I never noticed but I just happened to look and noticed that there's no belt on my air pump. My exhaust has always smelled like total ***, worse than a city bus.

So I was thinking I should probably put a belt on it. Or should I?

I have no emissions testing here, and I'm running racing beat header, hi flow cat, and catbacks. How much of a drain on the engine is the air pump, anyway? Also, I didn't do the cat/header install myself, I had my local mazda dealer do it. Is there even an air pump line that goes into a high flow cat? I took a look at it and I think there was, but hey ... it was a while ago.

Is there anythign wrong with driving it with the air pump having no belt, and not plugging anything else off (besides the line to the cat) that flows that air in stock form?

 

first off how's your coolant temps been? the air pump belt also helps run the H2O pump so your belt running the alternator might be slipping thus temp gos up. I would recommend getting a dual belt pulley for your alternator and maybe removing you ACV and if you want to all the emissions.

 

From the sound of things you've been missing the belt for awhile, which caused your cat to head south. Hence the rotten egg smell. The cat needs air from the air pump to work or it will just get clogged be rendered useless. So you are looking at a belt and a new cat.

 

Do you have a s4 or a s5 FC? I think the airpump on the Series 5 is used to open the 5th and 6th ports.

Or do you have a TII, if so nevermind.

Tim

 

The coolant temps have been alright I think. I have an 86 (s4) and the stock temp meter goes just below halfway I think? I didn't know that about the water pump belt being connected.

I definitely don't want to muck around and pull off emissions, etc...

 

This probably explains why my previous cat clogged and I had to have it replaced.

I know there's a debate going on whether or not a hi flow cat will get clogged with no air pump. I think I'm going to err on the side of caution on this one and find a belt to put in there.

It can't be that much of a drain on HP, and if it means less wear because of uneven pull, better smelling exhaust, possibly longer life to cat, then what the heck.

Maybe there's a reason the previous owner took the belt off, or perhaps it just rotted off and he didn't care