I have a 1986 corvette that I am doing full suspension rebuild, an engine swap and zf6 manual trans swap on. I have a new engine I built that should have around 430 crank hp going in fitted with a used TPIS miniram I acquired. I am also doing a ac delete and the smog pump was already removed when I bought it. On to my main question, what can I remove? How much of these vacuum run accessories and tank things are actually necessary? There is a second rad for just the AC system as far as I can tell, can that be removed without causing mounting issues with the coolant radiator? Can I just buy plugs for the trans cooler section of the radiator and reuse it?
Any and all advice is appreciated i'm up to my ears in all of this. Thank you

 

Yes you can pull the extra radiator(Condenser), and plug off the to be unused cooler ports.
The vacuum bottle leave it in for now and after getting all your modifications done all everything is working. Unplug the bottle and plug and do some testing and see if you have any problems.

 

I basically did the same thing to mine. Only difference is I wend with a 4L80e instead of a ZF6. I pulled everything. All the AC components including the condenser and the evaporator. I also cut down the evaporator housing and filled the hole in with fiberglass to give me a spot to mount relays. For a while I used the factory radiator but soon swapped it out for a Griffin Racing without trans cooling and used a separate trans cooler. I pulled every single vacuum line and reservoir out of the car. I plumbed my own vacuum system with PCV the way I wanted it. This drastically simplified everything. I also pulled the charcoal system and all of those lines. If you still have to have the car pass emissions testing then that part will be a challenge.

Best thing I can tell you is to pull it all and make it the way you want.

 

I'm doing the same thing as Dragon7 so I'm glad to follow this thread I've removed all AC, Cruise control, and I'm looking at the rest of the vacuum stuff that I'd like to remove. Mine is a 1988 automatic.

 

I am working on my 1985. I yanked the vacuum reservoir bulb as well as the cylindrical canister up front. Smog and EGR system delete also.

 

One thing I did over 20 years ago after removing A/C was to modify the fan housing.
On cars models with A/C as option there were often a smaller fan housing without the evaporator, and a bigger with, but the C4 Corvette were never offered without A/C.

It was a bit of work to cut the fan housing apart, create a "mold" and fiberglass a new shape.
I also mixed in black carbon powder from a laser printer in the outer layers of the resin. It did not mix easily but I like the result.
I have very good access to spark plugs and I would do it again,

Finished:


Before:


Evaporator:


As you see the heater core is on the inside:


"Mold" to create the shape:


Fiberglass:


Fiberglass with laser toner powder: