+1 on the cross talk. I de-catted my head pipe and couldn't get the bike tuned right using TTS with all kinds of popping and backfiring. I put on the fuel moto x-pipe and the bike tuned right in and runs like a champ.

I'm not looking to start a debate but just sharing my experience.

 

I didnot have any problems I quest because when I gutted mine I installed an Autotune at the same time.

 

Not hard to do. I used a Saws All to cut the pipe in half, drilled several hole in the CAT material and then beat it out with a chisel. Used a wire brush on a drill to clean out the rest of the material and had a welder weld it back up. Cost me $35 for the weld job and another $35 for gaskets and clamps. My bike is stock so no tune is required. Your situation could be different than mine.

 

Well then maybe I will just buy an aftermarket head pipe. Not the route I really want to go but i would rather spend the money up front than triple that later because something went wrong. Thanks for all the info guys. If you've got some aftermarket exhaust for sell shoot me a PM or you can find me surfin the classifieds.

 

is it possible that you had the o2 sensors backwards and then when you switched out the headpipes you got them in right?

not being snarky, just asking....

no problems with my 2010 decatted.

 

I have a 2:1 2010 OEM system that came off a SG, have used the the OEM muffler with the FM headpipe and the OEM headpipe with the cat, didn't notice any significant noise difference, or power difference. Supposedly removing the cat makes them louder but I have no personal experience with a decatted OEM pipe. For that "truer/deeper Harley sound", you could just try a larger muffler and/or a bigger baffle.

 

I'm planning on new mufflers but I've heard a lot of slip ons with the cat and they're not really loud enough for me. I want something that I can hear while driving down the highway with my helmet on... so I thought if I gut the cat.maybe it would then be loud enough for me. Plus I'm gonna di a stage 1 soon so if I needed head pipes I would just throw that into the cost.

 

Like I said I got no personal experience with the decatted stock pipe. I've seen a lot of people post that it was definately louder after removing the cat. No gurantee you will achieve the sound you're looking for with the first set up you try.

 

Personally, I would treat removing the cat just as if I had installed new, free flowing headers. You are greatly reducing back pressure and impacting all kinds of engine dynamics that live off reversion, scavenging, compression ratio etc. I would definately get a ecm remap.

 

The First thing I would do is to buy a stock headpipe off the internet or this site's classified. Thats what I did for $75 bucks shipped.That way you can still have your stock pipe if the govt gets stupid. Then I removed the cat and added slip-on's. There are a lot of threads here that will show you step by step. Its not hard to do, I had my buddy who owns a bike shop tig weld it back together. Its not a performance booster, but WITH the slip-ons the sound is much better. The bike is for sure cooler with the right side leg test. I also did a SE air cleaner and Fuelpak. NO cross talk with O2 senors. Have over 9000 miles since the de-cat. The sound will be even better with true duals, but Im very happy with $75.00 I have in it.