88 burb 350 TBI smog question?

[airforceburb]

I have a 1988 3/4 ton, 4x4 suburban. It's a stripped down plain jane former military vehicle- airforce. Has CUCV front and rear bumpers w/brushguard, dana 60 from CUCV parts truck and all the blackout drive lights/slave cable recepticle just for decoration. Anyways... All stock 350 TBI, th400 72,000 original miles ect... My local mechanic told me that my truck might run better if I removed the air pump, and remove the pipes coming out of the exaust manifolds and plug the holes with proper sized bolts. He said I wont gain any power, just might run better. says he did it to his 90 k5 blazer. I just want to clean up the engine bay, whish is my ultimate goal. He would not do this for me, but said it's easy to do. I already removed the air conditioning stuff. I guess it's against the law to do this, but my state does not conduct emissions checks, and my state considers this an antique vehicle, anything older than 1990. This is of no relevance, but My 72 chevy has no emissions stuff to take off!

Am I going to run into any computer problems doing this? Any vacume problems? I like the TBI, just not the smog stuff. It clutters up my engine bay. If any of you guys have done this, please let me know how to do this right before I screw something up. I have been told just to change manifold and go to carb, but I am resisting. Thank you for any help you guys can give.

 

[DeviousK5]

The A.I.R. system is designed to keep the catalyst do its job in part by cooling it. If you remove the system and still have a catalytic converter it will sure burn up in a few months. I remover the air system on another vehicle i had in high school, no gain felt and my converter fouled out 5k miles later.Arguably removing the pump will put a little less strain on the engine but i sincerely doubt you will feel anything. If you dont have smog requirements remove it all , it will look cleaner but i doubt any gain will be felt.

 

[USSkoval]

When I got my '88 I removed the smog pump belt as soon as I got it home. I later removed the pump and lines, and added headers and duals. I think those few things added together made a nice difference in the power department.

And keep the TBI!

 

[rocknerd]

i picked up an 88 k5 355 tbi that had been stripped of its smog pump belt and catalytic converter. i had to re-install both to pass state emissions test and i've noticed a loss of power since putting smog stuff back on..

 

[airforceburb]

Thanks for the reply. I will start on the smog stuff this week

 

[airforceburb]

Thanks for the reply.

 

[ciffer]

does air pump removal cause any problems with the TBI computer?

 

[ciffer]

bump

 

[USSkoval]

Nope, no issues