got the SC installed ang ran today, ran good but the smog pump locked up ;(

Foxfan88

My Grandpa has great wood.
Sep 13, 2004
2,487
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Miami, Ok
been working my arse off the last two days putting my vortech on.

got it going finally today and it ran GREAT.

under 2k it felt the same, it made some more power at 3k and started pressing you back into the seat and then once 4k rolled around it feels like it gained gobs of power and it really started planting you to the seat and continued to pull until you shift.

now 2nd gear feels like 1st gear did before the SC lol and this was on a HOT day, high 90s at least. and it ran like a scalded ape. without the SC you could feel the power loss due to the hot air but the SC outweighs that no problem. i cant wait to see what it runs like when its all tuned in and we get some colder weather

runs pretty good still has some bugs to sort out, the idle acts funny here and there but that will come in time


the SC is nice, but i was suprised there was alot of small PITA stuff to deal with, had to grind some stuff here and there and some of the bracketry didnt fit too good. nothing big i had to enlarge some holds and clearence stuff but it wasnt nothing too bad.

was cruising around showing my friend the new power and i pulled over to mess with timing and the engine stopped suddenly. the smog pump locked up and smoked the accesory belt. ripped it all up and melted it. i just ran a smog pump, no lines were running to it, all the internals were still in it, so it was "working". i am guessing it locked up for that reason. i ran a short belt before so i didnt have the pump on there. i used to have it on for like a week but took it off. so why did the smog pump lock up on me??

AND i CANNOT see my balancer to adjust timing. i put a powerforce plus balancer from pro products, its the shorter style to fit older 302s, i had to use an inch spacer to align the pulleys. so the balancer sits back some. but i couldnt get my light to blink on the balancer or anything, i doubt i could have even if i had a stock balancer on, it kinda sucks because i dont know what my timing is set at now, i moved it around some messing with it.

does any other vortech users have this problem with not seeing the balancer, the SC bracket and stuff just is in the way i cant see anything hardly.
 
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I can hardly see ****, but if you line yourself up right and the moon is rising on a Sunday, and it's ~80degrees you can see the balancer.

I had no problems with fitment or clearing, but my smog pump did the same thing to me once the blower went on. No idea why, but DO NOT take it off and run a short belt. I spent about 3 days running around like an idiot finding and trying countless belts to try to get it to work without hitting anything else. It didn't work and I just got another smog pump and used the original belt. A delete pulley would work too if you wanna go that route.
 
ive heard the smog delete idler pullies wont work with a supercharger, i dont see why it wouldnt.

so is the next smog pump going to seize up on me also?

i still dont know what to do about the timing deal
 
I have a smog pump delete on mine, so I can promise you that they work. Then again, I'm sure SOME designs aren't able to be bolted onto the supercharger bracket. I have the one from UPR and it's fine.

I can see my timing marks, but it's not easy. You should be able to too. Get a good light and work to find it. I can view it, take my eyes off it for a second, then have to hunt around again just to look at it a second time. That's how tricky it is. But it's possible.
 
If you are the type whom likes taking things apart to figure out why they broke, here's a shot inside that POS pump.

94768.jpg



If it completely froze up, the leaf bushings adjacent the bakelight vanes might have failed, which allows the vanes to totally get caught up between the drum and wall (the vanes sideload instead of retracting into the drum. E.g., See the vane at about ~2 o'clock? If it side-loaded any more, it would smack the housing at around 9 o'clock. Because the vane is loaded up sideways, it cannot retract and the thing seizes eventually).

The other common failure spot I've seen are the bearings inside the shiny lobes in the middle of the drum. Those bearings are tiny and when they seize, generally you hear a shrieking noise, followed by more noise and then more failure because any slop in that mainshaft and lobe interface allows the vanes to get stuck. If you have a really really hard time getting the mainshaft out (once the cover unseats - they seize to the housing badly), there's a chance you lost one of those bearings.

If your smog pump isnt connected to anything, why even have one? I'd ditch that thing if I could (I dont like having pictures of this crap or kinda knowing how it works and what fails :lol: ). A lack of use seems to cause them to not last long thereafter, and I have to think that any moisture that works its way into the discharge port can cause issues. If the discharge plumbing isnt hooked up, I'd toss a hose on the discharge port and run it up some place higher in the engine compartment (leave it vented, but then water has a tougher time getting into the back of the pump).

Good luck.
 
Professional products balancers are complete garbage, there is a reason why they are so cheap.
People have issues with timing on them all the time.
Replace that balancer with something made by ati or ford.
 
Using the ASP eliminator pulley with mine. UPR and ASP are really the only ones tha I know of that will work because they have the provision for the smaller bracket (cant remeber the official name) the FRPP piece does not have the extra hole tapped into it.
 
awesome i will grab one, the upr site didnt say anything about it but the asp one said it was good for vortech/paxton applications.

i dont really want to mess with the smog pump crap, i think it was making a whooshing sound when i got on it.

*EDIT* i just checked again and upr did say it worked with superchargers, silly me

thanks for the help
 
I had two of those bastards lock up on my so I finally decided to just get a delete pulley. If you drive your 5.0 with a smog pump you are asking to get stranded. I even bought a brand new one and it happened.
 
Emagdnim, do you know if your new one was NOS or recently made (the tooling has been sold and a resto-house now makes the pumps as I recall)?

I only ask so I have a heads up when I need to get another one.
 
Using the ASP eliminator pulley with mine. UPR and ASP are really the only ones tha I know of that will work because they have the provision for the smaller bracket (cant remeber the official name) the FRPP piece does not have the extra hole tapped into it.

Wait, if the supercharger kit is designed to use the stock smog pump, and the smog delete kit that I have (I think it's FRPP, it's got a plastic black pulley.) has the same bolt/pulley locations as the stock smog pump, why won't this delete work with the supercharger?
 
Wait, if the supercharger kit is designed to use the stock smog pump, and the smog delete kit that I have (I think it's FRPP, it's got a plastic black pulley.) has the same bolt/pulley locations as the stock smog pump, why won't this delete work with the supercharger?

On your smog pump there are 3 threaded holes. On FRPP eliminator is on a semi curved bracket with only an opening at the top and botton for a bolt to pass through. On the ASP and UPR, there is the additional 3rd threaded hole needed to used all the brackets with the Vortech kit.