I asked this question a couple of years ago and got a responce as well as pictures of the before & after. Unfortunately I cannot find it anywhere. Can someone walk me through the step by step procedure to remove this power sapping worthless piece of technology off my motor. I live in a state where smog controls are not required, and I want to take advantage of the additional horsepower

 

Wrong on both counts. It doesn't take measurable power to run, and it does reduce exhaust emissions.
Wrong again. You may live in an area that doesn't have regular inspection or testing, but emissions laws are federal, not state.
See first response above.

 

Okay, so if I understand you correctely; removing it would not only be unneccessary, and illegal, but will not produce any gains in H.P?
Thank you for your feedback!

 

Zero gains. At the most, it cleans up the engine compartment and takes off a few pounds.

(The only reason I responded the way I did was because of the way you rationalized the removal. I didn't want others to think there were big gains to be had by removing the system, or misunderstand the technicalities of emissions laws.)

 

five7 is not prone to silliness, and usually technically dependable.
That being said..
Removing the air system on these lunkers is just soul-gratifying.
But there are some things to consider. Flow is shifted between
the exhaust tubes, and down to the cat-converter. I'm not sure
what the ecm control function is, but just ripping it out may impact
the cat. Worst case, remove the cat if you're not concerned
about emissions. Better case, replace it with a better flowing
unit that doesn't take the aux. air input.
The pump, without any connections is ... at least annoying.
Removing it from the serpentine configuration requires some
belt routing mod's. I think there's a how-to for this in the tech
bulletins at the front of this forum.

Good luck,
kk

 

I sorta compromised when I removed some of my AIR stuff. What I did was remove the diverter valve and all the air pipes that go in the exhaust manifolds. Then I rigged up a hose that goes straight from the air pump to the tube that runs down to the cat. I just bought 8 pipe plugs from the hardware store to plug the holes in the manifolds. To be able to fit a hose on the pipe coming from the air pump, all you have to do is cut off the 2 bolt flange on the end where the diverter valve attaches to it. Then you can use a piece of the original hose and a clamp to connect the air pump tube to the cat tube. The way I figure, doing it this way, you're technically still emissions legal since there's still air running down to the cat, and removing the diverter and exhaust tubes majorly cleaned up the engine compartment. Besides that, the only time air runs to the manifolds is during engine warmup while the computer is in open loop. Once the car warms up and goes into closed loop operation, the air is diverted to the cat anyways. In fact, I failed emissions one year due to the diverter valve being broke. It was pumping air to the manifolds all the time. When this happens, the fresh air entering the driver's side exhaust manifold causes the oxygen sensor to read a false lean condition, and the computer compensates by richening up the air/fuel mixture. We disconnected the air tube from the exhaust manifolds, and it cleaned right up and passed after that. I went to the junkyard a couple of days later and got a working diverter valve to fix it. About a month later, I said the heck with it, and just removed all that crap and ran the air straight to the cat. Now it's much easier to change spark plugs, or remove the valve covers, and the motor is almost as uncluttered as the one in my 69 Camaro. If I ever decide to remove the heater core bypass valve, that would eliminate the last of the unnecessary clutter.