2003 road king with stage 1. Im thinking of cutting about three inches off the length of the baffles in the Kerker slip ons I have. Will I have to remap? I just added a set of fishtail tips and I do see a difference at mid range. They are more restrictive than what I had prior to them and I actually notice it. The opening is half over all the opening of the slash cut tips prior. The sound is ok and im not looking for more but just wondering if it will affect the motor any. The baffles in the kerkers are long, more than 12 inches in length. What do you guys think. Again the sound is not the issue but the slight low end bog midrange after the tips when on.

randy

 

your pipes are designed for high exhaust gas velocity.

altering the baffle will probably do little to make up for your tips- and when you take the tips off, the pipes won;t work as well.


gasses which slow in the exhaust tract can impede flow and performance overall


'speriments with sawzall and muffler are best done on stock mufflers because they generally come at no cost...that way your premium mufflers are still working if you put them back on.

alot can be learned by doing modifications at home.
that is the beauty of supertrapp disk type mufflers- the pipe flow and power characteristics can be altered in minutes and tuning is easy and changes are reversable

mike

 

im a fishtail nut so they will be staying on either way, I was just wondering if trimming the baffles back a bit would be of any benefit at all. Im not worried about putting the old tips back on at all. Im not looking for noise, but was wondering if that would help with the ever so slight bog and if a remap would help as well.

randy

 

think of the fishtails as a 2400 baud modem

adding a faster graphics card ( the muffler internals) will have little or no effect.

As long as your priority is a "look" then you'll have to be resigned with the effects of that choice.

I figure you are a computer guy and the analogy will make sense


if you are looking for a 'traditional look', the fishtails came into use in the 60's ( afaik), previous the muffler was cigar shaped and a common tip was the "rocket tip" as shown below on a '53.
That tip and 2/1 exhaust is original to '53, the rocket tip doesn't alter the flow, it isn't 'squished' closed



Mike

 

MK, thankyou for your info. The tails I have are not squished closed. Although they are tapered down at the opening they are open all the way up the tail as well. But yes I am a computer guy, I actually sell them for a living and your analogy makes sence but open area of the tails are give or take almost identical in area as the slash cuts.

thanks again

randy

 

I do not know if this relates to anything here but If you are into cutting or removing baffles, check out the DK Customs Thunder Torque Inserts. You can gain your torque back after cutting on or removing those baffles?

 

If I understand correctly, you are putting your fishtail tips back on. If that is the case, then I would remove the baffle completely and replace it with the Thunder Torque Inserts. You can leave the baffle in if you wish (or cut it down a bit) and put the Thunder Torque Inserts in with them...you will get a low and mid range bump in power doing that. But you will get an even larger bump in torque if you remove the baffles.

Here's a vid-