Hi greisinb congratulations for the excellent work
but forgive my ignorance, what are the advantages to making a non SAI truck ?
thank you

Giacomo

 

Very interesting! Well I'm glad you figured it out, and had the tools to complete the job.

For anyone who doesn't have access to a machine shop, here's another thought. Welding the center of the original plugs shut has been done, but not everyone has access to a welder either. However, something most folks should be able to do is drill the center of the plug out and tap it with a pipe tap. Insert pipe plug and you'll be sealed right up. Removal of the plug and mounting it up in a vice is probably necessary. Should be possible with about $30 worth of materials. Two brass pipe plugs and a cheapie pipe tap set from Harbor Freight.

 

His truck sounds like it's factory non-sai.

I remove it from all of mine because it's a lot simpler to work in the engine bay. SAI creates a lot of clutter.

 

My 2004 had a 4.6 SAI engine, but the engine was replaced with a rebuilt 4.0 and a 4.0 non-SAI ECU. The previous owner reused the 4.6 heads, so I'm stuck with a non-functioning SAI system that I would love to remove to free up sone space under the hood. These custom plugs would be the key to removing all of this SAI junk.

 

Thanks for the kind words everyone! I've decided to offer them up for sale if folks want them. $25 shipped for a set of 4 (If you need more than 4 let me know and we can work something out). Just send me a private message and let me know.

 

This is the kind of thing this forum is great for, when a fellow D2 owner comes up with a great solution (i.e. inline thermostat) and shares with the rest of us. Everyone is raised up and our D2's keep on living.

 

Hi all,

so could there be advantages to making a non-SAI engine ?
which ?
thank you

Giacomo

 

SAI is short for Secondary Air Injection, it's an emissions related set of equipment that is on some trucks but not all of them. The idea is to inject fresh air in to the exhaust and burn up leftover hydrocarbons to heat up the catalytic converters faster and therefor reduce startup emissions. However, there is a bunch plumbing and equipment needed to make it work, so getting rid of it makes your truck much easier to work on, providing you can also swap out the engine computer from a Non-SAI truck. In my case (as in others) I pulled the engine out of a truck with the SAI system and I'm putting it in my truck which does not have an SAI system. This means that there are two threaded holes in each of the cylinder head castings which have to be sealed up, otherwise the engine just exhausts directly in the engine bay!

 

Thank you greisinb
so the only advantage is to be able to work better in the engine compartment, as there is no SAI equipment ?
but in terms of better engine functionality ?
and supposing to take it off could there be problems ?

Giacomo

 

SAI does nothing to make the engine run better, just a way to make it look like the car is more "efficient" for manufacturer specs. It does not make the motor more efficient just the exhaust slightly cleaner. Only issue with removing it from what I understand is you need to swap your ECU to one that came from a vehicle that didn't have SAI.