I own a Euro 360 Modena 2002 model, which does not have SAI pump. However, I would be interested to know if it is possible on a car that has this system (any sportscar from that era , not just Ferrari 360) to remove it ? Ignoring the legal issues and strictly from a technical point of view, how easy/difficult is to remove this redundant system ? My understanding is that the SAI takes some unburnt fuel from the exhaust and recycles it back in the intake for it to burn !! This way the car is supposed to release less pollutants !! So my question is , what would happen if you were to remove this ? Thanks !!
.. and ignoring the environmental/health issues... If the secondary air system is like the F355's, it will add filtered fresh air (via an electric pump) through valves and pipes into the exhaust manifold to reduce certain pollutants during the catalytic converter warm up phase. The system is controlled by the engine ECU which will be looking for the presence of a secondary air solenoid valve. The ECU will also be looking for the influence of the secondary air system on the fuel/air ratio detected by the O2 sensors. You will get ECU codes generated and possibly a Check Engine light if this data is wrong/missing. To avoid this, perhaps the ECU can be reprogrammed (I'm sure you don't want to buy a new one).
Just from a technical point of view, would you say that the Euro cars that have to SAI are better performing, better sounding, more impressive with backfire ?? My guess is that US cars with SAI will burn any leftover fuel in the catalysts as opposed to produce backfire and flames in the exhaust... So , lets say if someone wants the fireworks at the back, they should remove the SAI system (again I am talking about importing a US car to foreign country where laws do not require SAI)
I wasn't aware of the backfiring and flames aspect.... but as I said earlier, the secondary air injection system is only used when the car is warming up. After 5 minutes or so, the car with SAI should behave like a car without SAI. I'd better let the 360 experts take over from here
Great response, thank you !! This clarifies my question, so if someone were to buy a US spec car and ship it to Europe, no need to remove SAI for better performance... It is not like the pre-catalysts that "rob" power from the car !!
The air injection just pumps fresh air into the exhaust manifolds or cylinder heads to help the catalytic converters light off sooner and to mix with the unburned fuel in the catalyst so that there is complete combustion of the fuel. Depending on the outside temperature the system only runs for a short period of time. if it is very hot outside, it will not come on at all. It has no effect on the performance of the car and removal will not cause backfire or flames.
If the system is removed the exhaust could be cleaned up just as well by installing modern catalytic converters.