I have a '96 4.0L(200K miles!) that has a loose EGR valve. Currently I have it tightened down with bailing wire(ha ha) so it idles better. When I take the bailing wire off my truck idles bad and if I push down on it the idle is normal. The bad part is this area of my truck is rusted and I am not really sure I can change it without tearing something up. Question, if I do take the EGR off can I block the opening without suffering any engine problems. I am not concerned about fuel mileage, just want the truck to run better and not blow up.

I love this truck, I have a 2004 F-150 but I still use the Ranger as my daily driver.

Thank you.

 

i think you need the egr valve or youll get check engine lights and you seem to loose power, its happening to my dads f150 right now.

 

I think wydopnthrtl stated in his tuning thread that the engine increases timing with the egr on (possibly giving more power) which does seem to increase your fuel mileage. However if you get a programmer, you can have the tuner disable it and no check engine light will come up. I disabled mine for a while for problem testing and I never noticed a change in power, just a slight decrease in fuel mileage.

(Edit: it worked because I have a tuner)

 

thats odd because like i said on my dads f150 we checked with the scanner and its saying the egr valve is shot, and his loses power

 

Not a Ranger but my other car I took the egr off and blocked off the manifold and exhaust ports. Been running it like that for years with no problems.
The egr lets hot burned exhaust gas into the combustion chamber to cool the engine down when it gets to hot or when it's under a heavy load for sometime.
If your engine never get hot while under a load you will never notice the egr opening.
If you decide to take it off, you can fool most computers with either a resistor or switch wired into the circuit. Depending on the system, you either stop the signal that the computer uses to determine status or change its value with the resistor.
Take it off and see what happens.