My 86 Z28 with a 305 TPI has the california emissions on it, I'm in MN now and plan on keeping the car forever, no rust, needs paint. Can I remove the belt for the smog pump and have the engine function the same as with it on, how much power will it gain from doing this, or do I have to remove all the emissions stuff to make it work? Will the computer say something is wrong? Also can I remove the catalylyic(spelling) converter with out it affecting anything?

 

put on a high flow cat,and leave the pump on it (no power gain by removing it),later jimmy

 

I find that hard to beleive, there has to be some kind of power gain or mpg gain when removing the air system. So you can't remove the cat completely?

 

your fine to remove the cat, no problems there... but the smog pump you would have to remove it from the ecm or it wont run properly

 

Not true, I have no smog pump, and my ECM works fine. No error codes, and I even passed TX emissions like that. However, with that said, you won't really gain anything noticeable by removing it, the air pump doesn't really take much effort to turn. We're talking about maybe a 1HP increase, at the flywheel. If the system is working properly, I'd just assume leave it in place. If you really want to do it right though, it can make a little more room in the engine bay though. Get headers without air tubes, and a 2-way cat that doesn't need an air line. My only complaint with the air injection is that the tubes make it a pain to get to the passenger side spark plugs.

 

well according to a tech article on this site, you need to remove all of the air system or it could cause problems...

 

Well I'll probably leave it until I drop a 350 in it.

 

sounds good... i thought about removing mine as well but its only a small weight gain and as most ppl said small hp... I've heard up to5hp....

 

I've heard the gain is closer to 0.5-1hp. I just removed the smog pump on my '88 and I can confirm that you do not have to do anything to the ECM. I did it to clear up the engine compartment and get rid of those pesky air tubes in the exhaust manifolds but it turned out the bearings in the smog pump were in less than good condition so it was a good idea no matter what.

Instead of rerouting the belt I decided to get a delete pulley so I could remove all the clutter. I left the AIR-tubes in for now but I'm gonna remove them as soon as I get a chance.