I bought a 96 SS about a month ago and i've been trying to iron out a bunch of little things. I just noticed the other day that there is a small pipe that has nothing attatched to it on the right side of the intake elbow by the TB. What is that? I'm assuming it's supposed to be connected to something.....


Also, when I turn the car on "ON" and back off, I hear something in the engine compartment make a high pitch sound, almost like a whining sound that is spooling down or something. It doesn't do it when I actually star the car/turn it off. Anyone have any idea what that is?

 

that's coming off your throttle body, looks like someone did the bypass, good for a few horsepower. That wouldn't be making any noise though. My money is on the fuel pump priming, mine makes a high pitched whine for a second or two.

 

The pipes on the throttle body used to carry coolant to it to prevent frost from forming on the throttle blades in cold climates. For most LT1 owners it is their first mod to bypass hot coolant from the throttle body = potential for more power from a cooler intake air charge.

The momentary high pitch noise when cycling the key is the air pump running a test. The AIR pump or Air Injection Reaction pump pushes fresh air into the exhaust when cold, this helps the catalytic converter start its chemical reaction faster to reduce emissions sooner in the drive cycle.

 

The reason why it is there is so these cars can be driven in extremely cold climates without concern of the throttle body freezing up. In all the years I've been on these forums I've never read anyone saying their TB froze up when driving in cold climates. I see you are from NE. I was there one winter where it got down to -60*F. If that still happens, I wouldn't drive it around in those conditions.

 

Thanks all for the insight. Luckily, this car will be garaged in the winter. Whoever had this car did some very tasteful mods for me.