Smog Pump

Topic: Smog Pump (Read 3318 times) previous topic - next topic

Smog Pump

March 08, 2011, 07:26:45 AM

Anyone have experience replacing these? I did mine this past weekend, and the new one is noisier than the old one. It does state on the unit that a 500 mile break-in is required (Haynes manual says same). What's odd is that it's pretty quiet at initial start-up, then, once the engine is at operating temp, at RPMs above (ballparking here as I have no tach) 1500, I get a high pitch squeak that gets progressibly worse as the engine speed increases. Once warm, it still doesn't do much at adle, and thus, it's hard to pinpoint, as I have rev the engine pretty good while stationary, and then with all the fan noise, and accessories, it's hard to tell exctly WHAT is making the noise. I alos replaced the serpentine belt...but I would think belt noises would be more constant (?). I spun the alt, and idler pulley by hand with the belt off, and no squeaks then. (I can tell the noise is on that side of the engine...V6)

Any ideas are appreciated!

Smog Pump

Reply #1 – March 08, 2011, 07:55:11 AM

I removed mine totally and put a shorter serp belt on the car.

Where the heck are you in Olathe? Cool to see.

Smog Pump

Reply #2 – March 08, 2011, 10:41:28 AM

Whoa, two members from the same town. nice.

Smog Pump

Reply #3 – March 08, 2011, 01:26:53 PM

I'm not far from the Garmin building. You?

I was going to eliminate it, but was reading threads on here that I'd damage my cat if I did eliminate it, so opted not to.

Smog Pump

Reply #4 – March 08, 2011, 02:21:45 PM

Im near Cherokee and Lindenwood. Fairly close to Garmin also.

I am going to put and off road Hpipe in, so I dont care about my cats.

Smog Pump

Reply #5 – March 08, 2011, 06:17:44 PM

Try dribbling a little water on the ribs side of the belt while it is running. If the squeal goes away it could be pulley alignment.

Smog Pump

Reply #6 – March 08, 2011, 07:55:24 PM

on the 87 3.8, the idler pully makes a belt change more of a task then with the 5.0.
The smog pump itself should have a pivit bolt painted blue in color,, atleast my old 3.8 did and it passes through a water jacket hole in the head.

anyway,, if the pully feels harder to turn after you have warmed it up then short belt the thing and dont run the smog.

my diy link shows how you do it but short and sweet,,,,,,,,
with a tight belt,,,,
loosen all yoru smog pump pully bolts (10mm i think)
loosen belt tensioner and remove belt.
remove the pully on the smog
pry off the plastic fan impeller on which was directly under the smog pully.
install your new belt and you will notice it barely clears the face of the old smog pump. the belt will rub itself off about a 64'' then never touch the smog again. I know, i did it to my 3.8 for 8 years like that.
Next you cap off your white/tan vac lines at the smog plumbing and leave all the pipes and such in place. That way when you want, you can just put the impeller and pully back on keeping your correct but old belt (original size) in the trunk if inspections are needed your way.

to your original issue, Im afraid of a noise like that but the pivit bolt i spoke about earlier had a shim between the mounting braket and the block. If your feel down when you took the pivit bolt out, you would have never known it and it will account for about 1/8'' of offset.
if you tightened the new smog pivit bolt in, go loosen it and see of the mounting braket pulles itself off your head by a 1/16 or 1/8'' or so. if it does, then you did have a shim and that means your actuall new pully was sitting back too far.

also, your type of tensioner is very difficult to get just right for proper tension but i used to over do mine as well.

if your not careful, that smog pully is going to start pulling so much drag that your going to start throwing belts and wonder what the hell is going on. then your gonna reach down and spin the smog pump and feel the grinding or minor binding on a cold unit and liberal binding on a warmer engine.

Smog Pump

Reply #7 – March 10, 2011, 01:33:27 PM

Thanks jcassity! A lot of good info there. Yes, mine has the "blue bolt" and I think I may well have overtightened it. That will be my check this weekend. Hopefully, no damage to the new pump. I hope I didn't crack the mounting bracket (it's aluminum, I think)...but as I was tightening, I was wondering why it just wouldn't "snug up"...my bad. I'm reluctant to just short belt it as I don't want to damage my cat...thought KS doesn't have any kind of emissions testing that I'm aware of...

Smog Pump

Reply #8 – March 14, 2011, 07:59:50 PM

Well, took everything back apart Saturday and I had messed up on the install...I was trying to "cut corners" and tried to do the swap without removing the alternator. Somehow, I managed to not thread the "blue bolt" through the housing and it was just pinching the pump in place on top! yikes! Anywany, got that all sorted out correctly (perfect pulley alignemnt now), but squeak/chirp is still there! Soooooo, after listening carefully and testing, I'm 99% sure it's the idler pulley. Never been replaced to my knowledge (I've had the car since 2000). Hopefully, changing that will solve the problem!

Smog Pump

Reply #9 – March 14, 2011, 10:44:45 PM

cool beans,, i thought you had replaced the tensioner,, let us know how it goes.

Smog Pump

Reply #10 – March 15, 2011, 10:38:12 PM

Generally, you can't find just the bearings. The replacement ones are the whole pulley made of plastic. They seem to work okay, but i'd like the netal one better. Might not apply, just noticed you have a v-6.

Smog Pump

Reply #11 – March 16, 2011, 08:03:26 PM

Well....

Idler pulley replaced, noise STILL there. Now I don't know what to think. Chirping definitley seems to be coming from the "middle" of the accessories. Do water pumps chirp when they're going bad? I replaced it Nov. '07 about 35K miles ago...shouldn't be bad already??? No outward signs of WP failure (leaks). Alt is new just over a year ago...spun it free hand when replacing smog...no noise.

I do need to have my PS pump replaced and am going to do the rack as well. I've decided against doing this myself as it sounds like a fairly involved project and requires tools I don't have. Guess I'm just going to leave it to the mechanic guys as I'm getting tired of throwing parts at an unknown problem...

Smog Pump

Reply #12 – March 16, 2011, 11:59:23 PM

Did you try dribbling water on the belt? I had trouble finding a belt that would not squeal. Turning the belt around so it ran in the opposite direction help for a while.

Smog Pump

Reply #13 – March 17, 2011, 09:41:03 AM

Try the above 2 suggestions before you take it to a mechanic. Its free.

Smog Pump

Reply #14 – March 17, 2011, 12:44:47 PM

Well, drove it to work this morning and am still convinced it's a belt issue. It's a rather humid warm day here and it was noisy as h*ll when I started it up, but as I drove to work it got less and less to the point that when I got to work (about 12 miles of city driving) it was almost quiet. I think this indicates that it's likely NOT an accessory issue, but rather, a belt issue.

I'll try the suggestions above and may well just go get another belt. Perhaps this AZ one is just a problem for some reason???

Thanks for the input!