What is involved in eliminating the smog pump on our 96 F250?

[Lonesome7.3]

My wife drives a 1996 F250 with a FI 351. The engine has a smog pump that I want to eliminate. I know messing with you emissions crap will cause computer issues. But this smog pump has been disconnected for a few years now and the truck runs and pulls strong. That gas powered truck with well over 200,000 miles on the ticker as impressed me numerous times. Now, I want to get rid of all the crap that truck does not need. I know the Mustang guys have a store bought solution for their smog pumps. But it comes in the form of an idler pulley. I do not want that because it has the potential to fail eventually. This truck as already eaten a few idler pulleys over the years. Want I want is to completely eliminate the pump and reroute a shorter belt. Before I dive into this, do any of you have any suggestions on how I should go about it? Have any of you done this sort of mod before?

 

[discbrks]

IIRC, on the fox-body Mustangs (79-93) you could just re-route the belt (shorter, of course) and throw the smog pump away. I think in the 94-95 Mustangs you had to use the idler pulley. And 96-up I have no clue b/c they went to the 4.6 mod motor. Try drawing the pulleys on a sheet of paper - all except the smog, and see if you can connect them all with a with a belt. If so, then the correct, shorter belt would be trial & error.

Maybe somebody has a better idea?

 

[Ironman03R]

I did this to my 90 5.8, try routing a string around the pulleys and then measure the length (with the tensioner pulled back) then take your measurement into the part store and get a belt that lenght, might be good Idea to get one a little longer and shorter too. It took me 2 times to get the belt right on mine but is working fine without all that crap. I eliminated the EGR also (and cats) since I put headers on it, mine has the old computer so it dont know the difference, I have only gotten an egr fault code once and havent seen the light on for awhile now.

 

[Lonesome7.3]

Both of those are good ideas. I have used the string method before and it worked well. If I can go ahead and pull the pump, what about the rest of the emissions stuff? What all did you eliminate when you installed headers.

 

[Ironman03R]

I took off all the unneeded vac lines, air pipes and check valves. The ports in the heads are plugged now, yours should be in the manifolds not the heads. Most plugs are still pluged in so the computer thinks its still there. If you take off the cats in a 96 you will get an engine light.

 

[Lonesome7.3]

The cat has been gone for over four years. We have not had any codes pop up.

 

[Ironman03R]

Good to know, the trucks must not be as picky as 96 and newer cars.

 

[Lonesome7.3]

That is what I am thinking. I guess I will go ahead and yank it all off.