ok so I have this A.I.R. crap.. I'm keeping it for emission purposes. my question is I'm putting an open element breather. the stock one has a hose that goes from a solonoid? to the breather. I was told by someone that all this hose does is draw air in for the pump and /or bypass extra air from the pump. he told me I could just put one of those little breathers that are made for valve covers. he said just put it right at the solonoid valve.. anyone know if this is ok?

thanks

 

What I would do: Remove the pipes going to the exhaust manifolds and just run a single pipe from the smog pump to the cat converter. This should be plenty to keep the car clean breathing and clean up the engine bay. Sorry I can't help you with the way the air pump breaths. I can't remember how it actually got the air, just know where it went and that i didn't like the way it looked. I passed the sniff sniff with my engine, no EGR, and no air pump so I don't think you'd have a problem removing that switch and just running it straight to the cat air pipe.

 

>just run a single pipe from the smog pump to the cat converter.

I'm confused; I thought the purpose of the smog pump taking in hot exhaust gas and pumping back through the cat was to heat up the cat faster. Wouldn't running a pipe pumping cold air from the smog pump into the cat (and taking off the AIR pipes from the exhaust manifold) defeat the purpose? Why not just take the whole system out? If your car is already warm (ergo, warm cat) when you take it in for testing, it shouldn't make a difference, unless there's a really strict visual inspection...

I think removing the AIR pump and hoses and pipes (getting these out of the manifolds is a PITA, though, unless you just cut through a few of em, and you'd have to plug the outlet holes from the manifold with something from the hardware store and close off the AIR inlet to the cat with a weld or something) is a swell idea, but what does this have to do with an open element air cleaner install? From what you said, I thought maybe you were referring to the breather hose that goes from your psgr valve cover to the stock air cleaner's breather filter? In that case, (1) this has nothing to do with the AIR/smog pump system and (2) you can just buy a plug-in style breather and pop it in place, into the valve cover, replacing the hose/ filter.

If I totally misunderstood what you're talking about, I apologize.

 

nono no... there's a hose that goes from the breather to some kind of solonoid which is attached to the air pump..

 

I don't think you understand what the difference is between the EGR system and the air pump system. EGR is the exhaust gas recycle system and that has nothing to do with the air pump. The air pump has a solinoid that switchs between directing air to the exhaust manifolds and then to the cat converter. When you startup cold the switch pumps air into the exhaust manifolds to warm up the o2 sensor. After the o2 sensor warms up the solinoid switchs to only the cat converter. This injects fresh (full of oxygen) air into the middle of the cat converter and gets it nice and hot. This whole process is to help warmup everything and burn off any extra hydrocarbons. The faster you can make a car warmup the lower the emissions will be. That's the only reason for the air pump system.

 

actually mine only has lines going to the exhaust manifolds.. goes in where cylinder 1 & 2 are located