Before I start...I already searched & checked the stickys.


Hey everyone,
Ive got a 91 RS with a 305TBI. I removed the AIR stuff awhile ago but now I need to pass emissions. I am thinking about putting the air pump back on in an attempt to get the car to pass the sniffer. Heres what I have:

-My cat is a new "AIR" cat. It has the air tube but it is pluged right now.
-My headers dont have the air tubes on them.


Im thinking about installing the air pump and hook it directly up to the cat. Should this work? Will it hurt my cat in anyway?


Thanks in Advance,
Mark B

 

depends on how well your car is running. i know of some ppl who have removed it and past i myself had it and was still kind hard to pass but why did you remove it in the first place doesnt help anywith horse power but you can try it without first and see if you get lucky i know if you search around you can find something on how they pasted goodluck btw if you do put it back in i dont see why it woud hurt anything for your Q

 

The air system really doesn't do anything after the car has warmed up. I wouldn't waste my time putting it back on. What do you think you'll accomplish by hooking the airpump to the cat? Just get your car nice and warm before you take it for the sniffer test. Now, if you have avisual, you'll still fail because the headers you have don't have AIR tubes.


Seems like a big waste of time to me.

 

I already failed with it. And I made sure the car was really hot.

 

Well, I don't think pumping fresh air into the cat will help you out, maybe someone can chime in and to help you out.

You give her a nice tune up? New cap, rotor, wires, and plugs, maybe even a new O2 sensor?

 

Everything but the plugs are semi-new. I think is it a bigger problem than just a tune up. I had the same problem last year during inspection. I ended up paying a private shop to pass it. I think they retarted the timing ALOT to get it to pass.

 

You find a shop that will WORK with you, stick with them and grease the wheels so to speak. kNow what I mean ?

 

Here is an old quote from a highly trusted source on another message board...

"The 3rd Gens have a split bed cat with a "reducing" front end (reduces NOx) and an oxidizing bed in the back end (reduces HC and CO). Air is blown in between the beds to feed the oxidizing section. If the back section of the cat goes bad, or if the AIR pump is not working correctly, you can get high HC and CO"


Here is what I am going to do...

Hook my AIR pump to the cat directly, it will feed the 2nd bed all of the oxygen that it needs and hopefully pass inspection. If it works, I am going to leave the air pump on the car permanently. It doesnt really effect performance & the only reason I really removed it to begin with was to clean up the engine bay. I wanted to get rid of that big diverter valve and the tubes that go into the headers.

If the car fails for a 2nd time... I will find a shop that I can "grease the wheels"