What a fun weekend... EGR tube*#&>@^

[tktrain]

Well, I had everything together to fix an old problem that has been a question mark for me for quite some time. To put the story into context, you need a little background information before I begin:

Back in 1998 when I bought the X new, I decided that a phenolic spacer would be a nice addition to help with torque and keep the UIM a little cooler. I removed the UIM one day and placed it on a table on top of some papers and other miscellaneous stuff (DA attack). I then went into the house for lunch. When I came back out to the garage, there was the UIM on the floor! I went and picked it up to find, quite to my horror, that the front bolt boss (for one of the short bolts) had been bent in pretty badly, when I tried to straighten it back up, it broke off in my hand. Well, rather than face the wrath of my wife, I RTV'ed the thing back in place. The engine seemed to run fine so I just let it go.

Recently I have been trying to eliminate a lean miss issue under moderate acceleration, I had no codes, and so I replaced all the tune up items plus the wires, the engine ran better, but I still had the miss! So I decided I need to get rid of the broken UIM issue, just in case. I found a used UIM from someone here on the boards a few months ago. The weather was going to be very nice this weekend, so I got the gaskets and decided that Saturday was the day. In preparing to pull the UIM, when got to the point were I was removing the EGR tube from the FMS headers that have been on the truck since about 500 miles were on the clock. I put a 1 1/16 inch open end wrench on the fitting and, horror, the whole fitting turned on the header!

I got down in the fender opening and pulled the flap away, and there it was, about a 1/16" opening between the header and the EGR fitting tube. It looked like it had been cracked for quite some time. Damnation! My heart sank into the floor. After wallowing in self pity for a few minutes, I grabbed the wrenches and pulled the plugs, undid the down pipe, and took out the header bolts, then spent about 20 minutes trying to remember how I got the darn thing in there 8 years ago (it comes out pretty easily if you remove the AC/Heater heat shield). I called a friend who runs a weld shop down the road to see if he could weld it back up, I just caught him taking a break and he said he'd see what he could do. At first he said he didn't think he could weld the stainless tube and keep it from getting brittle. When he laid a magnet on it, it stuck! He said that he was pretty sure he could weld the magnetic type with his MIG.

Well I got home and got the header back on about 2 hours later (what a bitch). I then noticed that the EGR tube had a nice crack in it too, arggh! Luckily, a different friend of mine had bought an X motor from FMS a few years ago for his Mustang. He gave me all of the brand new non-Mustang compatible parts that came with it, including the EGR tube, so I had a new tube. Well, when you put on a spacer under the UIM, you have to lengthen the EGR tube to accommodate the difference in height, so I ran back to my buddy's shop to use his torch and stretch the convolutions in the tube. About 8:30 Saturday night I had the old UIM off and the broken corner fell off (vacuum leak!). It looked like it was basically sealed but it wasn't glued in place any longer. I called it a night.

Yesterday I got back out in the garage and started reassembling the top of the engine. About 2:30 I buttoned it back up, crossed my fingers, said a little prayer, and turned the key. Vroom! It fired right up, no noises, and a smoother idle than I could remember ever having. I took it for a drive and the miss was gone, finally! I suspect that the miss was coming from the leaking EGR more than from the UIM, and it probably came on so gradually that I didn't really notice it for a while.

All in all, it was about 8 hours of cussing and fussing, but I found and eliminated 3 issues that really needed attention.

[Turdle]

makes you want to get headers now--doesn't it?

[tktrain]

Originally Posted by jtsmith

makes you want to get headers now--doesn't it?

I do have headers, just not the Torquemonsters. I bought the stainless Ford Motorsport units back in 1998 when they where the only game in town. They aren't as nice as the TM's, but with the massaging and clean up of them that I did I believe they are a major improvement over the stock tubular kinked corks. I can't complain too much about the EGR tube cracking, they do have nearly 120K miles on them and many hundreds of hot and cold cycles. This is the only issue I've ever had with them (knock wood).