I had my airpump go bad after only 8000 miles. Before it went it started to make a squeal around 3500-4000 rpm as I was decelerating, I guess as the electronic clutch in it was engaging. It became a more common problem until it seized up one day.

I just took it off and used the Greddy pulley kit. The idle was bad, but got better after a while, did the ECU figure it out? However when I installed the EFI PMS and took out a ton of fuel at idle the car runs fine.

I couldnt afford to replace it at the time, and I didn't know of the forum or thepartstrader.com to get one cheaper. Anyways, I drove with my stock cat for a while and eventually got rid of that also.

Mike

 

WHat's involve in removing smog pump and what parts will i need

 

You'll need a pulley for the main pulley -> alt -> water pump. I would recommend a pulley kit like the Greddy or Rotary Performance Airpump Removal Pulley kit. Save the hassle in trying to locate the correct pulley size while also adding a little more contact with the water pump pulley.

That's really about it. You can plug up the ACV pipes or you can go full out and remove all emissions by using Block Off plates.

If you are on a stock ECU or reprogrammed ECU, you'll probably have to raise your idle some after the airpump is removed.

 

When I had my high flow cat installed the guy at the muffler shop told me that connecting the air pump actually makes the catalytic convertor go out quicker. So he suggested to not hook up the pipe, that goes onto the cat from underneath. He seems to be fairly knowledgeable about exhaust systems since he has been doing it for over 20 years, and owns the business. I don't believe he was trying to weasle his way out of 2 minutes worth of work. Anyhow, what he said is when it throws the extra oxygen into the cat it will burn the unburned fuel which results in a heated cat. Where as without hooking it up, the unburned fuel would eventually evaporate, or burn anyway do to the exhaust heat.

But to be honest with you hooking up the airpump makes more sense because it would burn the fuel out more thoroughly. Either way sounds valid. Anyways to make a long story short I think I'm going to have to hook back the airpump because it idles like ****!

 

That's all well and good but that won't fix the emissions problem. Without the extra oxygen from the airpump the exhaust will be overly rich with fuel as it cannot burn without the extra air present. The tailpipe sniffer will then tell you that your emissions are too high and you fail the smog test...

As everyone else said if you need to pass a sniff test keep the airpump.

 

We don't have smog tests where I'm at, phew. The problem I have is the idle trying to die off, and possibly less vacuum at idle due to not hooking up said "little pipe" on cat, like Mahjik was experiencing. So as far as catalytic longevity, what do you think is best with airpump or without?

 

IMO, unless you have emissions testing (or you don't want to smell like exhaust), remove it.

You'll need to raise your idle up to around 1100 rpms or so....

 

Thanks mahjik.

 

Kinda a side note: You can take your airpump apart. Take 4 bolts off the back and carefully pry the back off. There's no manual and you can not buy parts. But you can check for broken parts and excessive wear. Maybe re-grease a few things.

I stupidly sprayed some wd40 in the intake of my airpump. Now between 2K and 4.5K it squeals so loud you can hear it blocks away.