| Author | Message | ||
     Prophet_136 |
so looking on youtube i found several modified stock muffler on the 1125's, but no links as to how they did it. i tried searching here and other places but have come up empty. i would like to know if there is a simple way to modify the stock exhaust/muffler with out surgery or rewelding? i am not to worried about performance just need the bike to be louder. any help is greatly appreciated. | ||
| Xl1200r |
Only thing you can do without surgury or welding is to stick a big azz drill bit in each tip and drill out the pipe leading into them. This opens them up into one of the rear chambers of the muffler. A few have done this - I believe the result was a little more throat at idle, but sounds about at the same at speed. | ||
| Prophet_136 |
Now when you say "big ass" drill bit, do you mean length or diameter? Or both? | ||
| Carbonbigfoot |
both. R | ||
| Xl1200r |
As big around as you can get and still have it fit in the hole, and as long as it needs to be to reach the tube. | ||
| D_adams |
Somewhere around a 5/8" bit and 8-10" long, as I recall. It's also easier with the pipe off the bike, but can be done without removing it. | ||
| Prophet_136 |
So just to make sure i got this right. I take a 5/8 drill bit 8-10in. Long and go in through the exit holes and drill away? Sounds just like what i did to my 07 SV1000S before i had the money to buy a yoshimura system. Cool thanks guys, i will try this today. | ||
| Lovedabueller |
Re installing that thing is a pain in the ass. that front left but behind the oilcooler was hell with these ape hands of mine.  | ||
| Prophet_136 |
Ok so i am looking in the exit pipes for the exhaust and i am a little iffy on this. Anyone have pictures of this mod? | ||
| Xl1200r |
Careful with the top outlet - the tube is pretty close to the outer skin of the muffler. | ||
| D_adams |
Lets see if I can get this to work... Ok, where the red x's are inside the first chamber on the left side of the pic, thats where you'd drill the holes at.  | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Every time I see the innards of the stock can, I am amazed at the engineering. Maybe I am easily impressed? | ||
| Prophet_136 |
D_adams- thanks! the picture helps a lot. i was wondering if i could have a picture of the whole assembly torn open, i am getting light bulbs in my head  | ||
| Froggy |
+1, I just wish it didn't sound so lame!  | ||
| Fresnobuell |
I dunno about lame, but I understand where you are coming from. It's no wonder that the aftermarket pipes are having trouble keeping up with the stocker. | ||
| Froggy |
I heard the race piped bike that Danny Eslick rides, it sounds effing awesome, I need a race license now just to get that damn thing. Stupid EPA/California (no offense) | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Race license and a chunk of change. No offense either--I hate CA gov't with a passion. | ||
| Slypiranna |
Any of the pictured "X removed" = more noise but @ a loss of power, no matter how much time and money you spend tuning on the dyno. Counter productive and proven. Sorry. (HINT>>>DO NOT remove any of the major flow tube down low! LOL! You'll kill it! I know as I did the same way back when...) Same applies to the majority of current exhausts on the market with a stock ecu and OL enabled. OL disabled and major tuning has found slight gains but nothing close to what is advertised as proof. Actual real world testing proves otherwise. Buell did an excellent job on the 11's exhaust. Thus far, it hasn't been whooped. mm | ||
| Chadhargis |
I've had a lot of aftermarket exhausts in my day, and I'm not saying "never", but I have lost interest in loud exhaust. Quiet has it's advantages. The only way I would replace the exhaust is for weight reduction, but the location of the stock pipe is down low, so it doesn't effect handling much. I know some people don't like the look of the stock pipe, but I think it looks a heck of a lot better than some of the aftermarket stuff that is left hanging off the side of the bike. I can't help but think if the bike came stock with a traditional muffer....hung from the passenger peg bracket like most bikes, and someone came out with an aftermarket unit that was the same as the stock one we have, it would sell like hot cakes. Everyone would be saying how it's "mass centralized" and makes good power without being too loud. LOL! | ||
| Prophet_136 |
yeah i too like the look of the stock exhaust, i just want a little more sound. i do a lot of traffic (aka lane splitting) driving in.... Ca. so a louder exhaust helps. i have proven this in the past. | ||
| D_adams |
I had a Jardine, took it off and sold it. Bought a new Miller Maxstar 150 tig welder and I'll be building my own soon. Sure, I coulda bought a Drummer, or even the factory race pipe with that $1500, but, I have a tool now that I can use repeatedly and build my own. I even made some of it back this past weekend with a weld job on a hard-tail H-D frame. I'll have to do some tuning to verify the results and pay for some dyno time, but I'm pretty sure that a fully polished slipon 304 stainless pipe/muffler can be easily produced for under $500. | ||
| Jdugger |
