Can anyone tell me approxamatly how much power will I get if I remove the air pump system on my 89 CV LTD.

I cut the belt on my 84 a few years ago and I didn't notice any difference. The only thing that happened was that the air management pipe that goes from head to head rotted out.

Make sure you take your cats off before you remove the air pump.

You will pick up next to no horsepower, and depending on calibration, you might get a ck eng light to play with.

According to Ford's Specs. The air pump provides crankcase ventilation and actually *gives* 5 HP.
Interesting thing eh?

As far as removing cats first, I drove the whole time with the pump on and without the air injection because I had headers and no provision for it.
Didn't bother the cats or engine...it's just air being fed to the little fender mounted pump which also feeds the manifolds.

I won't be running an air pump anymore, and it's a whole new engine so can't tell you about gains

I believe I read the 5HP gain in the FMS Catalog, or was it my shop manuals (I have the entire set for '85)

The air pump has no crank evac function. FMS sells a 460 pump that can be used for crank evac.

Expect no HP gain. The main benefit to removing the pump is to get all that crap out of your engine compartment.

You will not have problems with your cats that you wouldn't have otherwise.

kevin

Kevin, you're right! Thanks for the re-education.
I went back to the catalog earlier today because I knew that's where I read it and sure enough, I should have paid better attention to the part #, which clearly denotes it's for the 460

unless you rid yourself of the extra weight the a/c and the air pump has, you probably wont gain any power. i'm estimating both pumps have a combined weight of 75-80 lbs.. losing that and the bent tension the a/c & the pump were using, its a very slim gain that you'll get.

I dont plan on removing mine since theres not much of a point, plus I may get my a/c fixed

i'm not sure but cant removing the air pump cause the cats to get clogged up? wont they get too hot without the fresh air going into them?

If your air pump's output has the aspirator and vacuum hose on it, your cruise control won't hold speed as well. If that matters to you. The later 302's had this air pump generated vacuum to improve the cruise controls high throttle response. Without the pump and aspirator, its back to only engine vac for control. Which isn't so good at higher load situations where the throttle is pretty far open. Like freeway hills.

Never had any problems with my cats not running the air injection (headers don't have the port).
I regularly checked them too, visually and placing my hand around them and they're not scorching white hot.
If your car is tuned and setup properly, you shouldn't have to worry.
Do you blow any black smoke at all? WOT? If not then you won't choke the cats and you'll be fine.

I wonder why the later 302s needed that air pump for the cruise? The computer should make the engine mega-efficient!
I never had any cruise control issues, but I never used it past 70mph anyway.
I wouldn't lose any speed going up/down hills, no matter how steep or how loaded I was (HAHA, that could be read in many ways )
My buddy with his 500lb lighter car ('86 305 Regal)
would drop up to 10km/h going up overpasses, even the light graded ones.
My vacuum has always been strong (15 on my gauge at 70 mph)

I want to preface my post by saying I am not trying to be a Mr. Knowitall, I just want to tell what the Air Inj Sys does. This description only applies to 5.0L and some 5.8L

You have the air pump, it pumps air, self explanatory. Hooked into the output is the Air Diverter Valve. The air diverter valve has 3 positions, Upstream, Downstream, Waste. Controlled by 2 solenoids similar to the EVR.

Upstream: Used only on cold engine. Air is injected into the tube connected to the back of the heads. This puts extra air into the richer exhaust on warmup. This uses the richer fuel mix to warm up your cats faster.

Downstream: Air is injected into the middle of the cats themselves. This is the normal mode (cruise mode). The extra air is used to burn any remaining HC in the exhaust.

Waste: Air is diverted to the "silencer" on the diverter valve assembly. This occurs on decel. One clue to a bad diverter valve are hella loud backfires on decel.

Air pumps do not consume much power. They never pump against much resistance. If it works, leave it.

Some calibrations test the air pump system during operation. The air is diverted upstream, and the O2 sensor is used to measure the addl air. Most calibrations don't do this, some do. Those that do will set a ck. eng light if the system is disabled.

The AIR system does cut down emissions.

AIR pumps make great crankcase evacuators. Look under the hood of many pro stockers and you will see an AIR pump nestled on the engine. It adds horsepower by decreasing windage on the crank assm.

AIR pumps make neat superchargers for lawnmower engines if plumbed properly (don't ask)

FLM & Punisher- Excellent tech! Thank you and welcome to the board!

kevin

My Grand Marquis was built in the days before serpentine belts, and the 400M engine has the air pump on a belt all by its lonesome. Or, at least it's supposed to. It probably didn't have that belt by the time I got it, and the other three were looking kinda tired, and it was in the middle of replacing them I noticed the air pump was missing its belt. Little pieces of hard rubber from the belt were still in the pulley, so it probably disintegrated while the car was sitting idle for 2 years. I drove it like that three more years, and didn't have any trouble related to not having an air pump. Of course, worn rings and a bad transmission gave me problems, but not a disconnected air pump.