Vulcan 2000 Muffler Mod - Not too happy with results

[Bunyon]

Hey there,

I decided to do the muffler mod on my bike which involved removing the 3 baffle plates inside the muffler. Has anyone else done this? It sounds normal at idle, great while opening the throttle, but on decel I get this horrible popping/whistling sound from the exhaust. Another site has suggested drilling eight 7/16" holes in the muffler end plate, just stating that it greatly improves the sound of the exhaust. I used a hole saw to remove all three baffles and left the catalyst intact. I did not leave any baffle pieces inside, I got them all out.
I've able to find lots of sites on how to do the mod, but not one person who has done it and posted their results.
Any help at this point would be appreciated because now I am ready to start driving frost plugs back into the muffler to undo what I did

Thanx in advance.

[trikebubble]

Have you "marbled" the reed valve hose yet? With aftermarket pipes, or drilled out stock ones, the popping that is otherwise muffled by stock pipes is very evident.
If you open your airbox, and look at the top left corner, you'll see a hose. Push a marble into it, and it will almost eliminate all of the popping sounds.

[Bunyon]

That must be part of the air induction system I was reading about in the service manual. Is that strictly for emissions or will it have any longterm adverse effects by blocking it off?
I will give it a try after work today and post back with my results.
Thanks for the help

P.S. Also a fan of Julie's avatar

[trikebubble]

Originally Posted by Bunyon

That must be part of the air induction system I was reading about in the service manual. Is that strictly for emissions or will it have any longterm adverse effects by blocking it off?
I will give it a try after work today and post back with my results.
Thanks for the help

P.S. Also a fan of Julie's avatar

Marbling the Vulcan's reed valve system is a very well known mod. You can actually purchase block off plates for vulcan 1600's and remove the whole system.
Similar with Yamaha V-Stars.

I'm no mechanic but I can't see it having any negative effect on the bike. I marbled my Mean Streak, and my V2K.
Pretty much everyone out their on a Vulcan 1600 has either marbled the hose, or removed all the cr@p and installed block off plates.

[Bunyon]

Well, I tried putting a marble into the hose at the top left of the air box and the exhaust still sounds the same. It is a high pitched whistle/pop. I notice I could feel air pulses coming out of that hose when I disconnected it so I'm assuming I have the right one. There is also a hose at the bottom left of the air box.
This is really frustrating. My bike now sounds horrible. Maybe whistle/pop isn't such a good description of the noise. It sounds more like a chirping when I snap the throttle with the bike sitting still.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[trikebubble]

Sorry, apart from the marbling I haven't a clue. maybe the stock pipes just don't take to "modding"

[YurFatMom]

You can always rig up a glass pack inside of the existing can. Or I guess just put the innards back in(I cant tell you much about one of these bikes).

[MartyB6]

Well, I've done the same mods to my '05 V2K as I LOVE the look of the stock pipes. First drilled out the three plugs. Then drilled, cut & removed the baffle. All that's left is the catalytic convertor honeycomb. I also removed the air induction hoses at the top of the cylinders where it injects the air into the exhaust outlets, and plugged the hose behind the upper left part of the air cleaner. I replaced the air cleaner assy with a new K&N kit and installed a Power Commander USB kit. I got a LOT of popping on decel. Scared the hell out of the wife when she was behind me! Took it to a DynoJet shop & had custom map made up for my PC III....improved popping, smoothness, etc dramatically. However, it did still pop! The DynoJet guy told me to richen the mix at idle RPM in the map, this helped a lot too. But it will still pop sometimes. I'm learning to keep popping down (unless I want to!) by watching what happens in different gears/rpms/deceleration rates and am obtaining continuing improvement.

And now a question for y'all....I love the sound & performance & look of my pipes now. However, I wouldn't mind even more of a bark when I crack the throttle (gotta drown out my HD buddies)...has anyone tried removing the cats? I'm willing to take the time to remove them for some added sound quality, however I'm wondering about a loss of low end torque as I assume I'm retaining some back pressure by leaving in the cats. I get a lot of conflicting info & advice from my riding buddies & hoped there'd be some good info from "one of us".