Well, I finally tore into my '00 van with the 4.2l to fix the plugged egr runners. I took the upper intake off and found the ports. They were all clogged but the #3 cyl.

So, I pulled the egr valve off of the front of the intake to get to the main runner and used pipe cleaners and some carb cleaner to clean out the ports. I then used a gun cleaning brush to clean the main runner.

All was great until I got the idea to use the 12ga brush to finish the job. It fit just right it seemed until it got stuck and then came off of the rod. Apparently it had just about unscrewed and caught on something in the intake. Well, now I have a phosphor bronze brush stuck in the middle of my egr passage of my intake. So, I pulled the lower intake off and realized that nothing I do moves this brush.

After many calls to locate a salvaged intake, I ran to the salvage yard that had one for $100. When I got there, the intake they found had been through a fire and it had a tab broke off. I went back to the office and started again. I finally located another one for $75 and he told me it was in great shape, so off I went. I picked it up and it did look good. I was just starting to reassemble the lower intake when I got to the temp sensor. The sensor was gone, but there was a plug in the hole for it. When I tried to take it out, I found that they had cross threaded it into the hole! So, now I am sitting here with two intakes that I cannot use and need to get my van back on the road. I am about to stick the original one with the brush in it back in the van and forget it. But, I can just imagine what those bronze bristles will do to the cylinder walls when they start coming apart.

Anyway, anyone have any good ideas on how to get a brush out of an egr port?

Sorry for the long post, but had to rant a bit.

 

The second intake might have worked/might still work. Early cast intakes had two temp sensor holes. Later versions only used one of the temp sensors, so only one hole - the other was plugged.

Anyways, about the brush......
I have no experience with shotgun bore brush stuck in EGR ports.

But I'd figure there has GOT to be SOME kind of way to get that thing out.

Best of luck. Let us know if you get it out.

 

According to all the salvage yards I called and even the Ford parts dept. this intake was only used for the early production 2000 vans and trucks. That doesn't seem right, but they all said the same thing.

I was on my way to the salvage yard to return the intake when I saw a machine shop that we send many customers to for their problems. I decided to see what he could do. The forman looked at if for a couple of minutes and decided that there was enough threads left that he might be able to tap it a little deeper and make it work. He had trouble picking up the threads with the tap because it was pretty bad, but he finally got it to grab and tapped it a little deeper. It worked like a charm. I made sure to use some pipe sealant when I put it back together, but it worked! And he didn't even charge me a dime. I insisted on paying, but he wouldn't take anything for it.

BTW, this fixed the codes I was getting and has made my van run so much better! I should have done this a long time ago.

Anyone need an early 2000 ford intake? Great shape and a suprise extra to go with it!!!