my buddy has an s5 fc. I was checking it out the other day and it has an Air Pump on it. At first I thought it was a remote water pump or something. But if you look through the dirt, it actually says air pump on it.
What exactly does this thing do?
Is it required to run right?
I'm more curious than anything...

 

Emission Control: Air Pump

 

k, so its emissions...I kinda figured... any downside to taking the system out?

 

it is required to make the car run right
for one it helps with emissions
but more importantly the air pressure from its used to open the 5th and 6th ports - unlike the S4 which I think uses back pressure from the cat
to trigger the actuators that open the ports
do not remove the air pump unless you intend to wire the aux ports open

 

Supposedly a clogged catalytic converter, horrible emissions and running a little rough. I dunno, I ran without one on my FD and everything was fine. Not sure on FCs.

On the FD, it is best to buy some different pulleys so the water pump makes better contact with the belt so it won't slip. again, Not sure on FCs.

 

is the FC in question a TII or NA?

shoulda been my first question

BTW I had an FD for a few years with a disconnected air pump, didn't affect a damn thing

 

the one in question is an NA...

so basically, you can get rid of all of that emissions stuff if you wire in an RPM activated switch to open the 5th and 6th ports... right?

just curious, where does it pull air from? and where exactly does it go? I didn't get a good look in the 2 minutes I was looking at it the other night...

 

you can probaly wire them to switch, a search on RX7Club.com - Powered by vBulletin in the second gen forum should find the way to do it
I don't know if he'd wanna be constantly flipping a damn switch though
the air pump pulls air from the same airbox the motor pulls from
it sends it to the the actuator system and also to feedpipe to the cat
you'd have to find a diagram to see whatever convoluted way Mazda plumbed all that

 

yeah, I've noticed that mazda does funny things... funny is about the only way to describe it sometimes...

I was actually talking about an RPM switch... like drag cars use for their nitrous set ups.... or are the ports opened by throttle position or what?
I don't really know, I'll just ask before he does...

 

until he or you know exactly how the system works don't rip it out
the system works just fine, you have maybe 1/4 hp parasitic loss from
it maybe weighs 5 pounds at most
it keeps the cat from being clogged
Generally I've heard it's a royal pain in the ass to replace with very little reward.
If he is going to road course race it then he might wanna remove the whole system and go with them open all the time with Pineapple Racing sleeves - but he should only do that in this one case.
With ports always open your low end power/torque is non existent.
Everything RX-7 wise has been cover at RX7club I don't how many thousands of times, so with a week or 2 of researching he could find the answers to everything.
Just don't go pulling stuff off the car, alot of the plastic stuff under the hood is quite brittle with age - trust me.

Really for the NA FC's money is best spent on suspension and tires rather than power, and then reliabilty stuff.
Ask me how I know....(See TR garage)