides heat, I don't want to do it if I'm going to lose power and maybe hurt my motor.

 

[rhino 2]

Just finished reading the thread on after market exhaust and now my Brain is completely fried! I like the sound of the stock exhaust on my Tri Glide but want to reduce some of the heat by going cat less, maybe true duels. Can I do this without having to do anything else, and will I lose anything besides heat, I don't want to do it if I'm going to lose power and maybe hurt my motor.

If you just lose the cat and nothing else' Your good to go and no power loss.. If you go to true duels like i did then i would do a Stage 1 which i did also....ThumbUp

 

[geezerglide11441]

If you just lose the cat and nothing else' Your good to go and no power loss.. If you go to true duels like i did then i would do a Stage 1 which i did also....ThumbUp

rhino 2, I would suggest against "True Duals" as you will lose some low end and with the heave Trike that is not where you want to lose any grunt. If you only want to rid yourself of the felt heat, I would suggest "CAT" removal. If that is all you do, you should be fine unless you also go for a more free flowing intake, and then I would suggest you find a way (and there are MANY) to increase your fuel, as more air in/out will make you run too lean.

Good luck, as I am sure others here will chime in with suggestions. Just make sure you understand them all and then make YOUR OWN disicions!!

Roger

 

[rhino 2]

rhino 2, I would suggest against "True Duals" as you will lose some low end..
Roger

Thats why i suggested with the true duals to go with the stage 1...Slip-ons and Thunder Torques..
My power comes on at 22 hundred RPM..

 

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Killing the cat might give you a little more volume to the stock exhaust ... did ion my 2010 Ultra

 

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Although I also added a stage one AC

 

[Fozworth]

Just finished reading the thread on after market exhaust and now my Brain is completely fried! I like the sound of the stock exhaust on my Tri Glide but want to reduce some of the heat by going cat less, maybe true duels. Can I do this without having to do anything else, and will I lose anything besides heat, I don't want to do it if I'm going to lose power and maybe hurt my motor.

I kept the stock exhaust but had the cat removed. I bought a Power Vision Tuner from Kevin (DK Custom) instead of seeking out a Dyno Tune.

The PV was easy to use and I'm very confident in the results of the Auto Tune it provides.

You don't want to make the changes you're talking about without having it tuned.

 

[consitter]

I had a stage I done to mine. I went with a FullSac exhaust all the from the header, of course it was cat-less. Used the factory exhaust pipes, knocked out the baffles and used FullSac baffles. Put in a Screamin' Eagle A/C, and a tune. The shop didn't have a dyno for a trike, so they did live rides to set my fuel.

If you are at all handy, I would suggest going with DK Customs stage I kit and Power Vision Tuner. If I'd have known at the time, it's what I'd have done, and I would have had a local shop put it on. Don't get me wrong, I like mine, but I would especially like to have the versatility of the Power Vison.

 

[consitter]

I kept the stock exhaust but had the cat removed. I bought a Power Vision Tuner from Kevin (DK Custom) instead of seeking out a Dyno Tune.

The PV was easy to use and I'm very confident in the results of the Auto Tune it provides.

You don't want to make the changes you're talking about without having it tuned.

Amen to this...

 

[HDB0B]

2014 - Decatted headpipes (I did it myself .... but wildpigpipes.com has for $150 and $50 back if you send back your core). Added Nightrider FL-Vied 10s to richen it up. Stock muflers got louder .... just right for me.
Heat issue is GONE. Trike runs great. 25K+ miles.

You do not have to spend a lot of $$$. If you are considering more motor work (CAMS) then I would get a aftermarket tuner instead of the incredibly simple Nightrider fuel enrichers.

More info = http://www.triketalk.com/forum/threads/27846-Cat-Removal-Questions

Bob

 

[headheaded]

kill the kitty with a 1 x 12 inch drill bit.

