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[jong]

Sorry if this has been covered in a previous post. I would like to remove the cat from my 2012 CVO Electra Glide but would like to do it without cutting the header in half !! Does anyone have experience of doing this and was it successful?
The plan is to go for Fullsac 2" cores and FL-VIED -10 from Nightrider, any thoughts / suggestions ?

Thanks
Jon G from the UK

[GregKhougaz]

You can use this procedure. It will not remove the entire cat but rather drill and nearly 2 inch hole through it. So long as you are not changing cams, it should work for you:  Removing a Catalytic Converter form 09 CVO Road Glide.  Good luck!

[jong]

Thanks very much, that really helps, I'll have to try and source a suitable core drill bit in the UK,
Thanks again

Jon

[grc]

None of my business of course, but I can't help but ask why you would want to even bother if you aren't going to remove the entire thing?  To me it's similar to cleaning out a 4" drain pipe by running a 2" rod through the middle of the clog.  If you're going to take the time to do it, why not clean out the entire pipe?

Jerry

[ultrarider123]

None of my business of course, but I can't help but ask why you would want to even bother if you aren't going to remove the entire thing?  To me it's similar to cleaning out a 4" drain pipe by running a 2" rod through the middle of the clog.  If you're going to take the time to do it, why not clean out the entire pipe?

Jerry

My thoughts exactly, Jerry.

Jong, it may be something to look into but if you have a good friend in the muffler/exhaust business, may want to see what they could do for you.  Not much more effort in removing the entire catalyst material....plus, you never have to worry about any of the remaining material plugging up the exhaust if you core it.....thoughts to ponder upon....

[Boatman]

None of my business of course, but I can't help but ask why you would want to even bother if you aren't going to remove the entire thing?  To me it's similar to cleaning out a 4" drain pipe by running a 2" rod through the middle of the clog.  If you're going to take the time to do it, why not clean out the entire pipe?

Jerry

X2  There are other forums where guys swear they get the cat out with the core bit and they can only remove 1/2 of the cat that way.  You can cut a "trap door" (3 cuts/welds) to cut your pipe and remove the cat.  Make the cut out of the pipe next to the heat shield, remove the cat material, and no one can tell what was done until pipe was removed from bike.

[Fullsac Performance]

For Gods sake, lets not forget the horrors of "crosstalk"! 

Sorry, I couldn't wait any longer.

SG

[Steve Cole]

If your wanting to hide what you've done you can simply cut along the weld at the rear of the CAT area, where the casting it currently welded to the tube. Take the cat out but make sure and leave the long pipe from the front cylinder in place. Then weld the rear back on again over the same weld as before. Done properly, it's pretty damn hard to tell it was done.

[Dan_Lockwood]

I did mine on the bike with only the heat shield removed.  I got out my plasma cutter and cut a rectangular hole in the outside and then used my air chisel to knock it all out.  Boy, I was not prepared for the toughness of teh CAT material.  Afterwards just put the cut out back in the collector and MIG'd it all back up.  It's all covered and that works for me.

I'm sure that a muffler shop could do the same thing for probably less than an hour labor and no R&R of the header pipe.

[jong]

Thanks to all, and I fully understand where you're all coming from, the challenge we have in the UK is that it is difficult if not impossible to find a suitable engineering shop that I would trust to carry out the cut and weld technique, which I completely accept is the best way of removing the cat. Sad but true, maybe I'll go for a complete header replacement.

Thanks guys

Jon

[2k]

If you just buy a Fullsac header (or another header of your choice) you're done and still have your unmolested stock header to put back on  if you choose.

[the jacobite]

Can I ask why you want to remove the cat, bearing in mind that at 3yrs old over here you will need to MOT your bike and possibly have to purchase a system with cat to pass the test. I fitted new headers and kept the old system just in case of this scenario.

[jong]

Hi Jacobite,

Have you seen any signs of mot tests checking emissions yet? It is something I'd thought about but down here it doesn't seem to be on the radar? Any thoughts?

Cheers

Jon

[jong]

Steve, you mentioned "crosstalk" I'm not familiar with this, could you expand,

Cheers

Jon

[Aussie]

This may help if you find somebody that can run a decent weld.
http://www.cvoharley.com/smf/index.php?topic=82008.0

[jong]

Thanks Aussie , great info,
Cheers
Jon

[TN]

I cored my 09 out first, this is what was left. Still enough material to retain the heat. do yerself a favor, get a fullsac head pipe and be done with it.

[jong]

Wow, seeing that makes the decision very easy, Fullsac headers!

Thanks

Jon

[Boatman]

Thanks for the picture TN, worth a 1000 words for sure.

[Dietea]

Here you have a few option:

From ebay: Seller : tkepple03
He have original HD head pipes where cat is removed. Nice and good quality works. I have set and my good friend have one set installed to Road King.

Fullsac: CX-pipe. http://www.fullsac.com/x-pipe.html.
This pipe you can use original 12mm O2 sensors.

Fuel Moto: Jackpot head pipes 2-1-2. http://www.fuelmotousa.com/harley/exhaust.html
They have head pipe available where is possible use original 12mm or 18mm O2 sensors. 18mm O2 sensors are used in EFI turners auto tune wide band sensors.

