Paul Bryant Headers!

[Paul Bryant]

Something's wrong with that last picture that's not a metric bolt,seriously though nice looking piece

HA ! Trust you to pick that up

 

[IMFASTTOO]

I just received my Paul Bryant headers and want to share my observations about him and them. First Rate Mate no question. Very easy to communicate with and extremely knowledgeable, top notch perfection!

Here is the header with his custom crossover both HPC coated. Beautiful craftsmanship!(and I'm a welder)

I first bolted these on without changing my tune. I wanted to hear or feel any difference. I am using RamAir and the stock roadster mufflers that I De-CAT'd (the thread for that if you're interested is, "Another way to skin the CAT"). My tune was simply stock with opened secondaries 100% and copied the i3 tables to i2 and i1.
The very first thing I noticed starting the bike was, to my astonishment, it was quieter! I know this is going to generate some flak? Sitting there idling I could clearly hear more of the internal motor sounds like the valve train and timing chains. The only explanation I can think of for this is the thickness of the tubing with the coating on the inside and outside.
On to the ride! Wow! No question she's breathing easy now, big smile, totally worth it! Still quieter than stock manifold? I'll take it, thank you very much. I had just gone through the process of trying to quite down the RamAir with foam weather strip and lining the bear claw with Dynamat which really worked great, but now sounds louder again as there's not as much coming from the right side?
The tone or note coming out of the mufflers while accelerating is deeper, more aggressive, and addicting. The volume at cruise speeds 65 to 85 mph is actually less than I had with the stock configuration and a slightly lower note. I'm thrilled with this.

Here's a shot without the stock chrome crossover cover so you can see the fit. Absolutely perfect! It does not protrude out from the motor anymore than stock either! That was one of my reasons for going with Pauls vs CES or Carpenter's.

So next I installed the custom tune that HansO sent me and went down the road to my secret supplier of 93 octane no ethanol fuel. I intend to just go get the gas and come back to do chores, mow grass etc.
Well I didn't! I simply could not believe this was the same motorcycle at all. I was practically laughing out loud. I filled her up and drank her down and filled her up again and went up over the skyline drive 3 different ways, put more gas in her and drank half that tank! 275 miles of pure adrenaline rush. Got home just before dark.
Here's a shot with the crossover cover installed:

This is simply an amazing HP and torque per dollar upgrade, and for me well worth the effort. I feel really grateful for this website and all those who volunteer and donate and collaborate. It's an incredible resource. Thanks to Paul Bryant, HansO and everyone who has helped me understand these newer machines, TuneEcu, AFR's etc. If anyone has specific questions about Paul Bryant headers or "skinning the CAT" don't hesitate to PM me. Thanks again everyone!

WHY not get rid of the heavy pontoon power robbing mufflers while your redesigning the exhaust for a maximum performance increase why carry around evtra heavy parts that hinder power output

 

[EasTexRIII]

WHY not get rid of the heavy pontoon power robbing mufflers while your redesigning the exhaust for a maximum performance increase why carry around evtra heavy parts that hinder power output

I think he did: If you expand his quoted post, you'll see

I wanted to get rid of the CAT's and considered getting a set of TOR's. Couldn't actually find any for less than $500 with shipping that weren't *****ed up. I also didn't want to increase the noise, so I decided to launch into a project of removing the CAT's from the stock 2013 roadster pipes.
I wasn't really sure what I would find so I took pictures in case anyone else might want to try this and/or find a better way to "skin the cat"

First, I opened up the can at the inlet end with a 1/16 ziss wheel so there would be a way to weld it back together without cosmetic issues:

So that's just the can, or outer shell. There's another pipe, much thicker, and I used a Sawzall bi-metal blade to reach through that slit and cut that pipe:

The inner canister of this thing is really surprisingly thick and is why each of these weighs 17lbs.

Before you cut all the way through, make some marks across the slit to index the two pieces so when you weld it all back together the angles are correct to fit the crossover unit.

So at this point I had no idea how deep the CAT would be or how to get it out? It isn't at all like the ceramic ones that just crumble. This stuff is really really tenacious tuff stuff. Some kind of super metal foil. All I could find on the internet was that it is referred to as a high flow catalyst?

I tried a big 3/4 inch drill bit to start but it doesn't work. It just folds over the metal at the tip of the bit and kind of makes a dent so the cutting edge can't get under the material to take a bite and bore the hole?

You can sort of see the dent it made. So I got a smaller, longer 1/4 inch bit and just had at it poking holes. Once you get a hole out of the center then you can kind of grab the material with needle nose pliers and roll it towards the open center as you would to open a sardine can.

So it turns out the catalyst material is about 4 inches diameter and 4 inches deep. It took me 5 minutes to cut open the canister and nearly 2 hours to get the catalyst out. The next one I did, I burned a hole in the center with a cutting torch and it was much quicker but still not a cake walk to unravel the metal foil.

So this is ready to go back together. You want to take a dremel tool with a stone around the inside surfaces where you will be welding so that there's less contamination in your weld. I used TIG and stainless steel rod and it welded pretty nicely. Here's a drawing of what I think is roughly the design of these mufflers:

Index marks to get it back together and aligned properly

I reached the limit for photo uploading so I will post the rest as "Skin the CAT" continued. Hope these help or inspire others to give it a try. Even if you can't weld, you can do everything up to this point and then take it to someone who can weld it very easily.

