To blank or not to blank!

[LandRoger]

No its nothing to do with fishing (lol), Its that old EGR valve chesnut again how do people see it? its said that if you blank off the valve it can save fuel and gain a tad more power ,must say i did it on a Mitsi Paj  mostly to stop it smokeing which it did very well didnt notice any more power or change in fuel consumption , how many people have carried this out on other trucks/cars?,

[Saffy]

I thought its more typical to do it on a something like a 300tdi to stop gunking up the intake side with masses of carbon deposits when the egr inevitably fails rather than to expect more power/mpg.
Though a build of of crap due to a faulty egr system will in the end reduce power and mpg. I have seen a horrendously gunked inlet manifold, so when it was cleaned and the egr blanked....volla more power and mpg..but only because it was in a reduced state anyway.

[LandRoger]

Its a must do job with a Mitsi engine thats why you see so many of them spewing black smoke when being booted thier the ones that have not been blanked, with 300tdi engines i find a quick strip and wash in petol and alls ok again a lot of diesel cars suffer badly namely astra with izuzu motor,audi tdi s,golfs with same lump some seem to gunk up more often than others,

[Range Rover Blues]

I'm with Saffy, didn't notcie any more power but did notice a cleaner plenum.

[LandRoger]

Think Saffy  missed my point or maybe i failed to explain properly, im not saying blank it off to make the gains im saying that its said that a side effect of blanking off is a tad more power and a gain in mpg ,which you would expect from a cleaner system, the quicker the gases get expelled etc,

[Saffy]

[Landy1uk]

Removed it on a TD5 Discovery, it seems to pick up better slightly lower revs to pull away than when i first got it not noticed any improvement in mpg, When I took it for mot last year the inspector said he was glad to see the egr gone. it was mainly down to the dirt and sludge that seem to build with them on. why i did it

Had a freelander that chocked it's self as the egr got blocked due to build up that's now running but I sold that when i got the disco that was the first thing i did was removed the egr   

[lambert]

When I first got  my 300 I unplugged the she brain to see what effect it had. Can't honestly say I noticed so it got plugged back in. One day I may take the plenum in bits to see how mucky it is but till then the egr stays in.

[TimM]

The EGR valve only opens at idle so you won't notice any more power or mpg from not having one (having it blanked off), any power or mpg benefits will only come from cleaner internals of your engine where the dirty gases are not fed back into the inlet.

If you have an old vehicle that has had the EGR working for all it's life then the dirt will already be there and do the benefits will be less obvious anyway unless you spent the time in cleaning and polishing....

The EGR is designed to allow the engine at idle (when it's not working at it's most efficient) to have a second chance to burn the fuel/air mix rather than discharge it all down the exhaust causing emissions.

Unless your vehicle has high emissions then blank it off and clean your inlet and head to restore it to it's most efficient giving you the power and mpg that it was supposed to have from new.

[Range Rover Blues]

Actually Timmy has a point there, at full chat the EGR should be closed, though I think they open at part throttle (my Cavalier had a purley mechanical control that kept it open to about 75% throttle).

Anyway, another engine that suffers from gunk I found out is the Renault K9K engine, in the Micra, kangoo, Clio, Quashqia, pretty much any Nissan/renault up to 1500cc/110BHP.  They can get so bad the engine misfires due to gunk build up behind no4 inlet valve and the plenum is cast into the head

Anyhway, back to the quesdtion in hand, if you are undecided try a simple balnking plate in the gasket joint on the inlet pipe, it take minutes to fit and remove, you can leave the EGR system in place then I think EDC will still work ok, though it may notice the change in emissions (lambda sensor) I don't think it's clever enough to care.