Has anyone ever blocked off their egr valve on a 3.0L. I have heard this is possible, just need the proper way to do it.

It seems like you could put bolt a thin sheet of metal between the tube and the exhaust - but why would you want to block off the EGR valve? Wouldn't this just make the combustion chambers hotter and potentially damage the engine?

If you search egr you'll find a topic made by adamf about him doing this 4runner.

and don't use a thin sheet of metal(ie. a coke can) your exhaust will eventually burn right through it.

I've done this to my 22R using 24ga sheet metal.

You do realize that if you just disconnect the vacuum line it doesn't open, right? That's free, and no special tools are required.

Amen. A screw in the disconnected vacume line works for me too. It just looks obvious.

pull the line, put a ball bearing or setscrew or whatever into the line. shove the restrictor in far enough to just reconnect the line back.

Why do you want to disconect it. It only functions at a cruise rpm if working correctly, and it increases mpg (alright not much)and decreases combustion temp. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I was curious about this post and did some research, you guys can tell me if I'm wrong.

Basically, EGR works by passing a small amount of exhaust gas (4% to 7% are numbers I've seen)into the intake under load conditions that would otherwise result in high combustion temperatures. The exhaust gas lowers the combustion temperature to reduce NOx and also allows the ignition timing to be advanced more than if the EGR valve wasn't operating. The EGR valve is closed at WOT.

So, disabling the valve would potentially increase emissions and cause detonation under certain loads. But, you'd be able to cram some more air and fuel into the cylinder which could make more power if you did what was necessary to eliminate detonation. High octane fuel, reducing the ignition advance or installing a modified cam with more overlap might work? I suppose the exhaust gas being injected into the intake might also mess up the flow of the intake charge but I think Toyota handled that by injecting the gas near the throttle body (on my 3VZE there is a long tube from the EGR valve inside the intake to accomplish this).

So I guess if you know what you're doing, then blocking the EGR (done with other modifications) seems like it could make the engine more efficient. Otherwise it doesn't seem useful unless you need a temporary replacement for this expensive part.

Pulling/plugging the vacuum hose works fine for those that are functioning properly. But if you have one that is stuck partially open as mine was then that doesn't solve the problem.

If it's working properly then there's no reason to disable the EGR.