79 231 turbo air pump

[Utah Blaine]

I had to take the air pump off the engine to do some work around the distributor. The pump blocks up that whole area of the engine. Is there any good reason I need to put that pump back on? It seems like all it does is pump air into the left head manifold to put air in the exhaust. Plug that hole and forget about it or is it essential to the turbo somehow?.