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What is this part and what does it do? I know I hate these questions too. BUT I have only seen this part 3 times. Two in person and once in pictures. These pictures are from my 1982 98. I had thought maybe it was a mechanical air pump for the ride leveling from seeing it the first two times. I doubt this as the car doesn't seem to have ride leveling which I thought odd.
But I traced the lines and now think it is emissions related but not sure.
I'm pretty sure it's the air pump aka smog pump for the Air Injection Reactor system. It pumps excess air into the exhaust stream, which supposedly burns off more hydrocarbons and cleans up exhaust.
It's a more or less trouble free system unless one of the check valves in the piping to the exhaust manifolds fails or starts leaking. That creates an exhaust leak, and if it fails it will let hot exhaust gas get back to the pump and burn it up. One of the worst smells ever.
Sorry, Glenn, that's a vacuum pump. Follow the hoses and it will become obvious. The A.I.R. pump is below it. The air leveling system uses an electric pump.
The vac pump was definitely used on diesel cars, since diesels don't create manifold vacuum. It was also used on some 307 cars, as demonstrated by the diagram I posted, since that diagram is for the 5.0 VIN Y motors. The pump was used for cars with a heavy load of vacuum operated accessories where the feeble 307 wouldn't generate enough vacuum at wide open throttle going up hills to keep the HVAC system working properly.
The vac pump was definitely used on diesel cars, since diesels don't create manifold vacuum. It was also used on some 307 cars, as demonstrated by the diagram I posted, since that diagram is for the 5.0 VIN Y motors. The pump was used for cars with a heavy load of vacuum operated accessories where the feeble 307 wouldn't generate enough vacuum at wide open throttle going up hills to keep the HVAC system working properly.
Can this pump be added to a BBO 455 to compensate for poor vacuum on high performance cammed engines? What would be required to add to my 70 BBO in a 64 A body Cutlass?
Can this pump be added to a BBO 455 to compensate for poor vacuum on high performance cammed engines? What would be required to add to my 70 BBO in a 64 A body Cutlass?
It's a belt-driven vacuum pump. You just need to fabricate brackets and a pulley setup that works.
Similar pump is used on some NON A. I. R. "Y" 307 motors in B body 82/83 +/-. Right under the AC compressor, know of it on non computer cars but not sure it's limited to that. It was good at maintaining vacuum but alot of the climate control was electric servo. Had absolutely no issues with vacuum removing the pump and even using much more cam and keeping AC.
If ride height is becoming a concern, time for four new coils, consider a better higher rate and more upright stance with good quality N shocks. Detroit Springs has great selection.
If it has air ride in the rear, finding a true two way air shock is tricky, Arnot served my needs with the only charged two way that I could still find. Going through a few AC Delco attempts with examples that claimed to be the correct configuration with correct part numbers but were second rate one way oil.
Last edited by LOUCKES'6487; Dec 3, 2023 at 10:07 AM.
