EGR Tube substitute.

[Winger]

I removed the stock exhaust manifold and installed a Headman header on my little 2.3L wich of course doesn't have a bung welded in it for the EGR line to hook up to. I figured eventually I'd find some way to rig it up. Until then I just blocked it off on the intake and ran it that way. Of course with the header I had to move the O2 sensor further downstream in the exhaust wich caused it to see some cooler temps and it richened up the mixture a lot! The EGR line being disconnected didn't help matters out. I'm sure I'm not the first one to try some of this. I was hoping to find something along the lines of the steel braided flex lines you see for exhaust pipe applications only a lot smaller diameter maybe find some one that could make up a custom one? Anyone else fixed these rich condition without messing with the computer?

 

[4b316]

Most of the braided steel line has a rubber liner insde.maybe use a large brake line.We have run our race truck with a Schonefeld header for 2 years with no EGR hookup and O2 back down the line and it continues to run fine.Do you live somewheres where you have to have it for inspection?

 

[Winger]

Does it run RICH? This thing ran so rich it left black soot all over the inside of the exaust and of course the plugs were pretty black too. The kind of braided line or more like exaust pipe I'm thinking of doesn't have a rubber hose inside. If you walk down the exhaust isle of Schucks or Pep Boys you'll see the short sections I think there for the import cars. This a pretty good site I was going through the tech area and found a link to Pacesetter. They sell headers that have all the hookups in them for EGR and the O2 sensor. There about double the price I paid for the Headmans but may be worth it. Yeah I have to pass emissions every two years and if it fails it goes through a equipment inspection at a qualified shop. I knew it would probably fail but I forgot about the inspection bit if it did and ran it through anyway. So Now I have to restore everything before I take it in to the shop. I got away with this on my 80 pinto with a 2.3L of course it has a carb. I took the air pump and the EGR off of it and it passed just fine the guy even said it had lower numbers than a lot of newer cars. I figure it just has to do with since it's an 80 that it has a lot lower standards.

 

[4b316]

Yes,it would run rich with the 02 down the line but the EGR shouldn't make a difference.I guess I would weld a bung on the header close to where they were for emission.

 

[racsan]

i ran my '88 2.3 with the egr tube off for years, no cat either. still had the O2 sensor. ran fine. even went to 302 V8 fuel injectors later on with no troubles.

 

[Winger]

Really how do those injectors compare to the stock 2.3 injectors? Hmmm What else would make it run that rich then? This happened right after I put the headers on and had to block off the EGR port. Now I tried to trick the system into thinking the EGR was still there and functional in that I left it there hooked up to the electrical and vaccum so the valve would still open just wouldn't flow anything. This may have been what caused the problem?

 

[racsan]

in your opening post you mentioned the O2 sensor was moved farther away from its oringinal location, that may be the problem. my 302 injectors fit right up, the originals had almost 200K on them, the 302 injectors had about 75K. it didnt run any better or worse. it was overhauled in about the same time frame with a .040 over bore and the pollution equipment removed. (gutted cat,blocked off EGR,tube rmoved and capped off) wish i had had dyno acess, i could have seen what every mod did or didnt do. it had 88 hp originally, i doubt it was over 100 hp even with the mods.

 

[Winger]

Thanks for the info. I purchased a short block from Racer Walsh one of there 2.3L with the 5.7" chevy rods. Its supposed to keep the piston at TDC longer and get a little more bang out of each compression. We'll see! I had a machine shop put in over sized valves and do a little blend work on the bowls I didn't go all out and have any port matching of or porting period of the head or intakes but I may play with that down the road. I had a 280H competition cam in the previous motor with the fuel injection but it really needed some custom programing. It really ran well on the freeway though when it was wound up pretty good. I'm trying a 268H this time but will probably go back to the stock roller cam as I need this vehicle for a 90 mile round trip commute in the near future, and it doesn't seem right to take a roller hydraulic cam out and substitute it with a non roller cam. I've talked with a guy on a Mega Squirt website a custom EFI system about another Ranger fanatic that adapted a Focus 2.3L supercharger system to his non Mazda Lima 2.3L I'd like to try that I think that would definitely give it some bottom end. Turbo's sound great but there are a lot of extra parts to support those hair dryers! Thanks again.

 

[zamos]

To rig the egr tube I've used stainless gas supply tubing - corragated for a gas range or dryer - I used this on my 95 cobra after installing a phenolic spacer on the intake manifold - I flared a piece of half inch 'L' copper , put on the flare nut and silver soldered the stainless tube to the copper tube - its been working for 13 years now ! Hope this helps !