Hi Ya'll! I'm brand new to the forum and happy to be here! I'm fulfilling a lifelong dream of owning an '82 'Vette on April 23rd! It's hard to sleep at night just thinking about it!
The 'Vette I'm getting has the smog pump belt removed.
2 Questions:
1) Do I really need it to be there? and if so, 2) Is it okay to drive without it?

Thanks in advance for all your help! I look forward to being a forum fan!

JSGarner

 

Hi JS, welcome to CF, your likely to get a couple more answers about the A.I.R. pump belt but here's what I can tell you. The '82 is fuel injected and as such it is also computer controlled, the air pump only injects fresh air into the exhaust system to help burn residule combustable gases before they leave the tailpipe, this keeps our environment cleaner and does not reduce the power output of the engine on it's own. Running with the belt off may overheat the catalytic converter and you may also get the Service Engine light on the dash, it may not hurt the engine but the computer will recognize a fault.

 

78buckshot is dead on. If it has been off for a while and you intend to replace it, be aware that there are tubes extending into the exhaust manifolds where the A.I.R. tubing is connected. These tubes inject the air very close to the head of the exhaust valve and therefore will get very hot if there is no air flow. I removed the manifolds from a car that had had the belt off for a while and the ends of the tubes had melted back and were mushroomed. Almost completely closed off in some cases. These tubes are available from Paragon. The belts were usually removed due to the misconception that the A.I.R. pump soaked up a lot of hp. Actually it took very little as it wasn't an air compressor. Good luck and have fun.