I'm trying to strip the engine bay down to the bare minimum while keeping the A/C and heat (obviously). I'm in the process of removing the AIR system (Need headers, everything else is out), I'd like to remove the emmissions canister as well, but for now its not bothering me too much. I know about the throttle-body coolant bypass mod, but it seems like theres a bunch of other hoses that go down along the passenger side of the engine. Whats with this? in my 81 Malibu theres simply two hoses that come from the heater core to the water pump and the radiator. Can i just do this with the Firebird or do the other hoses serve a valuable purpose?

 

There should be a heater core return line to the hose barb on the radiator. The heater core supply line should route from the intake front crossover (through the throttle body). If you have a hot water control valve in the heater hose line, you can pipe straight through and eliminate that since the temperature control damper in the duct system will work just fine (prior year F-Bodies didn't use the hot water control valve at all).

The air conditioning system has a hot liquid line from the condenser to the expansion control. The evaporator return (low side from the accumulator) should route back to the compressor. If you're planning on retaining the A/C, there isn't much you can remove.

The A.I.R. system comprises the bulk of the hose and tubing "confusion" on the right side of the engine. The system has three larger rubber lines from the diverter valve, a steel line to the cat converter, and a steel line around the rear of the engine to the A.I.R. check valve and fittings on the opposite side of the engine. If you don't have a visual inspection emissions check to pass, and if you change to a three-way cat converter, you won't need an air injection supply (aspirator) for the converter and can eliminate all that stuff - Including the pump. Your exhaust emissions will be just as good as new (if not better) once the engine and converter are warmed up. Plus, you can eliminate the pump, dump muffler, belt, brackets, diverter valve, and all the 190 feet of hose and tubing associated with that bird's nest. However, to make this work, you must change the cat converter to a three-way, non-aspirated (non-oxidizing) type.

 

Some of those coolant lines have to do with the factory "oil cooler".... before hacking on it too terribly much, might be a good idea to figure out what to do about that, or if you even want to be bothered with it.

Somehow I just don't "get" this whole "strip the engine bay down" deal, that I see so often... seems like it creates more problems for more people in more cases than it ever solves.