[TNCarters]

Jong,  Not sure if anyone responded to your cross talk question.  Some tuner folks think if the O2 sensors are too close together inside the collector without baffle material between them that the O2 sensor accuracy can be affected by exhaust pulses from the other cylinder pipe.  Reports differ on this and seems to be a very slight issue at most but I'm no exhaust designer.  If you look at the aftermarket pipes like FM the collector X is several inches behind the O2 sensors.

[Dan_Lockwood]

Thanks to all, and I fully understand where you're all coming from, the challenge we have in the UK is that it is difficult if not impossible to find a suitable engineering shop that I would trust to carry out the cut and weld technique, which I completely accept is the best way of removing the cat. Sad but true, maybe I'll go for a complete header replacement.

Thanks guys

Jon

Cutting a hole in the collector part of the header and cutting out the CAT is not that hard for someone in a muffler shop to do for you.

Here is the hole in the collector showing the CAT material to be removed.


Here is the piece I cut out.  It was a bit of a chore to peel it out, but it came out and when I cleaned it up I just flattened it back out and welded it back in.


This is as clean as I could get it with the air chisel and a scraper.


Here is the CAT material I removed.


This was done in about an hour total, cut to re-welding the piece back in.

Good luck with yours or just buy a non CAT pipe or aftermarket header pipe.

[jong]

Jong,  Not sure if anyone responded to your cross talk question.  Some tuner folks think if the O2 sensors are too close together inside the collector without baffle material between them that the O2 sensor accuracy can be affected by exhaust pulses from the other cylinder pipe.  Reports differ on this and seems to be a very slight issue at most but I'm no exhaust designer.  If you look at the aftermarket pipes like FM the collector X is several inches behind the O2 sensors.

Thanks TNCarters, really interesting, all the info is pointing to a set of aftermarket headers.

Thanks again

Jon

[Midnight Rider]

Sorry if this has been covered in a previous post. I would like to remove the cat from my 2012 CVO Electra Glide but would like to do it without cutting the header in half !! Does anyone have experience of doing this and was it successful?
The plan is to go for Fullsac 2" cores and FL-VIED -10 from Nightrider, any thoughts / suggestions ?

Thanks
Jon G from the UK

You asked for opinions, so here's mine:  Buy everything from Fullsac and be done with it all.  That includes the Fullsac Header, the 2" cores, AND the TTS Mastertune and cables.  Steve at Fullsac will provide you with a TTS map so it's all plug and play.  The entire thing will cost you less than $1100.00 US.  If you have a basic set of tools, a drill motor with a grinding bit, and a laptop computer, you can install it all yourself in an afternoon.  No, it is not as cheap as doing a removal of the cat from the stock pipe, but the results are well worth the extra dollars.  The Nightrider product leaves a lot to be desired compared to a REAL tuning device like the TTS.  There is much more to a good running bike than just adding more fuel to the mixture.

[jong]

Thanks Midnight Rider, sounds like real good advice.

Cheers

Jon

[TN]

On the 09 and earlier removing the cat had no ill affect because of O2 sensor location.

Enough cash in this dept. will cure anything. Maybe I'll weld some more bungs in for sampling while tuning.

[the jacobite]

Hi Jong think if a Harley dealer is doing it you should be okay, but the mot test is getting harder to turn a blind eye to wee indiscretions, and they are getting stricter on the emissions. The main reason I removed the cats was to reduce the heat from the exhaust, and allow the engine to run cooler,  performance gain was marginal but a good dyno will improve it further. Fulsac would have been my 1st choice but dealer does not stock them or Steve's tuner, so there were warranty issues to consider if any engine faults occurred later.

[jong]

Good thoughts , thanks Jacobite

[Cvostu]

You really want to deal with all that.?.  And it wil just be a chopped up head pipe..  Do yourself a favor,,, get the fulsac. 

[jong]

Thanks Cvostu, I'll be going Fullsac

[Midnight Rider]

Thanks Cvostu, I'll be going Fullsac

Jong...Are you going to do this install yourself, or is it going to be done at a HD dealership?  Or independent mechanic?  If you are having the HD dealership do the work, they MAY not agree to using the TTS Mastertune and want to use the SE Pro Race Tuner instead, which WILL require a Dyno tune and will = more dollars.  And, not all HD dealers have decent people who can actually tune a bike, no matter which tuning device is used.

If you are going to do the work yourself, then it's a mute point.  When you first hook the TTS Mastertune device to the bike and get ready to load the map Steve (Fullsac) provides you, the FIRST thing that is required is for you to save the stock calibration.  The software will walk you through this process, and you can always come back here for help, if necessary.  Saving the stock calibration serves several purposes...IF you have to get the bike tested for emissions locally, you can load the stock calibration back into the bike and it will probably pass the sniff test, then when you get back home you can reload the good map.  Same is true with any warranty issues, if you can load the stock map back into the bike before taking it to the dealership for the warranty work.  The TTS does not "flag" the ECM so that the dealer will know the stock calibration has been changed, IF you load the stock calibration back into the bike.  If you take the bike in with the Fullsac map installed in the ECM, the dealer will be able to tell.  Technically speaking, any modification to the exhaust or ECM voids the warranty, but this varies a lot, depending on the dealership.  Just food for thought...

[jong]

Thanks Midnight Rider, I will be doing the work myself. Thanks to a well misspent youth I have plenty of engine building experience etc triumph bonneville ,Chevy engines and Pro Comp drag racing. Worked in IT for 25 year so I should be ok with the computer side of things. Thanks for the heads up on process and HD dealers, I think we share the same opinion regarding their abilities !!

Cheers

Jon