My Ford dealer told me I might need a new EGR valve and sensor. I was wondering if there was a way to plug the thing up. I remember reading a post about this a few months ago. How important is the egr valve for performance or is it mainly for emmisions only. I am not getting a check engine light or anything but my dealer pulled the codes and said he was getting a code about the egr. This is on a 1989 F150 5 liter.

 

The EGR valve is an emissions only devise. In normal operation, it hurts performance because it vents exhaust gases into your intake manifold. This cuts down on emissions, but it also displaces some of the good air fuel mixture with burnt exhaust gases. I the old days before computer controlled everything and the smog police, we would just remove the darn thing and cap off the holes. Or disable the EGR valve so it never opened. Now a days with computer controlled engines…….??? I don’t know if it would affect anything. The computer does have a sensor on the valve so it knows when it opens and closes. The computer also tells the valve when to open and close. Some kind of closed loop going on here, not quiet sure how it works, I just know the computer takes it into account when setting the parameters for efficient engine operation. And if you live in an area that requires smog checks, removing or disabling the EGR valve would fail your vehicle. Just to play it safe, I would replace the darn thing.

 

>In normal operation, it hurts performance because it vents exhaust
>gases into your intake manifold.

This also reduces the temperature and may prolong head gasket life.
The reduction in emmissions also may prolong your and your children's life.

>Now a days with computer
>controlled engines…….???

The EGR error codes on two digit computers start with 3

 

Welcome to the debate on EGRs. I have a 93 F150 4x4 w/5.0&5spd. This truck is just a tick short of having 300 thousand kilometers on it. Just shortly after I bought it in Dec.2001, I started getting a code that was for the EGR. The motor was also not running too good either, mostly typical Ford stuff like a dirty throttle body and IAC but on to the EGR. I traced my problem to the EVR, a small elct/vacuum solinoid up by the ignition coil that was allowing the EGR to be open all the time. The problem was dirt stuck to the small rubber coated disk in the valve allowing constant vacuum to the RGR therefore kepping it open all the time. I cleaned the thing off and no more codes but I also started to think that all these nasty exhaust gasses don't belong in my nice clean intake so I made a stainless steel (.025 shim stock) plate to fit in between the EGr valve and the intake manifold. I made it by following the gasket for a pattern but modified around the bolt holes by cutting it out across the hole to the side and bottom so as to be able to just slip it down in between the valve and intake by just loosening the bolts off instead of removing the whole thing. This way If I have to have a smog test I can just loosen the bolts and slip it up and out and then just tighten the bolts again. Works great! No more codes and the engine runs much smoother. If you check past past threads in this forum on Egr related topics you will find lots of info on them. Another thing I did was move the PCV valve hose from the back of the intake mainifold to the vacuum tree in the center of the manifol. I did this after hearing that crankcase gasses going directly into the #* intake runner can cause a hole in the piston! My truck would falter going up hills, like one cylinder was cutting out so I did the whole ignition system thing to no avail. Changing the hose was the ticket. Now my truck goes up the same hill in OD at over 100km instead of having to shift down and barely maintain 90. There is a lot of controversy on this topic but it sure worked for me. SR.

 

"I cleaned the thing off and no more codes but I also started to think that all these nasty exhaust gasses don't belong in my nice clean intake so I made a stainless steel (.025 shim stock) plate to fit in between the EGr valve and the intake manifold."


Hmmmm… Maybe I’ll give that a try.

"Another thing I did was move the PCV valve hose from the back of the intake mainifold to the vacuum tree in the center of the manifol. I did this after hearing that crankcase gasses going directly into the #* intake runner can cause a hole in the piston! My truck would falter going up hills, like one cylinder was cutting out so I did the whole ignition system thing to no avail. Changing the hose was the ticket. Now my truck goes up the same hill in OD at over 100km instead of having to shift down and barely maintain 90. There is a lot of controversy on this topic but it sure worked for me. SR."

Now this I haven’t heard about. How did you do this? Any special piece you needed to install?

 

I found a tread on this in the archives a year ago and it made sense to me so I figured " nothing ventured, nothing gained" so I gave it a try. My truck is a 5 speed so I have a spare port on the vacuum tree in the center of the manifold.I am not sure if the autos have this or not and this is where the conflict comes in. All I did was remove the stock hose from the pcv valve and use a longer hose to reach the tree. A hose clamp is reqired here because the tree nipple is slightly smaller than the hose size. I used a piece of hose with a bolt in it to block off the stock port on the back of the manifold (mickey mouse, yes, but you cannot see it) and that is it. As I said, I had an annoying miss when climbing hills and this mod cured that problem completely. And on regular gas too.

If the automatic trans trucks don't have this spare tee, I said that you could "T" into the brake booster line. I have since heard of problems with this, one person said that the moisture would freeze in the "T" (metal t?) when it got cold out and a worst case scenario could be that the brakes would be compromised by a lack of vacuum to the booster due to an ice buildup in the line. This problem never occured to me, but others have come to the rescue by suggesting that a "Puke" tank be installed in the line to capture the moisture and othe crud that is sucked up with the engine vapours. Check previous threads for info on the tank, they have been in the last month, look under anything to do with EGR. Another person said he was going to drill and tap a hole in the manifold near the middle to attach the hose to. Just use grease on the drill and tap and clean and regrease frequently while doing this to prevent aluminum chips from falling into the manifold.Perhaps a plastic "T" would solve the icing problem, and I don't know where he placed the "T", but I would do it as close to the manifold as possible to keep heat in the linea and raise the hise as to drain towards the manifold, but this is my opinion only and I have not tried it to see if would work.

I seems to me that the excess hydrocarbons and air would cause the #8 cylinder to run too hot and possibly burn out the top of the piston and at the very least cause the plug to miss fire also possibly causing failure,and this I don't need .What ever it did by changing the hose, it made all the difference in the world and I can drive without worrying about this happening now. The older engines used to feed the pcv line directly under the carb, sometimes in an after thought adapter plate with a hose barb in it. Later on the mainfolds had a tree with a designated barb for the pcv.

I hope this is of some help. SR.

 

I recently got the intake of a 1996 302 off Ebay and found that there the PCV valve was routed to an extra port in the middle of the intake manifold (one 'groove' next to the vacuum tree). I guess it's good if Ford does it

 

Thanks for the info SR.

I did a tune up on the old beast last month and the #8 spark plug was pretty dirty compared to the other plugs. My first thought was that the #8 cylinder was starting to burn a little oil (The engine only has 108,000 miles on it). I started having flash backs to my old 69 Mustang that aslo had a 302. The #8 cylinder burned a little oil and would foul up after a few hundred miles (the Mustang had over 200,000 miles on it by this time). Got to be a real pain pulling the plug and cleaning every week. So I put a MSD ignition module on it and that cured the problem. When I sold the Mustang, I took the MSD module off the Mustang and installed in the truck. So when the truck's #8 plug started to look like it was fouling up, I figured it was just the engine design. I've heard that the rear cylinders in the 302s start to go before the others. But after looking at where the other end of the PVC valve hooks up, I'm starting to think that the crank case gases being vented in the back side of the manifold is causing the fouling. Looks like I'll be doing a little work under the hood this weekend.