Hi Folks.. New to the forum and to the SXS experience. (I got too old for ATV's).. I Researched SXS's for about a year before I settled on the Talon R. I probably would not have spent the money right away for the Jackson kit, but found a deal that I couldn't pass up. Here is my question.. Jackson has said that you need to run the stock muffler with the kit, or it could cause "Drivability" issues. I'm wondering if anyone has tried a lighter, better sounding exhaust with the turbo. I have a feeling Jackson may only be saying that because of liability with emissions. With every other turbo system that I know of, a better flowing exhaust is a good thing. Opinions?
This is a really complex issue. Jackson has their hands tied for several reasons but it all revolves around CARB and Federal Emission compliance. To be a Honda Authorized accessory, the turbo kit MUST comply with all the emission laws. The stock muffler has a cat converter in it so that meant either use the stock muffler or provide a better flowing one with a new cat in it. Obviously, that would have been cost prohibitive. So in other words, Jackson has to require the stock muffler to be compliant so they tuned the kit for it and cannot recommend or tune for another muffler or they will lose their CARB compliance.
The Jackson kit is on the Race talons but you will notice they run a non-stock muffler (and it does not have a cat). Oscar told me they provided the turbo kit and some support but the race team does their own tuning and they are allowed to because it is off-road/race use only. The stock muffler was designed and tested to go up to 170 HP so that is where Jackson stopped. The race team is reported to be up in the 200 HP range with their custom setup and tuning.
Jackson is(was) working on a "race only" kit but as
@HondaTech points out, it is on hold for now (maybe forever). It is alleged to be similar to the race team setup and around 200 HP.
Any other aftermarket turbo kits out there (for any brand/model) that is not factory authorized (even if it retains or replaces the cat) are all technically illegal on newer machines if it doesn't have CARB and Federal approval. As far as I know, the Jackson kit is the only kit with any type of emission approval. The feds and 49 states currently don't have plans to enforce any compliance on side by sides but California has threatened to soon start policing off-road vehicles and if you are found to be tampered or non-CARB compliant, you will get a (very expensive) ticket (just like a car).
So unless you live in California, you can probably get away with a non-compliant modification on your off-road machine (for now anyway). In California, it might be a bit of a risk to go non-compliant on a side by side.