Hello all, I have had a problem where a broken bolt prevented my air pipe from connecting to the exaust manifold on one side.
after many attempts to drill out the bolt I gave up, cut the air y pipe off near the distributer and plugged the holes on both manifolds with 11/16 cup expansion plugs. This worked very well.
Due to the sound comming from the cut off air pipe I crushed it closed, just pinched it off really.

Thought this would be the end of it, but I guess since the air pump was being over worked as it was now pushing all its air to the single line that runs to the cat it was too much for the old air pump.
after a few hours it started to hammer and make alot of noise... SO, I removed the pulley and belt off the air pump...

Now for my actual question, without air flow being supplied to the cat, will the cat fail to burn and plug up with soot?

Thanx all.

 

In my mind the cat will have to work harder and thus run hotter. If it runs too hot then it can start melting and plugging up, but not from soot. I've heard alot of people that remove the air pump and plumbing. Not sure what they did with the cat if anything. I'm sure someone will chime in that knows more about it than me.

 

I had 90 pick up with the same motor and it did not have the pump. I believe the air pumps are for the HD versions but could be wrong. You may want to look up cats on rockauto and see the differences.

 

AFAIK the smog pump was to pump extra 02 into the cat so emmissions would be lower...it is an enhancement for efficiency but I dont believe it is required