Mista_Breeze

An someone please explain to me what the AIR tube that goes to (or from) the exhaust pipe does? I have a 96 with a 4.9 by the way. It is after the first cat but before the second. It appears to go to the head. Does it pump air TO the exhaust or FROM the exhaust? Is it necessary? And if you redo your exhaust how have you gone about hooking it back up? Thank you.

Andrew95

it comes from a pump, pushes air into the exhaust for longer cat life and emissions. New cats have an air tube so you can reconnect it.

Mista_Breeze

That is the tube that goes to the cat? I wasn't sure because it goes to the 3 inch pipe after the first cat. What would the negative affects be if I were to not hook it back up?

tanman90

Your cats could clog up faster if you still have the stock cats. If you don't have cats then there are no negatives to removing it. The air tube is just for the cats so if you don't have them it is not needed. Since yours is a '96, you may have a CEL

Mista_Breeze

I have no cats and my CEL burnt out long ago. But right now the AIR tube is just bungy corded to the frame rail, not hooked up to anything. I can't imagine that does any good. The AIR tube goes straight to the heads doesn't it? And if that's the case how can I delete it? Would putting a bolt in the end to prevent airflow work in the mean time? When I shut the truck off air would rush back up that to the heads and cause that to cool faster than it should, could this do any damage? And lastly is there a write up for omitting this system?

1996f150.5.0

You will have a CEL and it will tick like an exhaust leak, I'm running that way right now on my 96

Mista_Breeze

How can you either hook it back up without a cat or get rid of it? I'm not one for needless things hanging around under my truck like it is right now.

tanman90

Yeah, the air tube is connected to the heads and to the smog pump. There is a one way valve on the air tube that comes from the heads so it can only push air into the exhaust not vise versa. I have deleted this entire system on my 5.0 it was pretty easy. Then you just run a shorter belt. What engine do you have?

tanman90

Also yes I guess putting a bolt in it would work but it would be better to remove the tube completely or just delete the whole system. My tube was hanging down before I deleted the air system so it rattled on the frame, drove me crazy. Now that tube is in the trash hahaha! (Evil laugh)

Mista_Breeze

I don't know that I want to delete the whole system because I may put a new cat on it at some point but if I could remove the tube or just hook it back up before the muffler to get rid of the ticking sound that's what I would prefer. Is there a way to do that without welding?