NYMustang50

These pumps are the same thing just with different names right? Anyways. If I have cats on my car and want to keep them. Can I remove my air/smog pump and then just put it back on when I need to get a inspection done? The thing is I just dont want the cats to get damaged. I dont want to do any damage to them. (My father bought me the h pipe for my birthday) So dont want to waste it. But I want to take off the smog/air pump and get rid of the hoses for looks and clearence untill I need them which is once a year.

mjr46

The cats will be fine without the air pump. all the air injection is there for is to speed up the warming up of the cats on cold start up so as to reduce emmisions (in a nut shell without getting all technical).

NYMustang50

So bascially if I take off the air pump they will be fine and then so I can pass emissions test just put the air pump back on. Right?

945LSTANG

right

VigCS

You can still passemissions in many states without a smog pump.

95 BLOWN GT

+1 plus taking it on and off is a pain in the a**. just pulled mine off this weekend.

5.0rick

Leave the smog pump on the car. It is used to eliminate emissions on start up and not expose the catalytic converters to excessively rich mixtures. Allow me to explain how this works.

When the engine is fired up cold, the EEC will command a very rich AFR 11-12 (depending on the temp). At the same time, the smog pump will send air into the exhaust right before the O2 sensors (Thermactor system engaged - both bypass and diverter valves are activated). This will dilute the unburned exhaust and will effectively increase the AFR (as read by my Wide Band O2 right before the catalytic converter) to 13 or so which will rapidly climb to 14:1 or so. What this means is that the engine is running rich in the warm up mode, but the catalytic converters are getting an AFR that is approximately 13-14. With that said, if the smog pump wasNOT working, then the catalytic converters would be exposed to an AFR in the 11-12 range. Over time this will screw up your catalytic converters. The smog pump also assists in the warm up of the catalytic converter. I have yet to datalog where else the thermactor system will pump air into the upstream exhaust (before the O2 sensors) but my guess is that it probably does so on down revs and other conditions which are critical to emissions.

Hope this helps.

Rick

mojopony

I was getting codes 314, 311 & 332 on my '94GT and I thought the thermactor codes might be a result of my H-pipe connections. The short pieces of rubber hose were all kinked. The H-pipe was broken anyway at the balance tube so I got another MAC catted H-pipe, but I'm still getting the same codes. I don't want to kill these cats! I'll try to get it resolved ASAP so I'm going to start with some basic tests and take it from there.