Update for those who may be reading this in the future...
I tested it out today with the new exhaust and the EJK fuel programmer (the one they sent me in place of thr FMF...but apparently equivalent to it) set to its' stock settings, and the bike ran excellently.
The only airbox mod that I did, was to remove the door, no flapper or circular solenoid removal and no cutting of any holes.
I don't know if any more air intake or fuel adjustment is needed. I tested the bike through all ranges...Quick throttle blips, riding it like I stole it, and topping it out at highway speeds for a full mile. There were no cutouts or "dead spots" that I noticed. Then again, I'm no expert on this stuff. All I know is that when I twist the throttle, the bike goes....and it goes much faster now that it's uncorked
.
I'm still riding stock gearing too. The bike feels like it wants to power wheelie a little bit in first gear, but I'm thinking that putting a 47T on the rear will help that out a bit. I may try a 49 or 50 later down the road as well.
My only regret is going with the powercore instead of the quieter Q4. It still sounds cool though nonetheless...way better then stock. However, it does kinda hurt my ears when I'm riding. I may wear earplugs. I play in a band full time too, so my eardrums are constantly taking a beating.
I'm wondering if it's worth trying to tweak the programmer in order to try and achieve some sort of optimal tuning, or if I should just leave it as is. The stock settings seem spot on. It's definitely night and day difference as it is now, so why fix if it's not broke?