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I just ordered the K&N version of the Heavey Breather. I do not have the exhaust or headers yet. Can I Install the heavy breather and wait till I get the exhaust before re-tuning or installing the programmer?
No sir. You can put on new headers and new exhaust and not have to do anything but when you change to a heavy breather and affect the intake airflow then a tune must be done to correct the AFR's. Without tune or programmer you'll be running a lot leaner than it already is. And hot too.
Unless you have other modification (which you said you do not), or your engine is already running lean, the 63-1122 and 63-1122P (K&N AirCharger intake) do not require you to remap when installed.
During the engineering and testing, before the product was released, our Engineers monitored the AFRs as well to make sure they were within the range required by HD. And they were, so you will not need to remap the computer with just the kit installed.
Now when you get the exhaust installed, you will have to remap, but not before hand.
when you stick with a normal type breather and change nothing else it's not required but highly suggested since you're changing airflow to get at least a stage1 download on it. You would be MUCH better served by purchasing something like the FM Micro Tuner for this though.
In the case of the heavy breather because you're drastically changing the airflow into the motor, again it's highly advised to re-map. With the simple things you're doing with exhaust and airflow you can easily get away with devices like the Power Commander and will work well for you. If you want to step it up a notch and have full control over your tune then you'd want something like the powervision device but being a long time user/fan of TTS that's the route I would take.
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