Removing air pump & attachments on 81

[Don61]

Hello everyone , good to be back after a long cold winter. As some of you may know my 81 is a stock 350 auto. Someone along the way removed the catalytic converter & oxygen sensor & installed side pipe exhausts. The pipes that used to go to the converter/oxygen sensor are just hanging there, crimped off at the ends. I would like to remove the air pump & all of the hoses, etc. & simplify the engine compartment since they aren't doing a lot of good anyway. I have a lot of experience with older Chevys' but none with computer controlled smog engines like in my 81. Is there anything special I need to know about unhooking the air pump, etc? If I just unhook everything & block off vacuum lines & the exhaust port where the pump hoses go in will everything still run ok?

Thanks for any help you can offer,

Don

 

[TimAT]

If the O2 sensor is just hanging or the wires a cut it's not doing anything anyway. But unless the carb has been changed from the CCC system (E4ME?), and the distributor has been swapped from the no vacuum advance and a 5 pin module to an older one, it's got to stay in open loop. And terrible mileage.

With all those cuts and disconnected items, the check engine light should be on all the time.

If you don't have any inspection requirements, get an older Q-jet and a replacement distributor from an earlier model, swap them and remove all the emission stuff. Not exactly legal but it's been done many times.

 

[Don61]

If the O2 sensor is just hanging or the wires a cut it's not doing anything anyway. But unless the carb has been changed from the CCC system (E4ME?), and the distributor has been swapped from the no vacuum advance and a 5 pin module to an older one, it's got to stay in open loop. And terrible mileage.

With all those cuts and disconnected items, the check engine light should be on all the time.

If you don't have any inspection requirements, get an older Q-jet and a replacement distributor from an earlier model, swap them and remove all the emission stuff. Not exactly legal but it's been done many times.

Thanks for the info. It still has all of the original equipment except the oxygen sensor & catalytic converter. There are no emissions laws covering it in Ohio so I can do pretty much anything I want. Anybody know where a good cheap older carb & distributor can be found?

 

[TimAT]

No real info on a carb, but I just got a street HEI- (no hi performance module or coil) for $80 new with cap/coil/rotor.

With a Q-jet manifold, you can use that or any spread bore flange carb-

 

[Don61]

No real info on a carb, but I just got a street HEI- (no hi performance module or coil) for $80 new with cap/coil/rotor.

With a Q-jet manifold, you can use that or any spread bore flange carb-

Thanks for the info, I'll continue to look into it to see what I can do. I'd really like to dump all of the emissions stuff since the cat & O2 sensor are gone anyway.