


Anyhow, saturday I spent removing the headpipes, and used a 1/4" X 12" long drill bit and a 3/4" flat wood boring type drill bit with an extension. I first drilled a bunch of holes with the 1/4" bit, then followed with the flat wood bit and drilled the center of the catalysts and then used a long handled flat screwdriver to chisel/chop/pry/scrape the rest of it out of the cores. It actually went pretty easy. The wood drill bit actually grabbed hold of the corrugated core and quickly twisted it up and ripped right through, and broke apart into chunks and I was able to shake it out. Then I used the long screwdriver to chop out the rest that was still attatched to the inside of the pipe walls. Again, it was'nt as time consuming and difficult as I thought it would be, the left pipe is a piece of cake as the core is close to the end of the pipe, the right side was the one I figured would be a chore due to the length and angle of the pipe past the core. Not so, the drill bit ripped it up and apart quickly.
Took it out for a good ride today, and the engine seems to pull stronger than before from 5000rpm up where as before it was around 6000rpm and up. Did'nt notice any decrease on the low end, or up top. No popping on deceleration, no flat spots or surging etc. The biggest thing I've noticed is that there is a very noticable change in the speed in which the engine revs out. It revs noticably quicker, without a doubt. (43,000+ miles of ownership...one knows when theres a change!!)
I'm running a Power Commander (with the factory upgrade map) with my custom K&N air filter with modified airbox, with the Sebrings w/baffles in. I'll be taking apart the silencers so I can remove the discs welded inside the core (the baffles are centered within these discs, and when you run without the baffles, the exhaust flows through the small hole in the disc....and it affects the sound, kind of a hollow poofy slightly puffy sound at idle and lower rpm's that I don't care for. I want to run them truely open like other aftermarket silencers, and put the bike on a dyno and get the mapping spot on for everything. As soon as I pull the head and do som pocket porting, and serious work on the short side radius, then it's off to the DucShop in Atlanta, GA for mapping.
Glad I finally yanked them things out!