 

[bowelder]

Thanks for all your replies. I'm still unsure of what I'm going to do, but now I have some idea of what I'm up against. Didn't have to deal with any of this when I had my Pan head , should of never sold it. :blush:

 

[gerald martin]

heat

go rent a high quality heat gun. find a bike the same as yours without a cat . ride the same distance take heat measurements in all the same places. You will probably have no differences at all I did it with my freewheeler and found my bike was over 5 degrees cooler than the one with no cat. in my opinion all this talk about taking out cats id just a money grab the same as it was when they introduced cats in cars. You never hear about people removing car cats anymore

 

[Jack Klarich]

HD will lie to you Do not believe any thing they say
The EPA police are hitting them hard and rightfully so IMO

 

[Sunman]

I agree with Gerald. I de-catted my 2015 Free Wheeler and I can't tell any difference in the heat issue. The exhaust sounds better but the heat seems the same to me. I would think the exhaust has to be more free flowing now that the cat material is removed as it had to have caused some restrictions in exhaust flow but I really didn't notice any performance improvement, just a little better exhaust sound.


I did install the DK Customs floorboard extenders and THAT did help some on the heat issue by getting my feet a little farther away from the exhaust pipes.


Just my opinion.

Sunman

 

[HDB0B]

I (well actually my wife on the back) noticed a huge heat difference when I decatted my 2014 TriGlide ..... and you Free Wheeler owners are in the wrong group here ... LOL ... The lower fairings on a TG block a lot more air flow.

The 2017 M8 setup is entirely different.

Bob

 

[milemaker]

The heat issue on my 2012 Tri was really bad. I bought a used Y pipe off of craigslist and de-catted it. Not only was the heat on the right side really bad for both the wife and I but the bike ran hot in city traffic. Anything more than 3 close traffic lights red would make the bike run really bad on one cylinder. Always thought it was going to stall. After de-catting the pipe, put on V & H mufflers, stage 1 breather, and V & H fuel pak the bike runs totally like it should have in the beginning. It runs great now with much less heat on the right side. Its not all gone but 2/3s of it is. I kept the stock Y pipe in case I ever have to put it back on to pass any inspections.
It does make a huge difference doing these slight modifications.
Sam

 

[gerald martin]

heat

As I said try the heat gun method. my friend that had the decated bike would have bet money that his bike was cooler than mine until he was proved wrong

 

[Fozworth]

go rent a high quality heat gun. find a bike the same as yours without a cat . ride the same distance take heat measurements in all the same places. You will probably have no differences at all I did it with my freewheeler and found my bike was over 5 degrees cooler than the one with no cat. in my opinion all this talk about taking out cats id just a money grab the same as it was when they introduced cats in cars. You never hear about people removing car cats anymore

Gerald,

I have a Tri-Glide. I think the freewheeler may have more air movement around the passenger and rider but I have never ridden one.

In my case it was NOT HD that looked for a "money grab" on removing my cat. In fact HD has to be very careful about this type of thing due to the EPA laws.

As I understand the cat it is basically an "oven" that will ensure unburned fuel emissions gets burned before leaving the exhaust. By design it adds heat. That's it's job. (Unless I'm wrong, I'm not a cat expert).

But because of the EPA rules the bikes are tuned lean to send the minimum about of fuel emissions to the cat. That in itself causes the engine to run hotter than it would with a richer mixture of fuel.

Once the cat is gone that's just the start. You then can change the tune to a cooler burn and the exhaust pipe now has less restriction allowing an extra benefit of improved HP.

In my opinion the heat gun test would need to be compared cat vs. not cat while on the road or "under load".

My experience has been with my 2016 Tri-Glide is a much reduced rider felt heat for mostly my passenger since the heat seems to want to collect at the passengers right leg. I also don't feel as much heat with the cat gone. But beyond removing the cat I've raised the tank and removed the left side air deflector to help get better air flow around the engine. Those things along with floor board extenders can be tried before adding the expense of removing the cat.

In my case the cat had to go before my wife could be comfortable.

The 2017 models may have engineered the heat issue away from the rider and passenger straight off the showroom floor.

They moved the cat, added a fan and I think even added some extra water and/or oil cooling to the design.

I want to try out a 2017 once it's not so cold outside.

 

[Fozworth]

I failed to mention. I also have the DK Custom cooling wing deflectors that very much do help to get more air flow over the engine.

In fact why didn't I think of this before? He is a link to some great conversation about the Twin Cam Heat solutions.

Kevin has helped me big time with my heat concerns.

http://dkcustomproducts.com/Why-How-to-Cool-Down-the-Twin-Cam-Engine-Part-I-DK-CL-TC-DN-1.htm