Electric smog/air pump on lt1?

[BeefAndRice]

I recently installed a march performance pulley kit on my 350 for my 79 camaro, but didnt really think about the smog pump. i see that most people delete them, but here in british columbia canada we have to pass "air care". So i was wondering if i it were possible to install an electric air pump that would work on my headers that are modified to use a smog pump. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/RNB-306-010/
i think thats a smog pump, it says air pump but the description is like a smog pump.
would something like this work? do i have any other options? :(

[nullshine]

Are you concerned about not passing the sniffer test? I would think that a fuel injected LT1 would pass under 1979 standards with flying colours, AIR pump or not.

They're not checking under the hood now, are they?
Have you informed AirCare of your swap? and what motor was in there before the LT1? It's usually best to keep them in the dark, especially if the new motor is larger.
Have you had any AirCare tests performed with the AIR pump not functioning?
If so, post up your readings.

Stock LT1?

[BeefAndRice]

It's still a 355 ci small black chev, but now it's got AFR heads, weiand stealth manifold, big cam and a holley 750 dp (not fuel injected). It has no cats so i'm pretty sure it wont pass aircare. it was able to pass before due to the smog pump. I think my dad said i can change the timing to try and squirm my way through the check, but i'm not so sure. plus you've never seen neighbours complain so much about the smell of a real car. so i'm hoping if i put the smog pump in there that the emissions wont upset anybody. I havnt tried to pass aircare though, but i can guarantee it wont pass unless i change something. :(
Thank you for taking the time to reply :)

[nullshine]

Ahhhh.... IC. It's carbed and modded up with no cats... yeah that's a whole other story. If it smells bad enough for the neighbours to complain, I doubt it'll pass a chemical analyzer :razz:
If it's that bad, I'd at least check your idle mixture to ensure you're not running rich to begin with?

I believe one of the functions of an AIR pump is to dump air into the cats at startup to help them get up to operating temperature quicker. If you have no cats, that doesn't benefit you, so I'm assuming all you will have hooked up is the line to the exhaust, which will dump air into the exhaust to help burn up the excess hydrocarbons. Which is better than nothing... But if you add cats and hook up both lines (to the cats and to the exhaust) i'm thinking that would really boost your ability to knock down the hydrocarbon part of the aircare test.

I might even just run it through a test to get a reading and see what areas need to be taken care of... you might set up your AIR pump and add cats, and then fail on another part of the test anyways. If it's only hydrocarbons, slap on some cats and you may pass without the AIR hooked up (Get cats with the AIR tube anyways in case you decide to add that later, although I believe the AIR connection at the cat will only heat them up faster, not reduce your hydrocarbon levels overall, but still might be a good idea since it'll help you ensure your cats at operating temp during the test).

[BeefAndRice]

The car used to pass aircare before i installed the serpentine system. The old system had the smog pump that shot air into the headers to make the flame front burn a lot hotter that would burn up the hydrocarbons. I dont think there has been cats on that thing for 20 years.
Also it's currently being tuned, so the afr, timing and jetting will all be perfect. I know that i need to have a smog pump or cats in order to pass aircare, i'm just wondering if anybody knows if it's possible to install an electric smog pump, as i'm not really into cats robbing the power that i just added :D

[nullshine]

I think there's a good chance you could adapt an electric AIR pump in there... The way I see there's a few things that need to be taken care of.

-Mounting the pump (self-explanatory).
-Hose/line connections (inlet/outlet on pump, ports on headers).
-Controls (mimic how the belt-driven one is controlled).

How is the belt-driven AIR pump controlled? Electric valving to determine when/where the pump pumps to?
(And just to confirm, this WAS a fuel injected LT1, and has now been carbed?)


Option #2:
Get some cats, and modify them and your exhaust to make them a bolt in/out operation, and replace with a bolt in/out straight pipe when you're done with AirCare.

[BeefAndRice]

Yeah, i was thinking about buying a cat and just removing it afterwards. but like i mentioned, i wanted the neighbours to stop complaining about the exhaust, so i want a more permanent solution. And from what i know it's less of a power robber to have a smog pump vs cat.
79 camaro came stock carbed, it wasnt and wont be fuel injected.
I'm not exactly sure how a smog pump works, all i know is it runs off the pulley system, but i would assume it just pumps more air as the rpms increase.
I think the removable cats will be my backup plan just in case i cant get an electric pump.

[nullshine]

Yeah, i was thinking about buying a cat and just removing it afterwards. but like i mentioned, i wanted the neighbours to stop complaining about the exhaust, so i want a more permanent solution.
Right.



And from what i know it's less of a power robber to have a smog pump vs cat.
79 camaro came stock carbed, it wasnt and wont be fuel injected.
I'm not exactly sure how a smog pump works, all i know is it runs off the pulley system, but i would assume it just pumps more air as the rpms increase.
I think the removable cats will be my backup plan just in case i cant get an electric pump.

Well, I'm not sure how YOUR pump works (exactly) either. I previously thought you had an LT1 (ala '95 Camaro etc) converted to carb. But if the AIR pump is the stock 1979 one, since you have no ECM, probably all it has is a vacuum operated diverter valve as far as controls go. I would also think there would be a check valve on the AIR pump outlet to prevent exhaust gas reversion through the pump or diverter valve.

I'm not 100% on this, but I believe that diverter valve (if so equipped) will vent the AIR pump to atmosphere (essentially disabling it temporarily) when it is not desirable to have AIR injection, like when you let off the gas abruptly on the highway, and other times. This would be accomplished by a system of vacuum controls (check valves, air bleeds, connections to different types of vacuum to determine conditions) which I have absolutely zero specific knowledge on.

Now that I know you have no ECM, I think that electric pump that you listed above will probably be quite hard to adapt. I'm assuming those electrical connections on it are for the computer to turn it on/off and allocate flow depending on conditions, and appears to be an OEM replacement for some 2000-2006 GM vehicles. This will not be a bolt-in, hook up some hoses and crimp some connections type installation. I'm thinking it would take some serious research and ingenuity to make that pump work on your engine. If it can put out enough volume to work sufficiently in the first place?

Remember that I know nothing about how your specific AIR system works, and I am only supposing based on a general basic knowledge of how AIR systems work. The first place to start when adapting things is to find out how the original part operated in the first place, then get the new one to "act" like it.

Good luck with whatever solution you decide to pursue.