Yeah, that's it lurking in the shadows back there. It is the joint where the tubes coming from the air injection pump go into the exhaust manifold. 2 10mm nuts need to be unscrewed most of the way, but do not completely remove.

I found a wrench to be the best tool. A ratchet really wouldn't fit for me. Once I broke the nut free, I did most of the unscrewing with a ratcheting wrench which sped things up.

Once the nuts were loose and there was enough space to fit the plate in, I used an old pry bar from the top to create space between the tube and the manifold. The tube will flex enough to accomplish this. NOTE: Make sure the thin "gasket" stays on the manifold side.

Here's my pry bar placement:

Here is the plate installed on drivers side. It is the lighter silver colored plate between the brass colored flanges.



Tighten up those nuts and head on over to the passenger side.

I found the passenger side to be little roomier and easier. My pry bar trick wouldn't work on this side though. I had to use a screwdriver near the work area. This meant both hands had to be in a small space, but it really wasn't too tricky.

Here is the screwdriver placement and the gap shown where the plate will go.

Install the passenger side plate, tighten everything up and you're done with the block off plates.

Next comes the relay bypass, which is amazingly easy to install.

First, remove the purple starter relay:

Slip the black and red wire from the relay gizmo into the #1 and #2 slots of the starter relay socket. Replace starter relay, with wires still in there:

Run the long wire along the firewall over to the MAF. Snip the black and yellow wire and but one end into each of the wires with the really neat wire connectors that are included. Those are the red things on the end of the wires in this photo:

Tape everything back up. Clean up and that's it. Really is that simple.


Disclaimer: This mod is for off road use only. Don't want to get the feds mad at you for bypassing their emissions gadgets. Even if they are incredibly poorly designed, difficult to get to, outrageously over-priced, next to useless gadgets.

So far everything runs great. No codes, no whooshing sound, and no limp mode. Weather is predicting a cold icy day later this week. Those are the conditions in which I first had problems so it should be a good test to make sure everything is working...or rather not working.

Great job txclimber! Glad you were able to get it all patched up. Nice pics on the block off plates - you either have a better camera or a steadier hand than me as the pics I took were terrible. Hopefully it's a permanent fix for you.

Glad you got it done, txclimber. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to bite the bullet and do this as a preventative thing as I have the swoosh already.

Thanks for the write up, too. Makes me more comfortable with it.

BTW, I hope your son is doing better.

I've heard from "a friend" that the fix works good for eliminating the codes. Except now... the autocrank function has to turn the engine over for several seconds before the truck starts. It used to start instantly before fix. Now it takes 4 or 5 seconds which seems like an eternity compared to pre-fix starts.

"your friend" is wrong

At least in my experience there is ZERO affect to the starting sequence......at least with the relay systems I sell/use. Some other people systems might but I can't see it happening.

Would you guys recommend that ALL 05+ V8 owners bypass this system before any symptoms occur in an effort to prevent the failure? Or should we wait until symptoms begin, and then do the bypass?

If it ain't broke I wouldn't bother trying to "fix" it. But its up to you, the Secondary Air Pump system does serve a function; albeit if it breaks the value off that function is typically outweighed by its cost.

The wooshing just started for me this week and I'd like to get it fixed before any trouble codes show up.

Where is the best place to get the bypass kit? I've found several online through some quick searching this morning (after I figured out what the issue is)... I'm handing with a splicer, but some of the plug and play ones are only a few bucks more.

Any preferences out there?

SLYFOX75.. PM him

2 min job, never a problem again

Secondary Air Injection Pump Failure on V8's! Important!