Technical Tips > Post 84

AIR Pump

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Stingraynut:
I've had an interesting time with my daily driver 88 vette lately -

I got my AIR pump back from being engineered into a freewheeler, I have had some overheating probs so I've just had the radiator taken apart and cleaned and I re-fitted it on Thursday, I broke the lower transmission oil pipe to the radiator so had to engineer a piece of hose etc as a joiner. All went well but v hard on my back which is crook, (has 4 screws in it and only two of them work), I should have paid someone to do it but I'm determined to know my car.
 
I fitted my new engineered AIR pump at the same time and went for a test drive. Radiator and oil line fine, but after 20 minutes the pulley fell off the AIR pump as I was approaching a roundabout at 60kph, big clunk and NO STEERING - the steering is very direct so without the pump it's v hard to turn, much harder than standard car eg Falcon.  No probs, pulled over and spent half hour extracting tangled serpentine belt from under crankshaft pulley.
 
I knocked the pulley back on with a big rock and hoped to be able to limp home, as it had come off just when I had been gunning it for the first time. Unfortunately it only stayed on for 90 seconds so I caught a taxi home got the AIR pump that was loaned to me by vette obsessed, some tools and went back. Had to spend an agonising 30 mins bending over the engine to recover the belt again and re-fit loaned AIR pump. _ I'm getting the hang of it now !

My back was more than totally stuffed by then but I managed to get the car home although the serpentine belt semi exploded and there were only 2 strands left by the time I got home, it had been well and truly chewed up.
 
I've sent the AIR pump back to the engineer.
 
My car is still running hot although it looks as if it will cool down quicker, hard to tell as we're having a cool period - outside temp gauge read 30 degrees .I fitted a temporary switch to the aux cooling fan - it's a joke, there's not a lot of air coming from it so I connected the switch to the main cooling fan - so far it has pulled the temps back OK. but I'm waiting for some hot weather to continue testing -

Rob

david_moore:
Hang in there Stingray! and take care of that back! The air pump really puzzles me, it seems to me that it is really a con that does not do a lot but keeps the greenies happy? Dare I say it when I converted my '79 the engineer that assisted me throughout, when confronted with the air pump said "p#iss it off!"  Hope you get yours sorted soon!!:22

Stingraynut:
Hi David, yes I agree with you, it's a clever con to improve the look of the exhaust emissions.

The info says that it helps the catalytic convertor burn the harmful gasses - I don't know enough about that but it makes sense to me that if you pump fresh air into the exhaust it dilutes the reading - although the bad stuff is still there and being produced in the same quantity.

My AIR pump is now just a freewheeling pulley - or will be once it's fixed.

S'nut

david_moore:
Quite a few years ago the RTA in Sydney ran some tests on how efficient some of these emission controls really are. They invited along many car enthusiasts with older but many modified engines. They found a lot of new cars with poor maintenance were actually worse as far as emissions are concerned than many older cars with no emission controls!
Will you have to block off the unused air injection pipes?

Stingraynut:
Hi David, I cut a blank from some 1mm aluminium sheet and blocked the tube at the pump. That's all I plan to do for now.

I've read that the diverter valve can get faulty with age so eventually I will have to sort out all the rest of the machinery.

Once I get my pump back and fitted I have a small belt alignement problem to sort out. I'm also in the middle of fixing an overheating problem - I had the radiator ends taken off and the rad cleaned and have now installed a switch to the cooling fan so that I can choose to have it running when the temps begin to climb. Looks like that has fixed my problem but we're having a cool spell - once we're into the hot months I'll know more.

I'm also planning on fitting a heated O2 sensor - my fuel usage was 19-22l/100km around town even though I was driving like a granny. It looks as though the cooler running engine has lowered the fuel usage but it's really too early to tell - maybe the ECM was pouring in fuel to cool it down ?

I'm also dealing with my aircon, it's working almost good enough and I've nearly found all the air leaks in the ducts.

I built a simple sunshade for my glass top which is now up to design #3 - working but not elegant.

My 500 watt sound system is great , fitted the amp upside down above the passengers feet, but I went cheap on the front speakers so will have to replace them.

My right headlamp motor runs when I turn on the ignition - I think that's the gearing going.

Despite all that, the car is a joy to drive again, very special to me, although I know several areas that will need future work.

I looked up your profile but not much info there, what year vette do you have ? and what state (apart from 'high') are you in ?

S'nut

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