Hi, I bought my car a while ago and the engine was pretty bare meaning it only has the alternator attached to the engine. No air pump, no ac, no ps, .....which is great, but now I have to pass smog. I found an air pump, bracket and belt, but was wondering if I can pass smog with no ACV and solenoids etc.??

This is also a dumb question, does the air pump pump air into the cat or does it pump are from the cat, back into the upper manifold to get re-burned?

Any knowledge would be greatly appreciated....thanks
Thomas

 

You may be able to pass the sniffer by running the air pump into an appropriate high flow cat.

However the ACV is used to route air from the air pump to various places (exhaust ports, cat, anti-afterburn, air silencer) depending on engine condition (RPM, load, gear). Realistically the emissions system isn't very effective without the ACV and associate solenoids.

 

Yes, I'm hoping to get lucky....I'm gonna try it with just the air pump.
Do you know if the back side of the airpump pushes air to the cat? or is it pulling air from the cat and bringing it back through the system?

Thanks for your reply. Much appreciated

 

It's an air pump, not a vacuum pump. Air is dumped into the exhaust system to be used in the conversion of HC, CO and NOx.

 

The pump pushes air through the rear port. But not directly to the cat. Look up the Mazda training manual and it will tell you when the ECU sends air to various parts. Air is rarely sent directly to the cat.

 

the smog laws in your area may be different from others, however be aware of what the visual inspection consists of. Sometimes you can pass the "sniffer" portion but very quickly fail when the tech notices you're a few nickles short of a dollar if you know what i mean.

 

I have seen with my own eyes an S5 TII with a brand new cat pass the sniffer (dyno rolled) with no air pump. However the cat was literally warmed up for 20 minutes lmao.

No you won't pass without an airpump it's that simple. However if you hooked the airpump up and just routed it directly into the port on the cat it should do the trick. However visually that is not legel since you will be missing a lot of stuff associated with the airpump.