Air pump delete-runs BAD

[Gman]

Hi all, new to the forum and totally stuck. 88 F250 with 460 efi. Had to change waterpump last weekend and discovered that the air pump pulley was really wobbly. Considering that the air tubes were rusted gone and the previous owner has already removed the OEM CAT, I took off the pump and started disconnecting the tubing. There was supposed to be two vacuum solenoids to remove the lines from, but I could only find one. The EGR is still hooked up. I have looked and looked and I cannot for the life of me find any evidence of the thermactor tubes in the back of the heads. Maybe the previous owner already plugged it and removed one of the vacuum solenoids? I can't even see back there but sure can't feel anything either. Now my truck runs bad. Didn't before. Loping rough idle, sputtering and popping through exhaust at part throttle. Just bad. Can someone please offer some help to a novice? Thanks in advance.

 

[O'Rattlecan]

Hey Gman.

If there are or were thermactor tubes on the truck, there would quite literally be holes on the heads on the back of the engine. This is the 351 heads, but they'd look like this.

Ryan

 

[O'Rattlecan]

My second thought is that if you've deleted all the air pump equipment, your truck might be reading the oxygen levels as way too low, because that basically blasts fresh air into the exhaust stream. The sensor looking at this air is the HEGO sensor. So in effect, I'm thinking that maybe your truck would be trying to lean out the fuel mixture.

Ryan

 

[Gman]

Thank you very much. There are no holes in the head, nor are there any in the rear of the exhaust manifolds where thermactor tubing should go. Leads me to believe that the air pump tubing only went to the CAT or to the muffler on the inner fender. It occurred to me that when I changed the water pump, both of the thermostat housing bolts broke off in the intake manifold. I was very careful, but did use a propane torch to heat the bolts and work them loose. This area is close to the distributor and maybe some sensors. Could a damaged something or other cause this condition?