Got A Car Question For You Guys That Know Older Gm

Discussion in 'Car Repair' started by kennyg, Jul 10, 2004.

  1. kennyg

    kennyg Full Member

    OK, I just bought an 84 olds delta 88, with a 307. Now, the engien-compartment is extremely cluttered with stuff that doesn't need to be there, so, I'm gonna get rid of as much of it as possible. Now, I can remove the whole air-pump, and all the lines going to it, right, and block-off, or remove th associated vacuum lines, right? What else can I get rid of? Aparently, it has a heat riser on teh exhaust, can I simply get rid of that, too, or would that actually hurt performance? I'm tryin to just clean it up as much as possible, and see if I can gain any performance/mileage by not having this stuff there. Thanks.

    BTW I know I'm a UTI student, but, they don't teach us anything about how to illegally take off emmissions controls stuff, and I've never done it before, so, I dunno what is neccesary to be there and whats not.
     
  2. sandt38

    sandt38 Full Member


    Why do you want to remove the smog equipment? Frankly the gains in horsepower for an air pump are near zero (take it off and spin it by hand... no resistance means no horsepower loss). Couple that with the fact that it's job is to feed the catalitic converter the oxygen it stores for burn off, and burn some feul off before it enters the cat and I see only negative side effects from removing the system. The 84 will have the pellet bed cat that had a tendancy to melt into a solid piece, restricting exhaust flow and hindering performance. By removing the oxygen it needs you will be loading it with feul, which is the primary cause for meltdown in the cat. Removing other smog devices is a no-no as well. Removing EGR will raise the combustion chamber temps causing predetination (ping) and force you to retard the timing. This hinders performance as well. The 307 was simply not made to be run without one. Old 350 rockets could run without them, but the 307 struggles for power as is, and retarding timing is not a good thing.

    The TAC (heat riser) is designed to bring warm temperature air into the enigine to reduce feul condensation in the cold intake. The less atomized the feul is, the less it is able to burn ;) . It also prevents carburetor line freeze in the winter. Being in Chi town, you have likely heard of carburetor freeze up, and should be aware of what a PITA it is.

    If you are looking to boost the level of performance of the 307, put a 350 rocket in it. Quite simply the 307 is not a powerhouse, and there is almost no parts available for performance tweeks. Similarly, all the smog equipment on the car actually helps it's performance. I know what the 307 looks like under there, and it is quite intimidating. But trying to remove things on that engine will only lead to issues down the road, either in reliability or performance.

    On that note I am forced to move this to the performance section, but I will leave the tag up here so it is more easily seen.
     
  3. kennyg

    kennyg Full Member

    I don't know, I got 25 mpg on the way home from Indianna with it, so, I dunno how much I wanna mess with it. I fixed the A/C today, too, it blows at about 45 degree's F out of the vents. The retrofit went quite well, for a first-timer in class. Next is to get a new headlight assembly, cause the right side marker light is missing, and the part holding the outer bulb is completely gone. I just have to clean the inside, now, and I'll ba happy for now. I've got new 4 gauge pwoer wire comming, but, I'll probably get my RCA's ran this week, sometime, and get a good ground made, and just pull the power wire as soon as it gets here. I'm gonna start with my E12k, and se how I like that, then decide from there just what else I wanna get.