Ok so me and my pap are having a long heart felt discussion on eliminating the vacuum system in my 1987 300/L6 f-150, I'm afriad its gonna mess something up but it would seriously make things so much less complicated. Can anyone tell me why or why not and how to go about it? thanks

 

well for simple...it was put there for a reason...

if it wasnt needed or Ford thought it wasnt worth it..well it just wouldnt be there...

the vacuum canister is to hold vacuum for the heating system to keep weird things from happening in low vacuum situations...like taking off....the flapper doors would switch alot during this...

 

Why do most race setups not have all the vacuum lines running around then?

 

You can eliminate most of the smog system but you can't get rid of all the vacuums. Race cars don't need to be fuel efficient or smog compliant so they don't need all the crap regular vehicles do. Plus, if you get rid of the wrong vacuum lines the truck will always stink like gas.

 

As in when its runnig?? because mine does.. the exhaust smells like gas and gets horrible MPGs I figured it was running to rich.. it smokes a little when i rev it up also..

And my smog system has been butchered.. i dont know whats what or what goes where or if its even all there..

 

If it stinks like gas while it's running then I would have to say it's running rich. Especially if you're getting black smoke out of it. There's a vacuum line from the carbon canister (which keeps the gas stink in) to the throttle body. When the engine is running and the purge is energized the throttle body sucks the fuel vapors from the gas tank and canister to be burned, which also helps mileage slightly.

 

To be honest im not sure what any of the smog system is.. These are the only two pics I have of my motor and their from the day a got it..



I dont know if you can see or not.. but theres 2 kinda large tubes the one on its side has been disconected.. the little thin fan looking thing is also disconected.. the smog pump is disconected and theres a rectangular plastic box to the side and below the battery that is also disconected.. and that tube coming up is plugged.. which i have no idea what that is either..

 

Yours is exactly like mine, except for the butchering. I don't see much of the smog system there. The control valves (missing from your truck) would be above the alternator bolted to the alternator bracket. They are controlled by the solenoids on the drivers side rear of the valve cover. The solenoid vacuum feeds need to be hooked up or the check engine light will stay on, but the vacuum out to the control valves can be capped. The large hose that is capped goes to the catalytic converter. It's fine but better would be to weld it shut at the cat. The smog tubes that go into the head are gone, there must be plugs in the holes or they just crushed the tube ends. I can't see what they did in the picture, but if it's not plugged right it will leak and you may lose power. You would need 6 1/4" NPT plugs. Passenger side of the valve cover in the head, although some are in the intake manifold. Mine were in the head, I would assume if they were in the intake manifold it would still take the same size plugs. I don't see the other large tube you are talking about. The thin fan is the engine after run cool down fan. It was put there by Ford because there is a problem with the straight 6 heads cracking from heat after shut down. It comes on a few minutes after you turn off the truck and runs for so long. There is a large tube with smaller tubes coming off of it on the head that the fan attaches to so it can pull away heat, also missing from your truck. It hovers over the passenger side of the head with brackets. I would put that back on. The square plastic box is the charcoal canister which filters the gas vapors. I'd have to look at my truck to see how everything hooks to it exactly but the single vacuum hose that splits into two and goes into the throttle body hooks to it. They pull the vapors in to be burned. I left my smog pump on the truck but there's nothing hooked to it.

 

Well I really just plan on running the truck till it dies, no resale im not worried about mpg, just hp, like any real motor head, which ones are truely needed and what isn't