Does anyone rebuild the FD air pumps, or does anyone know of a place that offers rebuilds for a core exchange? I don't really want to buy a new one, but I'm kind of tired of buying used ones that don't work or that fail in two months. And I really don't want to go catless.

jds

 

Are you running an open intake?

 

Yeah, open intakes generally draw in hotter air, so shortens the life of the airpump.
Sorry, I've never heard of rebuilding an airpump either, although i'm sure anything can be rebuild.

 

Even so the pump shouldn't fail in just a few months from an open intake. If that were true, I would have gone through about 15 pumps by now.

 

I went ot a junk yard for mine, it works great. It is a little noisy though. It's been a year since I did it, and it's still going strong.
Bureau, did yours go? Was it as dramatic as how mine went? When my air pump went, it was more dramatic than blowing an engine. I had no idea of what the hell was going on.
Truly scary.

 

I am indeed running an open intake. I haven't fried a bunch of new ones...but my original air pump died pretty quietly. No fireworks, but it just didn't seem to be doing much of anything. No more mooing either! So I got one of questionable vintage and put it on, and it lasted for a bit, and then started making this godawful sound like it had a coffee can full of bolts attached to it. So, I bought an 85K mile pump from someone on the forum that supposedly worked, but as soon as I hooked it up it was clear that it had seized....so, I want to put another one on, but I don't really want to do it multiple times!

jds

 

I got a rebuild from rx7.com. I forgot the price exactly I think it ran me about $150 and it works alot better than my old seized one; no noise and silky smooth.

 

Anyone ever hooked up an electric smog pump from I think it was the LS1 motor? I would think with a simple RPM switch you could shut it off when it needed to, and since it is for a V8 seems like it would flow plenty of air. Not to mention freeing up a lot of room under the hood, allwoing better cooling, creates 0 drag being elctric.. just a thought.. I can get the electric pump for about $150 but if there is a reason I shouldn't try it I'd love to know

 

Interesting might be cool if you could pump a ton of air through it when emissions testing

It does have drag, though. Anytime you increase the electrical load, you make the alternator harder to turn...

 

Yeah, nothing is free...I would think you would actually lose some efficiency going from mechanically turning the alternator to produce electricity to run an air pump which is once again mechanical.

jds

 

why rebuild it when they are so cheap.. i seen them go for like 50 or so.. I have one if you need it.. and I know 4 others in Bham area that has an air pump..

 

You can take them apart and press in new bearings,if the vains are bad then find another with bad bearings and good vains . With no cat and aftermarket controlable computor you can remove the vains and use it for an idler untill you get underdrive pullies .

 

Because they usually have a lot of miles and may not have much life left in them. I really don't want to do it every couple months!

jds

 

How can you tell when your air pump is going out? Mine has been making this dying goose noise when I let off the gas at half throttle. I have been thinking about removing it but worried about slowing down the alternator and and water pump with underdrive pulleys because the engine has been running kind of warm.

 

If you have an open intake, that noise may be normal. My noisy one sounds very broken whenever the clutch (on the air pump that is) engages.

jds

 

Mazda has documented premature airpump failures when they are drawing in hot engine compartment air. Whenever you do find a good used airpump, I would route a tube from the airpump to a filter located somewhere in the nose or shielded from the heat.

Might also be worthwhile to take apart the failed airpumps and see what went wrong inside - might also give you some ideas to help longevity.

Dale

 

Hot air will kill the airpump. If you are running an open intake, just run a tube or something to the airpump to draw air from outside the engine bay. Can't be too hard.
Put a filter on it too. Drawing in debris could damage the pump. If I were to run an airpump again, I would definately get the gm electric one. The stock one is a 25 lb brick that just takes up space in the engine bay. I highly doubt that it would draw enough current to significantly affect anything.