This past weekend I had some trouble while towing our trailer to go camping. About 2 hours into our trip and 100 miles from home at around 9 o'clock Friday night I had a no power condition. The next exit was our new destination, which luckily was only a couple miles from another camping spot we had used before. After getting the wife and kids settled in, I checked my codes with SGII. Codes pointed to the EGR valve. We slept in, had a nice breakfast, then its time to get to work. I found a valve at a nearby oreileys, pulled and cleaned my valve, vacuumed out the intake, popped the valve back in and I'm off to oreileys. Everything is great until 180*, at which point the EGR valve clogs again. I swap valves in the oreileys parking lot and find some big chunks of carbon caught on my old valve (pics later). A split pea sized chunk was holding the valve open this time. Anyway so after getting the new valve in, I had one more clog, but pushing on the pedal a bit cleared it up. On to the freeway for some real cleanout action. All is well so back to the campsite. We ended up making it to the original campsite and home with no more problems. Had an awesome time and our camping trip was salvaged. We felt so fortunate to have a great time since things were looking pretty bad Friday night. I owe that to everyone here who has contributed to troubleshooting these types of issues. Thank you all very much.

I don't remember chunks of carbon in my EGR valve last time I cleaned it out (20k or so miles ago). There probably were some in there, but cleaning it out with a shop vac vs. a 12v auto vacuum probably makes a difference. Should I be concerned about them or just keep going?

My truck is running great, and up to this stumble no problems. I even passed smog a week ago. My tow mpgs were around 13, no ect/eot, fuel psi, egt, problems. I've never puked coolant or even had to add any coolant so I know that system is in good working order, but one post I came across mentioned EGR cooler leaking possible contributing to chunks of carbon. It makes sense that the carbon would stick to the wetness and kind of build up. When the chunks fly off they eventually clog up the valve. That is what is throwing me for a loop, I've never had to add any coolant.

So I wanted to get some input. Should I just keep running, or should I be concerned about having more problems? Either way I've already decided that EGR valve cleaning will become a regular deal for me prob every 10k.

 

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The smallest chunk (up top) is about the size that was hanging the valve open. I know a lot of you probably don't really care, but I haven't come across a post actually illustrating this so here you go. Besides, now I've figured out to upload photos and post them. The other chunks were actually one big piece that I broke to see what the composition was. I sprayed some seafoam on them to see if it did anything. Also, some gas spilled on them in the back of my truck (gas can for the generator got loose back there). Neither the seafoam or gasoline had any effect on the chunks as far as breaking them down.

 

Thanks for posting your picture billbot... I think this issue develops if you have an EGR valve that starts to clog and doesn't allow enough exhaust gas to pass thru the EGR Cooler and intake so it builds up additional soot/carbon. Then when the EGR is cleaned and/or replaced exhaust gas can flow at a higher rate and then breaks off the built up carbon in chunks.

 

Thanks. Hopefully thats all it is. I truly do think its just the nature of the beast, and needs cleaning from time to time. Some get away without cleaning. My truck doesn't get the exercise it needs so I'm sure that doesn't help. Good luck with yours.

 

Are you Guys running any Cetane Boost

Reps Giveen to Both You Guys for the Pics as they always help others

 

I use the silver bottle every fillup .

 

Must be that clean air deisel the CARB is formulating for you guys out their send them a thank you note. From what I heard if they have it their way deisel will be $6 a gallon in the near future, as soon as the Panama Canal is dregged the ports of Cal. wil be closed for the most part.

 

This could possibly explain my case. I cleaned my egr valve about 1k ago and started having problems with it. pulled it out tonight and there were chunks of soot keeping the valve open, and plenty more large chunks inside the manifold. I cleaned and put it back in we'll see how long it takes to fowl up again.

mitch6.0 I havent heard that but it sure wouldn't surprise me. Carb regulations work about as good as gas in a diesel motor, just look at the top ten most polluted cities in the US.