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I Bought my 1988 Corvette Convertable about a year and a half ago. I love it so far. However, last year the smog pump started squeeling. No change in performance but I feel a Vette is supposed to purr not squeel. So I changed it. While doing so I recalled hearing that bypassing the smog pump could add a couple of horsepower and improve gas mileage. Is this so? And are there any potential consequences? Also would I need to cap the line coming from the pump? Any info would be appreciated
You can buy a bracket to remove it, it has to have an idler pulley on it for the belt route to work without rubbing on itself (won't route without that pulley period). As far as power gains, maybe 1/2hp, the pump offers almost zero resistance and the air injection itself causes zero power loss.
You can remove the pipe fitting (standard pipe thread) at both manifolds and cap the pipe to the cat. You can also remove the 2 actuators and their plugs, computer won't be aware you did this.
I did this recently on my 89...bought a used eliminator kit, removed all the smog stuff in less than 30 min. Installed kit in about 10 min then had to size up a new belt. Works fine and looks much cleaner. No noticeable performance increase. Much easier to get at some of the stuff under the hood now.
From: levittown pa. usa Even a bad day with my `Vette, is better than a good day at work
St. Jude Donor '10
Originally Posted by jon0108
you could actually gut the smog pump and leave it in place for no cost.
Yes you could, but with the eliminator kit, you can actualy get the driver side valve cover off hassle free after the install & that alone almost makes it worth the cost IMHO!
I did the eliminator a while back and its nice to be rid of all that crap. The PO had done some removal of tubing and now I think of it he may have gutted the pump as well since the tubing was removed. He had capped the big tube coming off the ex manifold with a 1/2" pipe cap. I just finished cutting the tubes very close to the ex manifold and tapped them for a 5/16" cap screw. In hind sight I wish I had tapped it to 1/4" to be able to use a pipe plug. I may retap it to 3/8" to do just that.