2010 FLHRC and the story of the catalytic converter

It seems,

and I will spell this out carefully,

that Harley-Davidson has been putting a catalytic converter (a “cat”) in its California bikes for a while,

in most of its CVO (they have larger engines, you know) bikes,

and ALL of its 2010 bikes.

 

This is something of a problem.

 

The cat forces gasses, the accumulation of which tends to double the temperature of the exhaust*, through a certain screening process that results in loss of performance.

Uh-oh.

The * above is my queue to you that there’s some proper reference I can make, but I just realized there’s no way I’ll find the forum post exactly.  I heard someone measured the temp of the exhaust pipes at the cat at over 400 degrees, and everywhere else at around 200 degrees.  That’s good enough for me.

 

Anyway,

the cat has to go.

 

Drilling out the cat is a violation of EPA requirements.  I believe I’ve mentioned this before.  I may be a very diligent citizen, explaining to you, my good and curious reader, that such a procedure is not something which I can publicaly (like, say, on a BLOG…) advise that you take.

There are “lawful” alternatives such as swapping out the header (where the cat lives) for a pre_uber-emissions-control pipe.  Any non-CA 09 pipe, for example.  Realize that this isn’t legal advice, but a simple lay-inference I draw from the understanding (which is definitely unverifiable) that the MoCo put cats in their 2010 bikes to ‘practice’ the process widescale for the 2011 emissions requirements.  That = cats are required on CVO and 2011 bikes, but not 2010 bikes.  If that’s a misinterpretation, the stakes are federal.  Don’t blame me if you swap the cat pipe for a non cat pipe, I’m just parroting what I’ve heard.

For myself, if it were up to me … and I’m speaking HYPOTHETICALLY … I would just drill out the cat.  I understand there’s no need to retune if the baffles remain intact; the cat does not affect back pressure.  It allows freer flow of exhaust gas and that’s a good thing.  The engine will run a bit cooler, and that’s all.

We can also hope, those of us who put sound in the “comfort” category rather than the “vanity” category (which is where it belongs, so long as we’re talking less-than-the-rapture noise levels), that there’s a little juicy soul to be had by killing the cat.

I can’t say, however, that for-sure the cat removal improves sound or performance.  Some have reported it does, some have reported no change.

It looks like you’d have to be very empirical to bother knocking off your slip-ons to drill out a catalytic converter.  In other words, curiosity is required to kill the cat.

So get curious, if you’re the type, and let’s talk about what happens.  Don’t tell the EPA though ^_^