Air pump - is this really needed?

[TonyBlair]

Yesterday I took the air pump off my Rex, as well as many other things - I\'m trying to diagnose an oil leak problem  

One thing I noticed when taking the air pump off is the weight of it. It must be about 10-15 kilos. I may be wrong but I *think* the sole purpose of the air pump is to pump air into the exhaust. The reason for this I believe is to cool the exhaust gases down. Does anyone know if this is the only purpose of the air pump?

So my question is, do I really need the air pump? Would be nice to shift off that extra weight.

One obvious problem I can see with removing the pump is that the belt that connects to the alternator and the air pump would be too long and would need replacing with a shorter belt - not sure how easy it would be to find a replacement?

Any thoughts, corrections, advice welcomed.

Cheers
Jon

[DaiOni]

air pump is primarily pollution gear, but the cooling effect is, apparently, also required to \'keep the cat alive\'.  Switching to a metal cat or a midpipe will allow you to dump the air pump  

you\'ll to revise the belt setup - if you can\'t figure this out on your own, there are aftermarket kits

[TonyBlair]

Thank mate, appreciate the comments