Ok, before any one says search, don't please, it's not one of those types of questions, what I need help eith is how (what do I need to) do I remove the egr valve? I have (with everyone's vast knowledge and these forums) been able to do all the work except for one or two little things, so far I have again with everyone's help and posts and knowledge idenified the egr valve, what I need to figure out is what piece do I need to take out so I can clean the correct item? Is it the tiny grey thing that the round plug goes into or the larger metal thing with a nut below it (entire assembly) that I remove? If some one could kindly tell me what to remove so I don't break it of be very great full!!

Here is my egr valve



Again thanks for the help and knowledge guys and gals!!

 

Did you ever determine if the EGR was stuck or not functioning? No reason to clean it out if it is functioning properly. I recall from your other thread you thought you had a EGR flow error, but your truck uses EGR position feedback.

 

The plastic piece on top is the egr position sensor, the egr valve itself is the cast iron piece, it is held to the intake by the two bolts on the side and the big nut at the bottom. Be sure to use plenty of liquid wrench or the like on that nut. You can apply vacuum to the valve to see if it moves.

 

Part of the reason I'm going to pull it is so I can watch it move and clean it anyways, it's will only help, as for the flow sensor should that be cleaned or replaced or what should I do with it?

Ill try to find the paper with the codes and see what it said exactly for you guys


Thanks!!

 

There is no flow sensor on your truck. Yours uses EGR position feedback (EVP).

 

You don't need to remove the valve to see if it's moving and that it's passing exhaust gases. Just get the motor running and idling smoothly, attach a piece of flexable tubing to a spare port on the vacuum tree on the upper intake, and then remove the vacuum line attached to the EGR valve and momentarilly attach the flexable hose mentioned above. If the motor stumbles or stalls then you know that the valve opened and that the passage is clear because exhaust gases are inert and won't burn so the engine will have trouble running.

 

Ok thanks Conan tomorrow ill give that a try, minor update, I did take it off and clean it some (lots of gunk, I assume carbon deposits) and the cel went away after I reattached it and all hoses, however I checked the vac line off the egr, is it supposed to have a vac while the engine is running or does the vac turn on and off as needed? I did not feel and suction when I plugged the line with my finger and I would assume I should feel something correct?

 

Incorrect. There's a solenoid near your ignition coil that will apply vacuum to the EGR when the PCM commands it to, which should be only at part throttle. If there's no vacuum there at idle, it's working the way it should.

 

thanks good to know, anyways update to the issue, I pulled the EGR last night and cleaned it as best as I could with carb cleanner, also put a tiny bit inside the area that the EGR connects to on the engine and the pipe it screws onto, to try and burn out any remaining carb deposits, so I reinstalled the EGR and fired up the truck, I DID NOT remove the negitive terminal to the battery as I wanted to retain the code so I could pull it and then test accordingly, however after reinstalling the EGR and fireing up the truck, it stumbled and sputtered a bit then was perfictly back to normal, and the CEL went away, so thinking its a fluke I turned off the truck and let it cool then retested, and the CEL remained off.


heres all I did so you all know. I cleaned out the EGR as best as I could
along with the part it connects to on the engine
ran the truck with the EGR connector unplugged (the sensor one) and the vac line disconnected for a bit (30 seconds)
hooked the EGR valve up to a vac tester and verified it is indeed functioning correctly
hit the innards of the EGR (piece that attaches it to the engine) and the engine mount with carb cleanner
then fired up the truck after reinstalling EGR
tested by driving around the block a few times and warming it up as best as I could.

 

Either it's too early, I haven't had enough coffee, or my reading comprehension is failing as I'm getting older....

I'm not understanding what the problem is at this point. The stumbling when you first started it up was due to whatever cleaner you used being in the intake. Pretty normal.

As far as running it without the sensor or vacuum line plugged in, there's really no point to that.

Seems like you went about this sort of backwards. Normally, you'd apply vacuum to the EGR to see if the engine stumbles before taking anything apart to clean it.

 

Well there no issue I just gave a rundown of what I did.

 

ok, got the sensor thing off yesterday and replaced to confirm issue still present, also determined that the vac line that plugs into the EGR is not functioning, so I need to diagnose that, but the sensor will probabibly be geting returned as the other one seems to still be good anyways so no point in replaceing it...

so as for the vac line what should I look for or so to best trouble shoot this?

 

Ok, just so I understand, its fixed...right...

The vac line running from the EGR Vacuum Solenoid to the EGR, won't have any vacuum until you are at light throttle, cruising speed. At any other time, it's closed to prevent any exhaust gases from entering the intake.

 

I originally thought I had fixed the issue, but running the truck yesterday caused the CEL to come back on, and when I move the throttle body (I think, its the thing below the plastic covering that is on top of the engine) I assume I should feel some vaccuume in the line when applying light throttle as you state, how ever I get absolutly nothing from it, so just to make sure im understanding you correctly, is it when I push the gas (accelator) down, or should moving the throttle body to cause the engine to rev do the same thing? if so then no the issue is still unresolved as far as I can tell.

 

No, you won't have any vacuum to the EGR even if you just rev the engine up. It's built into the PCM. The logic has to see many variables in action at once in order for it to initiate the EGR vacuum solenoid to then open a vac source to actuate the vacuum to pull up the pintle in the EGR, and then for the EVP to reference signal voltage back to the PCM. Basically, you need to be at light throttle, cruising speed for it to open.

YOU can manually pull a vacuum on the green vac line running to the EGR while the engine is idling, and if its stumbling, its a good bet that the diaphragm in the EGR itself is working and isn't ruptured. The engine will start to run crappy as you apply vacuum to the green line, since its pulling the pintle up and allowing exhaust gases back into the intake.