My air pump siezed up the other day, and I wanted to know if RX-7s can run without airpumps. If so, I want to make a dummy pully so that I don't throw off the timing, yet still have my water pump and alternator running. Is this a possibility?

 

Are you looking for something like this?

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showthread.php?t=807734

Can you remove the airpump? Yes. If you have emissions testing in your area (looks like you live in CA), there is very little chance you'll pass inspection legally without one.

 

You could try to spray a little wd-40 into it to hold you over till you figure out what you're going to do. A few people have done this with good results. Air pumps are prone to failure.

 

Used ones aren't hard to find in the FS/WTB section.

 

throw it away, get a shorter belt and get a mid pipe. problem solved!!!

 

Simply eliminating the air pump causes several problems. First, the car will idle poorly if you are on the stock ecu or if you are not tuned for it. If you just run a shorter belt with the stock water pump pulley, the water pump will slip at higher rpm because of the lost belt contact. If you upgrade to something like a Greddy pulley kit, the larger pulley will grip the belt better but you still need to keep the belt fairly tight to prevent slipping. The problem this causes is additional stress on the engine bearings. The stock cat will die without the airpump. Eliminating the cat is illegal so do so at your own discretion. If you are intent on eliminating the airpump, the best solution is to get an additional idler pulley. If you are on a tight budget just purchase a used good airpump.

 

.....and blow your motor from the boost creep caused by the midpipe and stock internal wastegate

 

I do live in cali, but I am not too worried about smog. I have a highflow cat on right now, and I have a PFC F con ECU. I was looking to delete the air pump and put in an idler pulley. Any suggestions, comments, concerns?

 

As the others said, you can (fairly) easily eliminate the air pump; however, you will destroy your HF cat, not pass emissions, and unless tuned properly, create other driveability and engine longevity issues.

 

Like Ihor said... I tried to run without one for a while on a stock (M2) ECU and the idle and throttle response was all messed up.

All airpumps seem to die eventually. I'm on my 3rd (used) one now. The bearings aren't lubricated and just wear out.

 

Hey, I just removed my air pump now and replaced it with an idler kit from pineapple racing. When you do this your pre-cat will fail but thats why you get a down pipe and keep your main cat. This is what Ben (Karack) told me. It should be all good. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think you'll need to tune your car if you get the Idler kit.




~Shar

 

No, you get rid of your pre-cat because it creats gobs of heat and tends to fail, taking out your main cat and possibly damaging your engine.
If your on the stock or re-mapped ECU, you may have issues, but experiences don't seem to be universal. And I'm not sure, but does the Pineapple pulley allow you to use the stock belt? And I've heard it's REALLY hard to pass Cali emissions w/o one. Have you tested lately?

 

Negative.

The airpump pumps air to the main cat. It will eventually fail if you run it without the airpump. The precat should already be deep-six'ed by this time anyway, and has no bearing on this thread.

 

actually the split air control valve directs air to either exhaust outlet thus feeding air to precat or to air pipe feed ing to main cat. I do not see how lack of air feed will destroy a cat. The air increases oxidation, thus raising cat temps, but is only "airated" under various mild throttle conditions.