Hi gang,


Well the day finally is here, and I just about finished installing my new exhaust. Only to run into a small problem. Being the do it yourselfer and sometimes an impatient one, don't always go together, to make a small story short. I kind of bent the living hell out of my original A.I.R. injection tube that goes from the catalytic converter to the passenger side exhaust manifold. Now I know I don't need the emission stuff here in the friendly islands of Hawaii, but just the same I'd like to keep it stock. Have you guys ever encounter this problem and if you replaced it with a period correct one or MacGyver a new one? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. But to also let ya know I contacted a couple of places to see if they actually have this tubing. So far from just looking and searching there pages they don't. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks in advanced.

Regards,
Ron

 

I ran into the same problem last year when I went to get my Camaro inspected. I didn't have the A.I.R. tube and couldn't find one anywhere. Actually, I did find one at Autozone I think it was, but it was a special order item and they wanted a ridiculous price for it(think over $150). I took it to my mechanic and didn't tell him hoping he'd skip it since I have to pass visual emissions and he's "missed" other minor things before. He caught it and just used a piece of small metal tube he had laying around and some rubber hose and hose clamps to connect the cat to the manifold tube.

My Camaro is by no means a restoration project. It just a base model RS that was wrecked, and while the title is still clean, its not worth it to me to keep it stock. I already took the tube off as part of the V8 swap and I won't be running a cat anymore unless I have to since it should be exempt from any emissions checks from now on.

 

Around 4 or 5 years ago I had this problem. I had eddlebrock headers with air and dual cats. I was trying to shore it all up to pass inspection. I looked around for something to use but ended up taking it to an exhaust shop. they had small diameter tubing and ended up connecting the headers to the cats.
turned out real nice......on a side note... on my way home from the exhaust shop I craked a piston and that motor was history. good times...good times

 

I'm buying a Camaro that has Flowtech headers on it but the seller says the headers don't have a place to hook up the A.I.R. tube. Will I have to get a shop to modify the header in order to accept the tube in order to pass emissions? He says it just barely failed when he took it for inspection. Can the air tube be plumbed into the lead pipe (after the header, before the Y) instead of the header?

 

I believe it has to be going into the headers. All the aftermarket headers I've seen, and the original manifolds had the A.I.R. tubes going in right where they connect to the exhaust port. Your best bet there would be to talk to the shop doing the inspection and see why it failed and if running the tubes into the collector would be ok. Most places should be willing to explain it to you. Any shops that refuse to tell you, I would avoid.

 

Really? I found an AIR tube for my '83 Z28 listed for around $25 and this was just a couple months ago. I have a small hole in the tube that comes off the drivers side manifold and was looking to replace it as well.

 

My memory on price may be a bit fuzzy, it was over a year ago after all. I know it was more than I wanted to spend on the car considering I paid $600 for it and only needed the tube for 1 inspection till it would be exempt from emissions inspections. $25 I would have gladly paid, thats less than my mechanic charged me to rig something up.

The A.I.R. tube on a 92 RS 3.1 is also different than on a 83 Z28 I believe. I needed the tube that ran from the inlet on the cat to the back of the smog pump.

 

Wow, thanks guys for all the input!

Hey Sled_Fiend, like 92RS said, all the headers I've seen have the AIR provisions already mounted into the headers themselves, but the original manifolds have them bolted on. If ya want I'll sell you the old manifolds and AIR tube for like $30 plus shipping? Just a thought.

But now to the good news, after spending basically a whole day researching. I was able to come across a company that has the AIR tube. There name is Tomco Inc. But until I can order the new one, I'm going to MacGyver the existing one with some 1/2" heater hose and hook it all back up. Hopefully this will be good enough for a month or so. But man to get to the clamp that holds this thing on in the back of the engine block. Give Tomco inc., a call or check out there website.

Thanks again for all the help guys!