Towing tunes.

So I know it's illegal and I'm not saying im doing it, but in a theoretical sense, would a gas engine towing performance increase with an EGR turned off? Or would I cause problems with heating things up too much?

Again just in theory. I couldnt find a single resource with any info on gas engines, towing and Egr Turned off and now I'm just curious.

 

[traveler]

Turning off the EGR will not improve performance by any measurable amount, if at all. The only time it might make a difference is at WOT, where you probably don spend a lot of time anyway.

 

[donalds]

^^^^^

 

[JustWarminUp]

I thought the EGR is inactive at WOT, and active during regular conditions such as maintaining a speed.

I thought the motor/computer Opens up the valve to allow inert air into intake, and reduced the fuel to lean to make up for that inert air while maintaining constant speeds. At which lowers exhaust temps and burns off the hydrocarbons.

 

[traveler]

Actually now that I think about it, i belive you're right. I got that backward. But I still stand by what I said, the performance change caused by bypassing the EGR is negligible at best.

 

[JustWarminUp]

Well I know small performance gains for driving fast are made, but for towing I question if it would actually be beneficial but heat would be the downside.

From what I have read, I think it would improve towing, it would cause the engine to burn and have a more powerful low RPM instead of burning inert gases making the cylinder less efficient.

Look at it as you have 3.7 liters if you fill it with a 15% inert gas you effectively have a 3.5 or even less, so with a 3.5 you have a 3.2 ect ect.

 

[Gary Crist]

Remember the function of EGR is to keep combustion temps
under 2K F. Some cars depend on EGR to keep from pinging!
One's sparkplugs will be overheated. How about smoking the cat
from overheating (they melt and chunk up).

In the old days say mid 70's yes it did help. The best place
for EGR is part throttle with a light load on engine.
AT mid-range RPM, timing is close to max, mixture is fairly lean,
3 way CAT (Reduction part) is working it's heart out! Fuel efficiency MAX.
This is why an EGR problem used to rear it's ugly head at about 45ish MPH.
Sorry for long post...

 

[JustWarminUp]

No problems, I prefer the longest post possible for honesty. I prefer the thoughts out there for whether a gas engine egr will reduce towing ability or not. During constant driving upon a highway.

So you're beliefs are decreased exhaust temp and increase mileage, but will it hold the gear as well? A small incline cause a problem?

How about the way the throttle responds and motor holds gear with egr active, its job is to input inert gas into a combustion chamber, I would find the be negative during a towing situation, almost cause a downshift during driving just due to the loss of power at a 30-40% throttle attempting to burn the gasses.

 

[traveler]

Basically when the EGR first came out in the 70's and into the 80's, it was an "add on" to an already existing engine. So removing it simply caused the engine to go back to the way it worked before the EGR. Today's engines are designed and tuned to utilize the EGR. Deleting or bypassing it removes a part of what makes the engine run correctly. It will run, but it will run with incomplete data for its ECU.
Sorry for the delayed response.