Emissions delete?

[Anbele]

I’ve just acquired a 1979 beauty and the engine bay is close to the original one that came with the car—it still has the semirigid duct intake to the manifold!—But I’d like to get rid off the vacuum lines that no longer are needed...any suggestions what to take and what to leave?

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Yes, the '79 spider is a mess of emission control devices, and I'm assuming your car is carburetted rather than fuel injection. However, the car was designed and set up as an integrated system with all these emission devices, so if you just remove them, the car will most likely run poorly. There are also a lot of emissions control "features" that aren't really removable, such as specific ignition advance curves for the distributor and the engine compression ratio.

But, two items that take up a lot of space and can usually be removed or modified with no detrimental effect (on performance) are the air injection (smog pump) and the Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) systems.

If you do have the carburetted version and you're interested in performance, the biggest bang for the buck is usually replacing the lousy intake manifold and carb that were original for this model year, with better versions.

-Bryan
PS: Welcome!

[PaulC]

I'll second the suggestion to get an 1800 manifold and different carb. Did that to ours and also removed all the emission stuff except for the fuel vapor canister. Runs much better now that the engine isn't strangled with the vacuum line mess, the egr and air injectors and the too small carburetor.

[RRoller123]

Yep, keep that charcoal cannister, it causes no loss of performance and does help with Hydrocarbon emissions.

[80spiddy]

I agree with above. On my 80 with stock carb, I put a 76 intake on and ordered an Empi carb and the car ran awesome right out of the box with no tuning, misses or hiccups.

[geospider]

Also have a '79.
Just put the smog stuff back on to pass.
Then immediately replaced with the usual running set up..
single plane manifold and Weber 32/36 carb.
plug the single air port in the head. block the EGR passageway at the pipe that goes through the front of the head.
I would take the pipe off all together and plug, but I'm not sure anyone can get that fitting off the exhaust manifold.

the only jetting change I would do is with the primary idle: go to a 50. I believe out of the box it is a 55 or 60.

it runs so well with this. gonna do the dyno sniffer test with this just for my own knowledge (will probably anger me if the numbers would pass; yes I am in Ca)

geo

[DieselSpider]

Watch out since EPA has been targeting the vendors selling classic car parts for selling components that do not meet EPA standards along with the owners who are making the modifications. If its not a race specific vehicle they have started taking exception and even then they are in some cases still stepping in taking action against some owners of cars that are set up for track use.

It may get a bit sticky for a while as the lawsuits ensue and it all gets sorted out.