catalytic converter air tube replacement difficulty?

[BerniniCaCO3]

Hi!

While doing my valve covers a week ago, I noticed a hose that was rusted through, just behind the nut that bound it to some sort of junction. A friend suggested it might be part of the exhaust, and when I stopped by a dealership, the parts salesman was willing to go out and look and identify it, as part # E5AZ-9B449-A

Go to http://www.pciinc.com/index.php/ford...tubes/?print=1, it's the third up from the bottom.

Looks like it goes behind the engine and connects to the left and righthand sides of the heads?

I'm trying to decide what to do next. I've driven this car for 4000 miles now without any issue with the exhaust, even passed emissions just fine too. I went ahead and used JB weld and some s-glass soaked in the jb weld to seal it up, should take the temperatures OK.

If it ruptured up there near the one connection where I can see it, is it likely to also be ruptured down behind the engine where I can't see it?

I haven't gotten under the car recently: anyone replaced one of these, do I need to really tear down the engine to get to it? Or can it be replaced without tons of time invested? Is there a stainless steel aftermarket part that wont just rust through again?

If it's not necessarily broken behind the engine also, I might just leave it. I didn't notice that the engine was loud before, or that it got any quieter after sealing up the one break. If it's not hard to do, I'll do it in a weekend or two; if it really does require tearing down lots of things to get to it, I might wait until I need to do headgaskets or some such, and kill two birds at that point....


thanks for the advice!!
-Bernard

[mcninetyone]

That tube injects air from the air pump into the heads, it's a pollution device. If you don't need it to pass inspection and it's not illegal to remove it in your area. You can remove the air pump, that tube and everything else those tubes and lines are connected to, plug everything up and forget it. You'll need a shorter belt and will have to plug the holes in the exhaust just past the cats as well.

If you want to keep the tube, then replacing it is not that bad, not easy but not that bad. Might have to go at it from under the car, or might need to remove both upper and lower intake manifolds, but it can be done. If the tranny is out of the car, then it's a 15 minute repair.

My CV had the samething, but my new Explorer heads were not drilled for that tube so I just left the air pump and all related garbage off. My air pump was already by-passed anyway. I've got my original tube in good condition still in the garage and I also have the number for the shorter belt you would need, it's a napa belt.

[sly]

you can change that pipe without removing anything (intake wise). I replaced that thing on my 88 MGM. it was a pain threading the bolts and wiggling the old on out helped me figure out how to put the new one in. I used some permatex copper gasket maker since I had it on hand to seal the thing up. I put the goop on with a gloved finger after wiggling the pipe into place (it will rest on the trans bell just fine and stay put pretty good too). goop on, thread bolt in a couple of threads and repeat on other side and THEN tighten it down. I used one of those distributor wrenches from Autozone (has the chevy size on one part and the ford size on the other) to actually get at those bolts though. worked. haven't had any issues with it since.

[HATNINJA]

hey bernie in this post i have step by step also the belt size is in here

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?t=40028