Meerkat Exhaust Mod

Hi guys, I've bought a used exhaust so I can make the Meerkat mod to it without the chance of fu**** up my original, I've got the ver 2 PDF from Pete at Meerkat Mufflers and I've looked at Magoo69's post on the subject, so pretty confident. Only thing I have a question about is the mention in Magoo69's doc on the handling of stainless steel in his page one, are these exhausts actually made of stainless steel or are they mild steel?

"Meerkat Mufflers specialise in custom made, stainless steel motorcycle mufflers and exhaust systems for bikes of every shape and size."
I couldn't find if they made them in any other form of steel. Looks like stainless for all products. I could be wrong though. I'm interested in this as well for my old Thruxton.

Since the exhaust is the cat, I'd be shocked if it wasn't stainless. Keep in mind that there are a lot of types and quality levels...stainless isn't stainless.
Mind if I ask what you paid for a used exhaust? I'm looking to do the same, but the only ones I've found (on ebay) are pretty pricey.

I've just done the magnet test and it does look to be stainless, the reason I'm asking about the exhaust material is that I have a MIG and a stick welder, but not a tig which is required for stainless, a mig can work under certain circumstances, but can't be asked to tool up, so I'll get my mate to plug the holes up. I've been looking for an exhaust for my 3R for ages, this bike is just too quiet, but I don't like the ones that are on the market and I like the prices even less , in my view the original exhaust looks far better than any after market ones I've seen. I paid 167 quid for the exhaust on ebay, I thought that was a bargain as I've seen used ones go for anything up to 800, bonkers prices for a second hand exhaust.

Wow, you found one that someone actually wanted to get out of their garage! I ended up paying $500, but I agree with you that everything else on the aftermarket looks like crap and all four other exhausts on ebay were $800+ so I paid what I had to pay to not experiment on my stock exhaust.

Just doing the final welding on mine (TIG). I didn't do Meerkat, as I didn't want to shortcut the length between the O2 sensor and the output. I cut the bottom panel off and removed the most of the CAT (for off road use of course) and trimmed some of the internals that were blocking airflow. This way I should still keep an accurate O2 and not have to do like others do and run rich all the time to compensate for not having effective O2 feedback.

bcar00 said:

Wow, you found one that someone actually wanted to get out of their garage! I ended up paying $500, but I agree with you that everything else on the aftermarket looks like crap and all four other exhausts on ebay were $800+ so I paid what I had to pay to not experiment on my stock exhaust.

Just doing the final welding on mine (TIG). I didn't do Meerkat, as I didn't want to shortcut the length between the O2 sensor and the output. I cut the bottom panel off and removed the most of the CAT (for off road use of course) and trimmed some of the internals that were blocking airflow. This way I should still keep an accurate O2 and not have to do like others do and run rich all the time to compensate for not having effective O2 feedback.

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Hi, be nice if you could post some photos of where you cut into the exhaust?

Eisenfarn said:

Hi, be nice if you could post some photos of where you cut into the exhaust?

Click to expand...

Ugh, I thought I took more picks but the only one that saved was half way through gutting it. Not pretty but it gives you an idea. The cut is from one line of spot welds to the other. Then you have to cut the converter open, but no need to re weld the converter, and I opened up the passages back into the main body as well.

While I think this is probably the best method if you want to keep fully functional O2 sensors, it's a lot of work. Normally when you gut a converter, you do it from the ends. Doing it from the side is a lot of cutting, prying, drilling, etc to get all the converter material out. There's no way to access the converter from the ends without completely cutting the assembly in half. I'll post feedback on the sound once I finish it and get it on the bike.

I also have no real evidence that the Meerkat mod shortens it enough to ruin O2 function, but when you measure, it takes over a foot of length off the right outlet distance between the O2 and outlets, maybe more.

OK great thanks, be interesting to know what is sounds like now