When I bought my '86 GT, the EGR tube left a lot to be desired. The original tube was long gone, and instead I had a series of copper plumbing fittings and pipe serving as an EGR tube. It looked crude, and it didn't work. The car stalled when cold, idled at about 1600 rpm when warm, and would surge and protest in between the two temp extremes.

I'm not sure if this has been outlined anywhere else on the forums, but I thought I'd put together a little how to. This was a cheap fix, and my car now idles 100% perfectly, even when it's cold out (it was 26F this morning, it fired right off). My total cost for this fix (not including tools) was about $35 max, and it probably took me about 2 hours. half that time was spent taking off the distributor cap and rotor and wrestling with the old EGR tube bolts.

Tools used:
Cheap Flux cored welder
4" Grinder with both grinding and cutoff wheels
Normal hand tools (sockets and wrenches and such)

Parts:
Your stock EGR tube end plate flanges
New EGR Gaskets (available at O'reilly's, $15.77 for 2 of them)
1/2" stainless steel flexible gas line, with male/male adapters on the end. $8.79 plus shipping (I think it was about $14 total) I used this one
http://www.hardwareandtools...n-1-2Od-8392029.html



1.) remove your old busted EGR tube
2.) obtain the end plate flanges (the parts that bolt to the upper intake plenum and the EGR valve itself)
3.) clean them up as much as you can.
4.) take the 1/2"x3/8" male/mail adapters that come with the stainless steel hose, and cut off the 1/2" side (the side that does NOT mate with the hose itself) with a cutting wheel.
5.) take each 3/8" half, and weld them to the EGR end plate flange. I believe the metals are dissimilar, because I had a bear of a time welding them together. I used a $90 flux cored wire welder from harbor freight, and I'm a very ametuer welder. My welds are horrible and ugly, but they work. hopefully you can do better. You should end up with this:




6.)Bolt these new flanges on the upper intake plenum and EGR valve.
7.) connect the hose between them. You're done! mine looks like this:


The hose itself is just slightly too long. The link I've included is for a 12" hose, but I believe a 10" would work better if you can find one. Good luck, hopefully this helps someone.

I actually asked about this a while back.

I would like to do this, as I'd like a newer looking and working EGR tube that's not $80. However, without access to a welder nor the skills to operate that keeps me from doing something like this.

As you can see from my pictures "skill" with a welder is not required. Access to a welder however, is.

If the welding is the only thing that keeps this project out of reach for some people, you might try hitting up your local exhaust shop. I know the exhuast shops I've dealt with before will run a weld bead around just about anything if you bring them some lunch. They will probably do a much better job than I did too.

Cool! Nice work Mc gyver! Wonder if that gas hose could be picked up at say home depot or lowes or the like.. Link says its 12" long I think. Is that a good fit length wise?

i bought one from the mall which ended up being cracked, i slathered it with JB weld a week ago and its still ok...

uh.. the fittings being brass can be brazed with silver solder to the steel flanges. You will need the right flux and wire. most hvac suppliers sell it.

Jus sayin..

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Denise, Bristol PA (Ernie is my Brother) 86 SE, stock resto. Jasper reman, 5spd Isuzu

quote Originally posted by erniehawk: uh.. the fittings being brass can be brazed with silver solder to the steel flanges. You will need the right flux and wire. most hvac suppliers sell it. Jus sayin..

The fittings are steel coated in yellow zinc, much like the grade 8 bolts you normally see at a hardware store. I'm not sure why they were so difficult to weld, although it probably would have gone a lot better if I had done a better job of grinding the yellow zinc plating off.

These same hoses are available at home depot or lowes, BUT I have only seen lengths greater than 24". To get the shorter lengths (12" and 10") I had to go online. I used a 12", but after doing so, I believe a 10" would fit best. The 12" line I used makes a couple of pretty sharp bends in an effort to use up the excess length.

[This message has been edited by Chubbs (edited 03-09-2012).]

I would use nickle-silver brazing rod to attach them (not the same as silver solder). Solder could possibly melt when the engine gets hot. Nickle-silver brazing rod requires a MAAP gas torch, and is not likely to melt at all.

[This message has been edited by TopNotch (edited 03-09-2012).]

Top, not silver bearing solder.. Silver wire solder. I think it's 800 degrees, brazing.. 1400? soft solder around 300?

hey. I'm trying!

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Denise, Bristol PA (Ernie is my Brother) 86 SE, stock resto. Jasper reman, 5spd Isuzu

Wow man, thanks for sharing this. It looks like a very inexpensive fix to a real problem with these cars. Those damn EGR tubes are a pain. I thought they were stainless steel so if mine cracks I can just tig weld it back together but if it is totally busted up this is a viable option and it actually looks decent. Nice and inexpensive too. Peace

Pete

Just curious, did you look at the connectors to see if you could just tap the EGR plate and then you could just use the threads for the adapter?

I had one from the Fiero Store which was really nice, but yours is 1/3 the price. Awesome job and great detail with the pictures! (I can't do anything without them) Plus to you!

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-Brian

My 87 GT Poly Suspension Upgrade (all pics) thread
Removing the roof panel

quote Originally posted by MulletproofMonk: Just curious, did you look at the connectors to see if you could just tap the EGR plate and then you could just use the threads for the adapter?

I considered that, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work for 2 reasons-

1.) threading in the male/male adapters implies that the threaded portion would protrude behind the egr end plates. This means you would not only have to drill out the end plates, but also drill out the upper intake plenum and the EGR valve itself to provide clearance
2.) since my male/male end adapters were so large, I would have needed to drill a VERY large hole in the egr adapter plates. I didn't have a bit that size, or a tap that size.


I think this route could work if you could find 3/8"x3/8" adapters, as opposed to my 3/8x1/2".

[This message has been edited by Chubbs (edited 03-11-2012).]