This thread discusses the Content article: Drill the Stock Exhaust (stage 1

Just completed stage 1 and am extremely pleased. Bike sounds good and seems to have a little more low end power. Must say however that I did the whole process with pipes still mounted and see no real advantage to removing them- it certainly does not make it easier. I used a 1 1/2 in. hole saw to take my exhaust cone out. Whole process took about 30 minutes.

I too did the stage one mod with the pipes in the bike. As long as your careful not to push the bike off it's kickstand or hammer it so as to disturb the seal at the heads. And yes, it sure did sound better than stock.

I'm thinking of doing this Stage 1 mod, but leaving the cones in, and just drilling through both the cones and baffle at the same time. Can't think of a reason not to, other than possible problem with 'drilling blind' into the baffle. Opinions on that, anybody?

Also, any possible problems with The Authorities when they (cops) see a drilled exhaust? I don't see how it would effect emissions, and from what I hear, it shouldn't run into noise level trouble either.

It's pain to leaves the cones in and try to drill thru them.

I challenge any Authority (unless they own a R*) to tell the difference between conesa and no cones. If you do it right then it looks stock.

Instead of holes I would recommend that you drill holes then elongate them until you have two opposing slots, as big as possible. That way you will get less fluttering on decel.

Search for an old post - it has pics of what I mean.

Doc

krauseheim wrote:
I'm thinking of doing this Stage 1 mod, but leaving the cones in, and just drilling through both the cones and baffle at the same time. Can't think of a reason not to, other than possible problem with 'drilling blind' into the baffle. Opinions on that, anybody?

Also, any possible problems with The Authorities when they (cops) see a drilled exhaust? I don't see how it would effect emissions, and from what I hear, it shouldn't run into noise level trouble either.

-First of all, you might as well take the cones out first! The cones are welded to the outlet tubes and not to the outer muffler shells, so the leftover "rings" will only fall out. And you will need to grind the welds that hold the cones onto the tubes to remove the cones to get at the baffle to drill holes anyway.
-You cannot do a Stage One, and leave the cones in. It is not possible.
Trying to drill into the cones with a holesaw is a good way to have a wreck and screw up your chrome muffler shells!
Just use a Dremel Tool to carefully grind away the welds and pull out your cones with a sheetmetal screw screwed in and pliers. Drill your baffles, and then mask the chrome outer shells, and spray flat-black paint in on the drilled baffle and the outlet tube, and nobody can easily see that it's not stock.
-You won't be loud enough with only Stage-One to annoy any "noise cops."
-Doing a Stage-One may actually improve emissions, as it might tend to "lean-out" the bike a little, as it will breathe better.

StarMyram wrote:
krauseheim wrote:
I'm thinking of doing this Stage 1 mod, but leaving the cones in, and just drilling through both the cones and baffle at the same time. Can't think of a reason not to, other than possible problem with 'drilling blind' into the baffle. Opinions on that, anybody?

Also, any possible problems with The Authorities when they (cops) see a drilled exhaust? I don't see how it would effect emissions, and from what I hear, it shouldn't run into noise level trouble either.

-First of all, you might as well take the cones out first! The cones are welded to the outlet tubes and not to the outer muffler shells, so the leftover "rings" will only fall out. And you will need to grind the welds that hold the cones onto the tubes to remove the cones to get at the baffle to drill holes anyway.
-You cannot do a Stage One, and leave the cones in. It is not possible.
Trying to drill into the cones with a holesaw is a good way to have a wreck and screw up your chrome muffler shells!
Just use a Dremel Tool to carefully grind away the welds and pull out your cones with a sheetmetal screw screwed in and pliers. Drill your baffles, and then mask the chrome outer shells, and spray flat-black paint in on the drilled baffle and the outlet tube, and nobody can easily see that it's not stock.
-You won't be loud enough with only Stage-One to annoy any "noise cops."
-Doing a Stage-One may actually improve emissions, as it might tend to "lean-out" the bike a little, as it will breathe better.


I guess I wasn't clear on what I intended to do. I'm drilling several holes through the cones and into the baffles, and NOT using a hole saw. Yes, I can see how going after the cones with a hole saw would be a bad idea... hole saws have a mind of there own when the center bit isn't in solid ground. So... the cones stay. I'll report on the result here, and include a picture if I can figure out how to do that.

Thanks,
Tom

Results...

I now have the Stage One up and running on my '06 Road Star Midnight, and I love it. It's exactly what I was looking for... a little louder, and a lot deeper rumble. Just enough to drown out the 'sewing machine' sound up front.

I replaced my exhaust with a stock exhaust off an '05 Road Star Silverado that another fella had drilled. He went through the cones and then through the baffles. To me, it looks good... not perfect, but pretty good... and if you've got a steady drill hand, it seems to be less work and commotion than removing the cones. I've still got the old exhaust, and if I get anal, I might do a fussier drill job on that and swap it out again. But, to be realistic, I don't expect to spend a lot of time staring at the exhaust holes and worrying about how they look. Speaking of how they look, image file is attached (I hope).

Here's a little tech tip... there's a difference between the '05 and '06 exhaust. Being naturally lazy, when I swapped exhausts, I left my front pipes on and bolted on the other guy's mufflers to them. Bad idea... bad exhaust leak on the upper pipe where it meets the muffler. The '05 has a metal mesh bushing kind of thing on the male end of the pipe coming from the engine, which provides a good snug fit into the '05 muffler female. The '06 doesn't have that bushing, which makes for a sloppy fit. I assume the '06 upper muffler also has a tighter diameter, and if I'd tried to fit the '05 pipe into the '06 muffler (which I didn't), it would have been too big for the hole. I'm sure there's a connection between all of this and my love life when I was young, but I digress. Long story short, it looks like you shouldn't mix the '05 and '06 exhaust components. Of course, this is a scenario that rarely occurs.

Thanks for your help here, guys.

Well, my attempt to attach a photo of the through-the-cones Stage One exhaust drilling was denied, so I shrunk it down for another attempt. Here goes...

krauseheim wrote:
Well, my attempt to attach a photo of the through-the-cones Stage One exhaust drilling was denied, so I shrunk it down for another attempt. Here goes...

Failure number two. Photo too tall. Here's my third try...

You know, looking at that photo in the bright light of day at very close range in brutally honest high definition, those holes sure are crude. But believe me, it's not the impression you get when looking at them from a normal distance. Looks like he had a case of Wandering Drill Bit. Chances are I may grab my old stock mufflers and do some drilling myself.