The EGR device that mounts just underneath the Carb has 2 large holes where someone has taken the pipes off. What's the best way to plug the holes?

Is there a spacer that eliminates the device entirely? Seems its a little unneeded if nothing actually goes to or from it..

 

It's not as simple as that. When the factory puts EGR on an engine, they do some recalibrating of timing curves and mixture. If you just disable the EGR, you are likely to get a lot of ping under loads and up hills.

You can either study the EGR system, repeat SYSTEM, and re-calibrate the carb and the dizzy, or just do the simple thing and get the EGR valve and lines working like it was supposed to. EGR doesn't operate at full throttle or at idle, and only comes in at part throttle, and its performance and fuel efficiency effects are small.

 

Had basically the same question with thread titled "300 heat tube"

Have 1980 with EGR valve, spacer adpater & heat tube.

Research shows 300 & 240 ,1965-1972 does NOT have EGR valve.

What model year is your 300/240?

Is the 1 bbl carburetor jet and distributor advance weights designed for EGR?

 

It is a 1983 F100. The 300 I6. I have no idea about the spark advance or carburetor jet. What I'd that?

 

If the truck originally was equipped with EGR [your 1983 was], then the carburetor and distributor were tuned for use with EGR.

What this means without going into detail regarding how EGR helps reduce certain pollutants is that as spent exhaust gasses are introduced into the incoming air/fuel charge, the burning of the exploded mixture within the combustion chamber is slowed. Also, when these spent gases become part of the mixture, there is less oxygen to burn. As a result of this reduced amount of oxygen, the fuel mixture is too rich, so the EGR accomodating carburetor is designed to be more lean, but is fine as long as spent exhaust gas is present under certain conditions. Also, since the mixture burns less rapidly, the ignition timing is designed to advance the timing more rapidly than for an equivalent system without EGR.

If one simply removes or disables the EGR system, then as mentioned by seattle smitty, when the engine is placed under a load and especially when hot, the engine will ping which is caused by preignition. This can and will cause engine damage.

You can retard the timing [rotate the distributor clockwise] and stop the pinging, but your gas mileage will decrease as well as overall performance. Also, you could use a higher octane fuel, but this will cost significantly more and these low compression engines are made to operate on 87 octane.

Use the "search" feature and read about having your distributor recurved. The distributor advances the ignition timing centrifugally controlled by weights and springs as well as via vacuum. The vacuum comes into play when under light loads such as steady cruising and impacts fuel efficiency. When a distributor is recurved, the rate of advance is adjusted so it will not advance too quickly.

My truck [1986 4.9L with Duraspark conversion] is operating quite well without the EGR. I use a Carter YF 1 barrel carburetor taken from a 1970 F350, which had no emmissions and the distributor was recurved to match the modifications. It starts easily, runs smoothly and returns 16-22 mpg routinely.

This may be more than you asked for, but I hope it will help you!

 

No it isn't too much. Im trying to learn as much as I can. So thank you.

 

EGRs may have been good when new but after many miles will accumulate sooty carbon and crud up the actual valve. Now you have a leaking valve allowing exhaust into the fuel mixture at all rpms. No thanks.

 

If you are an old guy like me, oneowner, you might remember the old days of 2-stroke engines, the days of heavy premix ratio oils that required you to periodically scrape carbon out of the exhaust port. Was that a big deal? Seemed like a small hassle to me, one that you didn't have to do often, so it was no big deal. EGR valves do eventually carbon up . . . so you either buy a new one, or if you're cheap like me you scrape the carbon out of the old one. Requires un-riveting the thing, cleaning it, then re-assembling by drilling and tapping for screws to replace the rivets. And if you ever have to do it again, it's easier, no rivets. If the diaphragm gets leaky, then you replace it. In any case, it is a little or a lot easier than recalibrating the carb and dizzy, depending on the engine.

BTW, the EGR valve isn't the only thing that can carbon up. High-mileage Mopar V-8s (and surely others) were prone to becoming cold-blooded on start and warm-up because the crossover passage in the intake manifold would get plugged solid with carbon. So are ya gonna get rid of the crossover? No, you gouge out the carbon, put the manifold back, and you're good for another hundred thousand miles or more.

As a 2-stroke racer, long ago, we took pains to avoid any exhaust dilution of the intake charge, so the whole idea of purposely "polluting" your intake charge with EGR naturally bugs me. And it does cost us a little bit in fuel efficiency. A little bit. Meanwhile, it "saves the planet" a little bit. It's a trade-off. I'm telling Stephens that unless he wants to build a custom exhaust curve by altering weights and springs and vacuum can adjustment, he might want to restore the factory system. You might not much like the system, but some experienced engineers designed it and spend hundreds of hours on the dyno and test-track getting it dialed-in to have the best compromise setting for a wide variety of uses. For us, a couple of hours of dyno time is expensive, track time is expensive, and we are not nearly as knowledgeable about how to use that expensive time as the factory engineers.

So, "you pays your money and you makes your choice."

 

EGR is a system that needs periodic maintenance just like any other system on an engine. Nothing is built to last forever without maintenance.

 

How hard is it, and how much money will I need, to get the EGR running again?

 

Bought some engine parts from a 1995 300 at at local yard, recently.
Noticed that even the 1995 still had the EGR sytem with computer controlled EFI.
The 1995 had dual CI iron exhaust manifolds and the exhaust EGR tube was connected to only one of the manifolds.

Remember seeing a centrifugal weight distributor curve machine back in 1978 using diferent weight and springs to match some specified curve.
Seattle Smitty, this there a spark advance vs rpm curve specification for your
non ERG configuration.

Searching the Autozone online data base shows the ERG system began in 1973 and continued until 1996 the last year for the 300, while
1965-1972 did not incorporate an EGR system.

 

Can u go to Auto Zone and buy a new EGR Carb mount? The piece that fits between the Carb and the manifold?

Would it theoretically come with the necessary pipes or could I buy them separate?

 

Autozone has the Edlebrock 2 bbl & 4 bbl EGR valve adpater plates.
The stock 1 bbl EGR adpater plate is not available.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ford-1-barrell-Carburetor-Spacer-w-EGR-Valve-Mid-70s-Used-F100-F250-Bronco-/271213492525?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3f2595792d&vxp=mtr#ht_151wt_1105
Hope this helps!

Regarding the missing pipe... sometime back, it was suggested by a member that a flexible gas line [like used for gas logs in a fireplace] could be made to work with appropriate fittings.

 

Some have used a stainless steel flex gas line like that used for gas appliances.