Attached to the spacer under the carb. The round thing with a vacuum line coming off, with the blue and white half circle sticker. I assumed it was some kind of regulator? Its not for the choke is it?

 

That's an EGR valve (Exaust Gas Recirculation). It's part of the emissions controls for the car. It pulls in a portion of the exaust gas and re-burns it. Most people I know just plug the vacume line leading to the valve.

The more you accelerate, the wider it opens and the more exaust gas is re-burned. The problem is that it doesn't always close at idle and makes the car run very rough or even stall. I would leave the valve on the car but plug the line leading to the valve.

 

Take it off when you do the rebuild and convert to a 4 barrel. If you plug it up you still run the risk of it failing anyway, plus it's complicated (compared to nothing at all), dead weight to have on the engine. You're putting it on a 66?

 

He never said he was converting so unless he goes out to start looking for a spacer without an EGR port he will run into a lot of extra work. If he's not familiar whith what this is in the first place, it will cause him much more work to eliminate it than to just block it off and leave it. For astetic purposes it would look better gone in an earlier car where they did not orig appear but there is nothing in the valve that will fail if it's not connected to vacume. The only thing that could possibly fail would be for the current plate to burn through which isn't that likely. You're right, the extra 14 ounces or so weight it would save would make the effort all worth while.

 

Michael, I assume you have the engine out to overhaul it and add upgrades. If so, all that crap goes away with an aftermarket intake anyway. Just use it for a paperweight, or a conversation piece.

 

Im using a 4bbl intake mani and carb when I get around to ordering parts after I get the block back from the machine shop. Wait, whats that in the corner of my garage? Crap, the block!

Heh, I have to bring it up to Borchard next week.

Its a '65 by the way.

I was planning on using the Edelbrock Performer RPM Air-Gap, and it says it has no provisions for an EGR setup, so I can just use that mani, a carb, and forget I ever had it? Do I have to block anything off? Ive never messed with the EGR system before. Its new to me.

:edit: Extra quote. Oops

 

You sure can forget it!

Since you are replacing the intake, you can make an interesting (or not interesting) paper weight of the EGR valve. They do nothing to enhance HP.

 

My friend and I are arguing right now, I thought EGR was an emission controll? He says its not, and its for fuel economy.. All the times I studied EGR systems in my auto class, it was under emission controlls.

 

I also covered the same material in class and I agree with you. It was an emissions control device. The purpose was to more fully burn any hydrocarbons left in the exaust.

I don't think it helped with increasing fuel economy in any meaningful way.
Fuel economy? We would not be driving these dinosaurs if we were conserned about fuel economy.

 

BTW, on my edelbrock intake (non EGR) with the holley 450 I put on top (with adaptor) there was no problem at all since there's nothing to block off.

Just buy an intake without provisions for the EGR, DSM.

I'm going to bone up some dough for a 650 when I get back to waken that little 302 up a little bit..