The the 79 Pace Car in the June of 2009 article

In the june 2009 Article of Muscle Mustang and Fast Ford they feature a 1979 Indy Pace Car. On page 84 they took a picture of the 363 that was in the car and in the picture you will see clear rubber tubes coming out of the breathers on the vavle covers. Those clear tubes look like they run to some kind of pump on the bottom left of the picture. so my question's are: What kind of pump is it? What kind of performance would you gain from it? Who manufactures its? And if I decided to look one up where would be the best place to find one? Thank You.  

From the looks of the picture, the clear tubes only run to a cat can with a breather on top. The tubes help with crankcase evacuation. With long-tube headers, many times people will run the tubes into the collectors to the the scavenging effect from the moving exhaust. The pump you are thinking of is a vacuum pump. A vacuum pump will help make power in a few way and can be worth as much as 20 hp in the combination. a vacuum pump will help control windage on the crank case, it will relieve the pressure inside the crank case the the pistons fight on the down stroke, it helps the rings seal, and it helps prevent blow by among other things. The downside to a vacuum pump is if your oiling system isn't built to run with a vacuum, proper oiling issues can result. The vacuum can keep oil off the cylinder walls which can lead to premature ring failure. Also, if your engine isn't sealed properly (intake gaskets, oil pan gaskets, valve cover gaskets,. etc.) it will suck air into the engine from every available opening. There are a number of companies that make vacuum pumps. Summitracing.com has all of the kits and accessories to install a pump on whatever you drive.

I hope this helped,

Pete Epple