Ihave an 89 camaro rs with a 5.0. My car has been making a chirping/squeeking sound since ive owned it (about a month), until a few days ago i thought it was the ac compressor. But the other day i noticed that the check valve that is connected to the air tube on the passenger side exhausr manifold is broken off. I kind of have a few questions about that... first am i risking anything by driving my car with it broken, and also im not fammiliar with this system can somebody explain its importance (all i know is that its emmisions related), and lastly how do i go about eliminating it, im not really planning on doing that but im curious because some headers dont have it and i wonder what people who get those do about the rest of the system.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can answer any of my questions.

 

The squeaking is the air pump. Sounds like its toast. The passenger side exhaust valve likely wont do much harm with manifolds. With headers, it could suck lots of air in at WOT and overheat teh cat. It will, however, allow exhaust to enter the engine, and possibly passenger compartments.

For taking it off, do a search for smog pump or air removal. LOTS of threads on this.

 

Are you sure the air pump is toast, because i held the two broken pieces together while the engine was running and the noise stopped, and the nise also soulded like it was coming from the broken valve?
But thanks for the info, although im not really planning to remove the system (at least not now) I was curious about how to remove it and how it worked.

 

If the pump itself isnt making the noise, then its ok, but if the noise is coming out of the line leading to the air pump or the pump itself, then it may be faulty.

 

oh okay, thank you. Now im considering actually taking the smog pump off if its gunna keep costing me money.