[curtis73]

Are they malfunctioning? If not, you won't see many hp gains, or if you do it will be very small.

The parts you can remove are EGR, cat, and air pump. The EGR has zero effect on hp since it only operates at part throttle. It does however have a large effect on fuel efficiency. Expect to burn more fuel with no help in the power department. It will also require burning a custom chip with a new timing curve. EGR reduces combustion temps and allows for more spark advance. Removing it means you'll have to retard timing which can make the fuel consumption even worse. You also may have some trouble finding someone who knows good spark maps for 2.8s. You might spend a lot of money on trial and error chip burning.

The air pump takes almost nothing to spin (maybe 1 hp) and since it injects air in the exhaust after the engine, it doesn't affect the engine's operation. If you remove the air pump you will have to remove the catalytic converter or it will get clogged very quickly. You'll also need to find a new belt/pulley configuration to accomodate the new belt routing. Might be as easy as getting a shorter belt, or it may require an idler belt of some sort.

Of the three, removing the cat would be the best choice. If its a double-bed pellet style its pretty restrictive, probably worth 3-4 hp. If its a honeycomb style its not really costing you any power. If the O2 sensors are located in the cat you'll have to weld in a new bung to put them back but that's pretty easy... $30 at a muffler shop probably.

I suggest leaving the EGR in place, ditch the converter (if its a double bed), and remove the air pump if it only requires a shorter belt.

I would personally gladly keep the status quo for two reasons; 1) why re-engineer things and do all that work for a couple hp, and 2) the amount of pollutants you'll be putting out will be exponentially greater. That is certainly not worth a couple hp to me.

Emissions components on engines starting in about 1983 started getting very sophisticated and not only do they not cost any HP, sometimes they allow conditions that IMPROVE power. They aren't the problems that people think they are.