Was driving to work yesterday and all of a sudden SES light goes off and it feels like I'm firing on two of the four cylinders (yes it's a Duke). Pulled off the road and popped the decklid...manifold red hot. Car won't start, and it won't idle at all.

Knew immediately what problem was...EGR valve. Later that night, took it off the car and there was a piece of carbon jamming it open.

The valve is fairly new and it's an OEM valve. Maybe 18 months old at best. And not cheap either.

So, my question is...what do I do to make this car (86 duke, auto) work okay without the EGR ? I have a block off plate on the car now...can I keep it on forever and what should my timing be set at ?

Seems to run a whole lot better with it off.

No emissions testing here. If it weren't for the increased knocking, I wouldn't give a damn about the valve.

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I've run my 87 duke with the vacuum port on the EGR plugged, essentially keeping valve closed, with no noticable side effects over a two month period. You can search for the forum for EGR threads and you'll find reflections by others on pros and cons. It appears to be an environmental issue as to fixing or ignoring the setup. Here we have annual emission tests. You can't reset the timing on the 87 2.5 but don't know how timing relates to the EGR vapor recycle.

[This message has been edited by goldiron (edited 11-10-2009).]