 

[Rocket3Pilot]

WHY not get rid of the heavy pontoon power robbing mufflers while your redesigning the exhaust for a maximum performance increase why carry around evtra heavy parts that hinder power output

Well I guess I just got old and don't care a thing about loud. I love performance and speed though and this was not actually compromising anything compared to the TOR's and they only weigh 4 pounds more. I like long distance cruising and wear ear plugs and put Dynamat sound proofing on the inside of the ear cups of my full face Schubert Helmet. Hell, I lined the inside of the bear claw with the stuff to get rid of the intake noise! To me the drone is the most fatiguing factor so I'm trying to do everything I can to minimize it. I'd like to dump the weight but I don't think there's anything out there that would breathe better and not get louder, especially if it's a single muffler. It's just where I am right now at 62. 35 to 40 years ago I would have done everything including a blower if I could, just for the fun of it, but then the hottest thing was the KZ900 Kawasaki and that's essentially a moped by todays standards.

 

[IMFASTTOO]

Well I guess I just got old and don't care a thing about loud. I love performance and speed though and this was not actually compromising anything compared to the TOR's and they only weigh 4 pounds more. I like long distance cruising and wear ear plugs and put Dynamat sound proofing on the inside of the ear cups of my full face Schubert Helmet. Hell, I lined the inside of the bear claw with the stuff to get rid of the intake noise! To me the drone is the most fatiguing factor so I'm trying to do everything I can to minimize it. I'd like to dump the weight but I don't think there's anything out there that would breathe better and not get louder, especially if it's a single muffler. It's just where I am right now at 62. 35 to 40 years ago I would have done everything including a blower if I could, just for the fun of it, but then the hottest thing was the KZ900 Kawasaki and that's essentially a moped by todays standards.

Paul could set you up with a nice lightweight megaphone style muffler that makes max power is light and looks great and sounds wonderful

 

[sonny]

Well I guess I just got old and don't care a thing about loud. I love performance and speed though and this was not actually compromising anything compared to the TOR's and they only weigh 4 pounds more. I like long distance cruising and wear ear plugs and put Dynamat sound proofing on the inside of the ear cups of my full face Schubert Helmet. Hell, I lined the inside of the bear claw with the stuff to get rid of the intake noise! To me the drone is the most fatiguing factor so I'm trying to do everything I can to minimize it. I'd like to dump the weight but I don't think there's anything out there that would breathe better and not get louder, especially if it's a single muffler. It's just where I am right now at 62. 35 to 40 years ago I would have done everything including a blower if I could, just for the fun of it, but then the hottest thing was the KZ900 Kawasaki and that's essentially a moped by todays standards.

One of the reasons I do not care much for the Harley anymore is because of how nice it is to ride a bike such as the Rocket X that soothes the ears while riding. The hum of the motor is great. Do not require to make a spectral of my presents anymore.

 

[sleeves]

Here is some numbers for you on the Paul Bryant exhaust. Scroll down the page.

New header and exhaust fitted today

Or go with CES or Carpenter..... there are numbers floating all over the net for those.

The numbers will be different for every bike since people have done different things to their bike.

Three exhaust and three numbers to spend your money on. $hit or get off the pot man. lol

Hi Mully

Would advise against believing this Dynotune was a jacked tune by the local HD shop, they did a rubbish job of tuning bike, have mentioned this in other posts. After getting my bike back I checked it against the map I'd downloaded before taking it in and it was almost EXACTLY the same. Think they are used to doing HD's (usually they will only work on HD), ran up the R3, did a double-take, then said, "She'll be right mate" and stopped before any HD owners got sad. My feeling is with Hanso's new map and assistance its a stack load more than this tune, even when I turned the AT back on the performance got better (that in itself showed the lousy dynotune as everyone had told me to make sure I turn the AT off if dynoing).

I know some people want absolute power but the convenience of not burning holes in my trousers and leg is important, one you get used to eventually, the other a constant source of irritation.

 

[mully95]

Hi Mully

Would advise against believing this Dynotune was a jacked tune by the local HD shop, they did a rubbish job of tuning bike, have mentioned this in other posts. After getting my bike back I checked it against the map I'd downloaded before taking it in and it was almost EXACTLY the same. Think they are used to doing HD's (usually they will only work on HD), ran up the R3, did a double-take, then said, "She'll be right mate" and stopped before any HD owners got sad. My feeling is with Hanso's new map and assistance its a stack load more than this tune, even when I turned the AT back on the performance got better (that in itself showed the lousy dynotune as everyone had told me to make sure I turn the AT off if dynoing).

I know some people want absolute power but the convenience of not burning holes in my trousers and leg is important, one you get used to eventually, the other a constant source of irritation.

Nah.... you wouldn't think the HD crowd would be offended by seeing real horsepower numbers. The more I hear about HD riders, HD dealerships and anything that has to do with HD makes me glad I have never owned a POS Harley. That's right I said POS!

I find it hard to believe that folks with these big pipe headers don't feel SOME type of heat coming off those pipes.

 

[Rushking]

Just got my roadster equipped with Pauls header and crossover with pcv autotune and Hans0 tune.the beast is unleashed now I better order my new back Tire now !

 

[Simon Fioretti]

Does it get hot??