so i went ahead and took the sytem off. i looked at it first, and decided to just remove everything, and leave the little metal pipe coming off the downpipe open until i find something decent to plug it with. so i go to taco bell afterwards, and the car sounds like a tractor, lol. no problem, ill just plug it up when i get home for now. anyways, i pull into taco bell and the car stalls. wtf? then it stalls twice on the way home. so i get home and put everything back in, hook up the both little vac. lines and the 2 hoses. now, this car idles low as hell. it struggles to keep a 500rpm idle. and, it smokes BAD. my car has never smoked whatsoever and now it smokes bad at idle. black smoke, kind of smells like maybe it running rich? all this happened today. im thinking maybe mu computer got confused when i unhooked it and i didnt reset it after i put it back in. so maybe it still thinks its not getting enough air as it used to get? (like when the egr was hooked up) so im gonna poke around it tonight and hopefully fix it. it also bogs coming to a stop and it jerks forward and backward if i give it like 1/4 throttle. help is greatly appreciated.

 

something isnt plugged correctly.
and you drove the car with just an open egr hole in the downpipe?

 

no, the little pipe coming off of the manifold was left unplugged from the egr. (so it was left open pointing toward my shock tower. i wonder if i plugged the electrical hookup in backwards. im gonna go try that now, other than that i just reversed the way i took it off. theres only 4 things coming off the whole system. the hose going to the mani, the hose going into the air box, and the 2 vac lines for the bottom. oh and the harness plug.

 

I'd say if you didn't mangle the system...you'd better install everything back, EGR doesn't do anything for perfromance. All it is used for is to introduce "dead gasses" into the cylinders during cruise (part throttle) and cool the cylinders down with the exhaust gasses. Reduces NOX emissions, and supposedly increases gas mileage. thats about it.
I mistakenly took mine off, im certainly going to reinstall it when i put my engine back in. but its your car do to it what you want. if you want to block it off. just use the bolts that attach to the intake side and the exhaust manifold side, put a nickle in each and tighten it down...air tight.

 

its been installed back on the car all day today. its just running like crap and rich all of a sudden

 

stuck open then... check electrical connections on the solenoid. check for something blocking the valve from closing. I know its a bitch to get back there, but it must be done. If it idles horribly (may even stall), but cruises normally, its stuck open. only two things can keep it open: electrical, or mechanical malfunctions. Goodluck.

 

wouldn't hurt to reset your ecu, and check your plugs.

 

would it being stuck open cause it to smoke? because thats bothering me. it never does this. i doubt its the electrical plug thats malfunctioning, its plugged in correctly and whatnot. its weird because i only had this system removed for like 20 hours and i put it all back together.

 

so anyways its stuck open. do i have to buy a new egr valve or is there a way to get it working properly again? i bought the block off plate, so im thinking of just puttign that in and finding a way to plug the 2 exhaust pipes.

 

ok, i messed with it all day today. i took the egr valve off, and installed the block off plate. i used the boltsthat were already in there, but i put some washers on them so it would tighten all the way. sicne the plate is thinner than the egr valve. so i did that, and left the egr hooked up to the exhaust stream, but just moved it aside. i also had an idea, would an aftermarket header basically delete the egr system in itself? there wouldnt be 2 spots for 2 pipes to comoe off, so theres my answer instead of just crimping and rolling the ends of the pipes. who can confirm this?