One of the guys on the Perth-WRX facebook group was asking about this, and seeing as I was doing the same thing on my motor while it was out I thought I would take some photos.
The airpumps are an emissions device and tend to fail after a few years (2 weeks out of warranty no doubt) and when they do Subaru ask upwards of $3k to fix them, and then they fail again 6 weeks later. If they fail closed then in most cases you can have the CEL fixed with a flash and just ignore it, sometimes they will fail open and your car will suck. In my case they are heavy and I dont want to use the system.
If you do a bit of the googling there isn't too many clear pics, but one that pops up all the time is this not very clear picture of the complete system. its the two little outlying bits that you block off, and then scrap the whole lot
Blanking plates can be bought off the internetz for far too much money, upwards of $100 plus shipping for two little cnc plates that no one will ever see:
I went with the other option, a genuine subaru part that was about $10 each.
The keen eye will notice that the fancy versions are slightly different sizes, the OEM part (from a Tribeca) will need one of the holes slotted slightly to line up.
Ok to the actual task. My suggetion here is that you want to pull the turbo & up-pipe out, and remove the inlet manifold. This will be labour intensive if you are paying someone to do it. You can probably try do half the job with things just moved out the way, but honestly, fuck that. I tried it with the motor on a stand and I nearly ragequit. I reckon the time you save by trying to work around the other parts you would get back by doing the job in 2 minutes.
Start out by removing the air pump itself, and its associated tubing down the passenger head. Its a few bolts and a some plugs on the loom. Easy.
Then you work your way around the back of the engine, try removing the solenoid and bits, start getting frustrated. Start wishing you had the manifold off.
This I why you pull the turbo out. Check that bad boy on the left, super easy to get out with the tubes removed. now look at the one on the right (drivers side) head. Notice how you can't see it ? There is a turbo in the way!
Here he is, cheeky little bugger. Get in there with a spanner and start undoing him. It fucking sucks. you can eventually get it loose. Note, I did this on an engine stand with no gearbox. If you tried doing this in the car you would want to murder yourself.
Thats cool, got it un-done. Now you can't remove the pipe itself, its curved around the uppipe. This might be easier on an Aus delivered car as my twinscroll uppipe is almost as big as my incredible thighs, but seriously, fuck that.
It was at this point that I had gotten sick of trying to remove all the bits FOR SCIENCE with manifold / turbo in place. When I get back next week I'll get some better pics with everything removed.
But yeah, if you are contemplating this.... say goodbye to your knuckles