D, Practice, practice, practice with that new welder of yours. The MaxStar is a great machine -- it was my first TIG machine. (I have a Dynasty 200 now.) I went to school to learn TIG welding. I would equate doing it well as about as difficult as learning to ride a motorcycle at club racing pace. It's not something you just go buy the equipment and do, but it's something most anyone with determination can learn do to well. In particular with stainless, it's unlikely your first efforts are going to be particularly successful. You need to back gas SS as well and watch your heat inputs, or your weld beads will rust. If your welds finish with a dull gray or there's "grapes" on the backside, you have to cut out the weld and go again -- if you want it to be right. And, trust me, at first, there's going to be a lot... if not mostly this... happening. Also understand there's an ENORMOUS amount of engineering in the stock can that's designed to provide back pressure at certain RPMS. All those vented chambers are called Helmholtz resonators, and there's quite a bit of science behind it. I think you are in for more project than your realize. | ||
| Prophet_136 |
Thanks for the input everyone. I performed the mod today and fired it up and to my surprise... It had a very nice rumble to it. At speed it was not much more noticable but it was there, more than before. Oh, and while i had the exhaust off the bike i also removed the cat. Converter (that was a pain in the ass, but worth it.). I drilled as indicate by the previous posts, then went a little deeper with a 14 inch long bit. My exhaust had a cat at the front chamber of the muffler (damn ca. Laws!!), so i took to it with a hammer and angled 3/4 inch punch. The result: a lot more acceleration and sound. So again thanks everyone. | ||
| Naiguy |
where was the cat located and what's it look like? (Message edited by Naiguy on September 22, 2009) | ||
| Fresnobuell |
The result: a lot more acceleration and sound. I buy the sound part. | ||
| D_adams |
Jdugger I've been welding 316 SS for about 14 years now, just never needed my own welder. For this, I had to have one. It's hard hauling an exhaust pipe out of an aircraft machine shop without raising some eyebrows. Obviously there will be some testing/tuning going on once I get it fabbed up. We'll see how it runs.....  | ||
| D_adams |
Btw, I know there are better pics of the exhaust floating around here somewhere, I'm just too tired to go looking any longer. Here's some with the bike all chopped/cut away. http://badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/290431/ 295432.html?1185545596 | ||
| Prophet_136 |
Thanks for the pictures, thats an interesting cut away and very helpful. The cat is the honeycombed shaped piece of metal in the front area "chamber" of the exhaust/muffler. It is made of precious metals and very tough to break or destroy, but possible.i have had a chance to ride it longer now without the cat, and i have noticed she is lighter on acceleration when at mid-high rpm. Nothing good or bad noticeable at lower rpm. There is a bit more heat now than before. However checking it with laser thermometer showed only 1 degree differance from before only instead of it being mainly hot in the front of the exhaust, the heat is now distributed through out the whole muffler. | ||
| Redscuell |
Prophet, a search would've turned up several good threads on what the stocker looks like when it's cut open; my recollection is that these threads are from mid-last year. Neither of the mods shown above will increase power for you, as you'll see once you examine the cutaways to understand the exhaust flow, and then do the math-in, math-out of the muffler's tubing. First the obligatory "the original design is amazing!" that is required in all postings about this muffler. Now: note that the total areas of a) the twin exhaust outlet tubes that transition into b) each exhaust header are equal to the area of the latter; then that c) the area of the pair of header tubes is equal to d) the area of the central exhaust tube that runs down the centre of the muffler to the back wall of the muffler (exiting into a reflector chamber). Then note that e) the return tube from that chamber to the final collector chamber is the same size (63mm). And then note that f) the pair of final outlet tubes are only 32mm each -- calculate the areas and you'll see that the TOTAL area of the two is HALF that of all that preceded them. And this is where the stocker holds back on us. One solution would be to replace the pair of tubes with larger ones; that was beyond my muffler man due to the way the tubes are positioned through 4 walls inside the muffler. My solution ($50) was to add a THIRD tube with an area that brought the total outlet areas to that of the 63 mm backbone tube: I added a third 44 mm tube at the dead centre of the final collector chamber.    It works; power and torque are up (dyno proven), sound has a nice v-twin burble at idle. Total sound is the same decibels as the stocker, using the Australian test protocol; which in both tests was below 94 dB(A) (the Buell label states 102 dB(A), as I recall). | ||
| Fresnobuell |
I will take Buell's engineering over some Aussie wannabe wanker's engineering. We have little proof that aftermarket has improved upon the stock pipe. If you get any gains over the stocker, it will be WOT on the top end. Based on your tires and admitted top speed, you don't need any more HP. Next. |
